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Request for Proposal: Audit of Crisis Group’s online communications channels September 2017
Introduction This request for proposal (RfP) is for: an audit of International Crisis Group’s online media channels resulting in actionable recommendations on how Crisis Group can enhance its policy impact, improve its overall visibility and increase engagement by conflict actors and the public at large with Crisis Group in the online sphere. We are now accepting proposals for this online media audit. Crisis Group uses several online tools and platforms to engage with its target audiences and supporters. The purpose of the audit is to take stock and to provide the foundations for a refreshed online media strategy, aimed at ensuring that these communication channels are used as effectively as possible and support the organisation’s goal of being the “go-to” source of information, analysis and advice on conflict prevention in general and the 40 deadly conflicts and crises on which it works in particular. We understand that details of the approach to be taken in this audit may be subject to change upon vendor recommendation. In your proposal, please feel free to suggest alternatives where noted. The ideal and preferred vendor will bring their own ideas and vision based on industry expertise, technical capability, and client relations.
Organisational Background Crisis Group is an independent, non-profit, non-governmental organisation committed to preventing and resolving deadly conflict. Founded in 1995, we currently have over 110 staff worldwide, covering over 40 conflict and potential conflict situations. We are generally recognised as the world’s leading source of independent analysis and advice on how to prevent, resolve and better manage deadly conflict, whether to governments, regional organisations or inter-governmental bodies. We combine expert field-based research and analysis with advocacy and engagement with policymakers and other conflict actors across the world. Our vision is for a world in which deadly conflict is better understood, prevented and resolved at the global, regional and local levels so that affected populations experience greater, more sustainable peace, security and development. We work to achieve this by informing and influencing the perceptions and actions of policymakers and other key conflict actors. We provide analysis of conflicts and potential conflicts, develop policy ideas and engage with decision-makers on all sides to promote them. Key roles are played by senior staff highly experienced in government and by a 43-member Board of Trustees from 33 countries that includes former presidents and ministers, and many other leaders from the fields of politics, diplomacy, business and the media.
Crisis Group’s work is based on comprehensive reports, commentaries and other timely publications aimed at informing policymakers about the complex dimensions driving a particular conflict. Our unique additional contribution is that this information and policy recommendations connect our thorough field research with targeted advocacy. We publish around 60 reports and 70 commentaries annually, as well as over 100 op-eds and receive over 29k earned media mentions in external outlets. Our current online media efforts largely focus on publicising these outputs with the goal of driving traffic to our website to increase readership, to magnify policy impact and to expand Crisis Group’s brand visibility and name recognition. Our analysts frequently publish op-eds in or are interviewed by leading national and international media. We have not historically used our online media efforts as front-footed instruments of advocacy with conflict actors. Crisis Group already has an established online presence. Our website, www.crisisgroup.org, was rebuilt in 2016 and now receives over three million page views per year. It is designed to facilitate longform reading across all devices. We have 23k subscribers to our mass mailing list, over 128k followers on Twitter and 140k followers of our Facebook page. Note that our field staff and advocates collectively have a similar total number of followers on their own social media accounts. Descriptions of the organisation and its activities are on our website, and an introductory PDF is here.
Project Description Much has changed in the twenty years since Crisis Group was established. In recent years there has been a notable resurgence of armed conflict and transnational issues, such as violent extremism and economic crises, which have emerged to challenge the existing array of institutional, policy and legal tools. Meanwhile, increased competition for attention within our sector, and a revolution in communications and social media have contributed to complicate our efforts to retain the attention of our core policymaking audience, and to maintain maximum relevance and impact with public opinion influencers and conflict actors. The purpose of this project is to develop a clear understanding of Crisis Group’s current online presence and its impact, and to offer recommendations of how Crisis Group’s current and/or future online channels can be streamlined, strengthened and reorganised to increase the organisation’s visibility, effectiveness and impact online. The audit should serve as a basis for an updated online media strategy and the project should therefore include recommendations based on the audit, including consideration of an implementation plan with timetable, and guidance on how Crisis Group can continue to monitor the impact of these efforts. This comprehensive audit of Crisis Group’s existing online media channels will include: ● ● ● ●
Content review and impact analysis; Audience analysis and horizon scan of contemporary and prospective social media channels; Evaluation of effectiveness and scheduling frequency; Recommendations for change including draft timetable, budget and monitoring mechanisms/parameters.
The content review section of the audit should review the performance of the website on all platforms and current social media channels especially. It should also consider Crisis Group events and campaigns over the past year, with a view to suggesting the kinds of online/social media enhancements that could be made to events and campaigns in the future in order to fulfil our goals of visibility, impact and adoption of our policy recommendations. The content review section should include advice on what changes, if any, are needed to the presentation of our material on all platforms, including smartphones and online channels. The audience analysis section should include a discussion of potential means with which to better engage our audiences including whether registration of users on our website is desirable; and what the
advantages of partial or full subscriber/donor-only areas on our website might be for increasing engagement. The successful proposal would use the findings of the audit as a basis for actionable recommendations on how Crisis Group can better use its current online platforms and/or develop a presence on other platforms, as well as outlining key metrics to determine and monitor Crisis Group’s online visibility and effectiveness of communication efforts in the future. The proposal should also include guidance to Crisis Group on measuring the impact of the vendor’s recommendations and to monitor the implementation process. Overall, the findings and recommendations should support Crisis Group’s main communications goals, including: ● ● ●
Stronger visibility and impact within the international policymaking community and among conflict actors; Increased brand recognition especially within the donor community, which currently includes governments, and philanthropists and foundations; Increased public awareness of Crisis Group as the leading conflict prevention organisation and a “go-to” source for quality conflict research, analysis and recommendations on deadly conflicts and geopolitical crises.
Target Audiences Due to the nature of our organisation and work, Crisis Group has multiple target audiences among which the priorities are: ● ●
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Politicians, diplomats and other government policymakers who should be using our online media channels to learn about new outputs and engage with Crisis Group material; Donors and supporters, from philanthropists to international corporations, who want to keep up with our analytical work, and to understand the benefits of supporting Crisis Group’s work and have their investment validated; Opinion-makers including the media, who should turn to Crisis Group for on-the-ground research, analysis and policy recommendations on complex conflicts worldwide; Civil society activists, as well as academics and students, who already make heavy use of our reports in international relations and conflict resolution programs; Conflict actors in the geographical contexts where Crisis Group works.
Our priority remains to provide policymakers and other conflict actors with quality field-research and realistic policy recommendations to solve, prevent or better manage deadly conflict. The online media audit should serve to guide Crisis Group on how we can tailor our messages and efforts to better reach the audience groups outlined above while expanding our reach to newcomers, including members of the general public looking for information to better understand particular conflicts.
Proposal Guidelines In order to be considered for the online media audit, all bidding agencies must: ● ● ●
Include a price proposal for the work, which should be no more than $20,000, depending on the scope of work; Outline an audit timeline to be completed at the latest by 31 January 2018, including details such as key milestones, recommendations and deliverables; Submit the application no later than 1 November 2017.
Crisis Group may well consider hiring an agency to accompany the implementation of the process, and bidding agencies are welcome to make a separate proposal even at this stage. But this will be treated separately from the social media audit, and subsequent to it.
Bidder Qualifications In order to be considered for the online media audit, all bidding agencies must provide Crisis Group with an offer, including pricing and timing estimates, regarding the development of the project’s three components: 1. Online Media Audit and development of recommendations; 2. Development of guidance on metrics to determine and monitor Crisis Group’s overall online visibility and communications performance in future; 3. Proposed implementation plan and associated timetable. To bid for this RfP successfully, the vendor should provide: ● ● ● ●
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Description of the company; Portfolio with relevant work, showcasing demonstrated success (i) in online media audits and (ii) work with international NGOs; References of other customers, including contact details; A brief outline of what they envision for this project and how their expertise will benefit Crisis Group, including: ○ A proposed budget ○ Timeline ○ Definition of successful project in terms of impact and growth Provide a list of personnel who will be working on the project, including resumes of key team members.
Crisis Group Team Director of Communications & Outreach Hugh Pope - Project Owner - final decision making with the President & CEO. Online Editor Asdis Olafsdottir - Project Manager - principal point of contact.
Terms and Conditions Proposals should be submitted before 1 November 2017 (midnight CET), and sent to
[email protected]. This RfP is a private, copyrighted document that may not be shown to others.
Intellectual Property and Ownership of the Produced Work Crisis Group requires that all the originally produced work, including, but not limited to: the audit’s findings, recommendations and guidance is exclusively and in perpetuity licensed to the organisation and can be (re-)used, adapted, reproduced, altered for use globally and at the organisation’s sole discretion, with no limitations.
