Due Date: May 25, 2021 (questions due April 27) Scope of Work: The Michigan State Housing Development Authority is seeking an organization authorized to do business in Michigan to provide videography and photography services. The authority seeks a service provider to enhance its state and local promotional efforts and requires assistance in performing functions that extend the authority’s public relations and marketing capabilities. The selected contractor will provide the authority with s...

Due Date: April 29, 2021 Scope of Work: The City of Delavan is seeking to update its website to simplify content management and provide improved and enhanced user experience and customer service while meeting high standards for design quality and visual appeal. We would like a new website that is responsive, mobile, dynamic and resourceful. We are seeking qualified municipal website designers who focus on innovation as well as functionality. The website should be user-friendly, intuitive, ...

Due Date: April 23, 2021 (questions answered through April 20) Scope of Work: The Downtown Albany Business Improvement District (BID) is accepting proposals for website redesign and development. We are looking for a firm that can handle all preliminary discovery and planning, design and programming, and existing content migration. Prior to site implementation, in-person and/or online training and training manual will be provided to BID staff. Today, the BID’s website is a leading resource ...

Univision Communications announced it is merging with Televisa. The new company will be called Televisa-Univision. Under the terms, Univision is paying Televisa $3b in cash and $1.45b in equity for four free-to-air broadcast channels, 27 pay-TV channels, production assets, video library and the Blim subscription video service. Televisa now owns 45% of Univsion and will continue operating a portion of its business separate from Univision. The deal reportedly makes Televisa-Univision the larges...

Luxury furniture brand John-Richard (JR) found its first chief marketing and merchandising officer, effective April 6, in Jonathan Michael Parks. Parks joined from Ethan Allen, where he served for seven years, most recently as furniture & hard accents merchandising VP. This hire comes not long after JR was acquired by company exec Alan Galbraith in November 2020.  The company responded to the global pandemic by launching a virtual showroom tour to show off its spring collections JR t...

The Louisiana Office of Tourism (LOT) extended its relationship with creative AOR Trumpet Advertising until 2024. The agency was able to retain the account because it has increased visitation and revenue every year it has worked with LOT. It originally tapped Trumpet in 2011. Tourism is a major industry in LA and was devastated last year due to the coronavirus pandemic. I predict we will see a campaign in the near future to convince travelers to visit the state as travel restrictions are lift...

Marking its latest growth effort, D2C company Glossier selected Kleo Mack as its first-ever brand VP. Mack will begin on April 19, and her responsibilities will include brand marketing and strategy, along with the oversight of consumer insights and social media teams. She previously served as L'Oréal's corporate strategic marketing VP, leading the company's company-wide marketing strategies. Since Mack will handle the social media team at Glossier, I expect its paid social spend to increase u...

Effective April 2021, hotel brand Best Western (BW) appointed Jay Hubbs as its first-ever advertising, marketing, innovation & analytics VP. Before his most recent position as H3 Trail Creek's principal, Hubbs served as the commercial services SVP at Remington Hotels, where his responsibilities included digital marketing. Now, he will focus on leading BW's digital advertising, media buying and co-op marketing. I expect this to lead its ad spend, especially via digital channels, to pick back u...

Amanda Malko joined G2, the leading B2B services and software review service, as its CMO in April 2021. Previously the head of partner programs and marketing at Mailchimp, Malko seems to be G2's first CMO. Malko replaces Lauren Decker, G2's former marketing VP of two years, who departed in February, and its former growth marketing manager, Claire Brenner, who departed in December. So far this year, Pathmatics reports G2 has spent roughly $23.3k on digital ads, over 3x the roughly $7.7k ...

Barilla celebrates the reality of pasta being a "sign of love" in its first global campaign with recently-hired global creative AOR, Publicis Italy. Though this agency is obviously not in the US, its appointment is already affecting Barilla's US advertising. The new campaign has rolled out across digital, social, OOH and retail channels. Pathmatics reports the pasta brand has spent roughly $777.6k on digital ads YTD, a huge spike from the roughly $94.6k it had spent by this point last year...