Peace Corps, Office of Contracts, Rm. 6368, 1990 K St. N.W., Washington, DC 20526

R -- ADVERTISING/MARKETING SERVICES SOL PC-98-4 DUE 052098 POC Judy Dawes (202) 606-3513 WEB: http://www.peacecorps.gov, http://www.peacecorps.gov. E-MAIL: jdawes@peacecorps.gov, jdawes@peacecorps.gov. DESC: This is a COMBINED SYNOPSIS SOLICITATION for commercial items prepared in accordance with information in FAR subpart 12.6 as supplemented with the additional information included in this notice. This announcement constitutes the only solicitation. PROPOSALS ARE BEING REQUESTED AND A WRITTEN SOLICITATION WILL NOT BE ISSUED. (ii) Solicitation number is PC98-4 and is issued as a Request for Proposal (RFP). (iii) This solicitation documents and incorporates provisions and clauses in effect through Federal Acquisition Circular 90-42. (iv) The Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) code is 7311. This procurement is unrestricted and is being advertised as full and open competition. (v) Peace Corps intends to award an indefinite-quantity/task order type contract for one year with two additional one year options. Minimum order will be Task Order No. 1 in the base year. No other orders are guaranteed. The max order will be $500,000. Peace Corps anticipates that all Task Orders will be Firm Fixed Price. However, where appropriate, Task Orders and Change Orders to Task Orders, may be awarded on a Time and Material basis. Therefore, for each option year the offeror must propose the Labor and Material handling rate that would apply to those respective years. The offeror should include labor rates for each employee that would normally be required to perform tasks envisioned by the SOW. Material and Handling rate is all-inclusive. (vi) Peace Corps is seeking a full service contractor to create and develop a new advertising marketing campaign. The campaign's message will be implemented through three principal marketing tools: (1) a general information catalogue; (2) a "tearcard/take-one" poster mailing; and (3) a newly designed Peace Corps web page. The Contractor for this project will be responsible for crafting the overall message concept, preparing marketing materials for pre-press production stage, and re-designing Peace Corps web page. Peace Corps will be responsible for printing and distribution of the marketing materials. Deadline This project has strict deadlines: marketing materials must be delivered to the Peace Corps in pre-production stage by July 21, 1998; re-design of the agency's web page must be completed and operational by August 21, 1998. The Contractor will create two ideas for the message concept for this campaign, focusing on three key attributes: the adventure living and working in a developing country; a spirit of service, idealism, and altruism; and the career benefits Volunteers gain from their service. The primary target audience for the campaign is largely people in their late twenties and should reflect the ethnic diversity of the American people. The message concept will apply to the marketing materials and the re-design of the Peace Corps' web site. Peace Corps reserves the right to reject one or both ideas for the message concept. Contractor must consult with Peace Corps to reach agreement on the final concept. Once agreement on a message concept for the campaign is reached, the contractor, in consultation with Peace Corps Communications staff, will design, write headlines and copy, and create samples of the products requested. Peace Corps' existing slogan, "The Toughest Job You'll Ever Love," should figure in the message concept and the materials to be produced. Contractor will submit for the purposes of this propsal a budget (with labor hours) for creation, design, and production of the requested products. Peace Corps will provide extensive information about the agency, its mission, and multiple samples of existing materials. In addition, Peace Corps will provide the contractor with in-house support/liaison from Peace Corps' staff. (1) General Information Catalogue: Catalogue will be distributed to people who inquire about Peace Corps service at recruitment events or by other means. This document should capture the full Peace Corps experience: what Volunteers do overseas (their jobs and cross-cultural experiences); general requirements for Volunteer service; and basic information about the agency's recruitment process. Contractor may refer to the Peace Corps' existing marketing materials for guidance. The catalogue will be full-color, standard letter paper size (8.5" x 11" or similar size). Catalogue will contain up to 48 pages plus a cover, photos of Volunteers in action at their overseas sites (which the Peace Corps will provide), and employ art graphics and fonts that encourage the reader to consider Peace Corps service. Catalogue may also include brief essays written by former Volunteers about their overseas experience. (2) Tearcard poster: Standard letter-size poster with a "take-one/ tear-off" deck of 25 business reply cards, is used largely on college campuses. Tearcard poster must be inviting, energetic, clever, and provide simple information about Peace Corps. The new tearcard poster will be consistent in design and message with the general information catalogue. Contractor also will create a general letter introducing the tearcard poster to recipients and an envelope for mailing. Business reply cards will have up to ten separate key codes for tracking purposes, requiring black plate (or flat color) changes for the art when prepared for production. All text copy/graphics for these products will be provided in typed text with final versions on diskette compatible to Mac format, Quark Express, Adobe Illustrator, and Page Maker. All font files and graphic files must be included for the design and production of the product. Reference copies should be marked up and colors indicated for proper printing production. All final products will be completed at the pre-press production stage for delivery to Peace Corps. This shall include, but not be limited to, color art work mechanicals, negatives, slides, and discs. (3) Re-Design of the Peace Corps Web Page : Contractor will provide the following: 1) consultative services to Peace Corps in the development of a comprehensive web strategy for the agency; 2) graphic design of Peace Corps' web site, including agency and departmental home pages, templates, and recruitment page banners. Contractor will be required to produce innovative designs that can be readily used in a low bandwidth environment. Contractor also will be required to design a web site that can easily permit the user to locate and download various forms and documents. Templates should include the capability to display dynamically generated content. IMPORTANT NOTE: Contractor may be required, at no additional cost to Peace Corps, to do one major revision and one or more minor revisions before receiving final approval for each product. All materials produced under this contract are the exclusive property of the Peace Corps. Materials must be returned to the Peace Corps within two weeks upon completion of this project. Contractor may not retain or use any materials produced under this contract except for self-promotion. PEACE CORPS PRODUCTION TIMELINE-Starting from date of award. For catalogue and tearcard poster: after 1 week: Meeting at Peace Corps to discuss concept and discuss/approve production timeline; after 3 Weeks: Present two creative ideas, and Peace Corps will choose one for execution; after 4 Weeks: First round of drafted products to Peace Corps for review; after 5 Weeks: Peace Corps returns first draft to contractor; after 6 Weeks: Revision #1 to Peace Corps; after 7 Weeks: Peace Corps returns revision #1 to contractor; after 8 Weeks: Revision #2 to Peace Corps with final approval to prepare files for printing; after 10 Weeks: Contractor delivers art work to Peace Corps for printing. IMPORTANT NOTE: Contractor shall be responsible for any and all changes to the files during the proofing, production, and printing phases of this project, including blue-lines. (ix)FAR 52.212-2 Evaluation-Commercial Items applies to this solicitation. Offerors shall submit two separate proposals to the government one technical and one cost. Technical proposal: (1) Submit in narrative and/or portfolio form two applicable public relations/advertising campaigns undertaken by you within past two years within the $60,000 to $100,000 price range; (2) Submit a current resume, credit list, and sample of work for each member of the creative team for evaluation. Demonstrate that adequate and appropriate resources and the Project Manager and other key personnel will be committed to the contract for its duration; (3) Submit past performance information on creative team members including contact names and phone numbers. The following evaluation criteria arranged in their order of importance shall be used to evaluate offers: 1) Qualifications and relevant experience of proposed creative team members in producing recruitment campaigns; 2) Evaluation of samples provided, including: creativity, technical quality of format, graphics, and effects, imaginative approach; 3) Past Performance of creative team members; 4) Price; 5) Oral Presentations (Orals). All offerors deemed to be in the competitive range after evaluation of written technical and price proposals shall be required to make an oral to Peace Corps to be considered foraward. Orals shall not exceed one hour in length and shall focus on offeror's capabilities to perform the required services. The orals shall include one creative approach for the message concept for this campaign. While the creative approach need not include exhaustive details or draft designs for materials, it should provide the Peace Corps a reasonable understanding of how they would approach the concept. The individual who will serve as Project Manager and at least one member of the creative team shall deliver the orals. Orals will be held within two weeks of closing date for this solicitation at a site to be determined by the Government. Use of charts, graphs, audio-visual equipment is permissible. Contracting Officer will select for award the proposal which offers the greatest value to Peace Corps by using the trade off process. All non-cost evaluation factors, when combined, are significantly more important than cost or price. (viii) Clauses/provisions: FAR Clause 52.212-1 "Instructors to Offerors-Commercial," is hereby included by reference: (x) FAR provision 52.212-3 Offeror Representations and Certifications-Commercial Items shall be completed and submitted with the Proposal. (xi) FAR clause 52.212-4 and 52.212-5, Contract Terms and Conditions-Commercial Items, hereby applies to this solicitation. (xii) The following clauses are hereby incorporated by reference: 52.203-6, 52.246-2, 52.246-4, 52.246-16. (xvi) Proposals must be received not later than 20 May 98, 3:00 p.m. EST at Peace Corps, Office of Contracts, 1990 K Street, N.W., Room 6374,Wash, D.C. 20526. Contact: Judy Dawes (202)606-3513. Oral or fax offers are not acceptable. (0126)

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