Consideration and Approval for a Digital Ad Server Contract:  Approve the service contract with See Source, LLC for a Digital Ad Server in the amount of $160,000.00. 

1. Approve the annual service agreement with See Source LLC and execute a $160,000 contract.
2. Authorize the City Manager to execute the necessary documents.

This is a reoccurring budget item for a digital ad server vendor in the amount of $170,000 which is the same dollar amount administered in previous years. Staff spent $10,000 on preliminary website work to develop a dash board in preparation of the Digital Ad Service, the remaining $160,000 will be spent on the Digital Ad Service.  

The digital ad server is a critical portion of Discover Flagstaff's overall strategy in driving quality visitation to our destination supporting citywide stakeholders and partners -- accommodations, restaurants, breweries, attractions, and additional businesses reliant on the tourism economy. 

This vendor relationship is needed because of the technology and speed of their real-time bidding platforms that leverage the budget to serve an advertisement to the right person at the right time.  Here's an example: Discover Flagstaff could be bidding to serve an ad to a customer in Dallas that has expressed interest in visiting a national park, at this split second, Durango (and many destinations competing for national park business) are bidding to reach the same person at the same time.  It's the digital ad server's algorithms, real-time bidding desk, that immediately identifies a person in a buying funnel -- the someone who is shopping for experiences at a national park -- and then serves the advertisement.   These transactions occur in nanoseconds. 

Further, the digital ad server's technology provides additional benefits such as creating lookalike audiences (if a person is attending a blues festival in Telluride, they may be served an ad to visit Flagstaff's blues festival ad) and so on.  The ad server can identify key audiences -- one example is travelers preferring visits during off/shoulder seasons.  These laser-focused abilities allow us to deliver various messages to a very interested audience which provides less budget waste.

This platform also enables us to serve ads supporting Stay, Play, Distance and Mask Responsibly, Stay and Play Responsibly, Winter Recreation safety, leave no trace messaging, and fire awareness initiatives.

One way Discover Flagstaff's digital ad server's strengths and successes can be measured is when viewing tourism metrics, such as hotel occupancy and average daily rate.  These numbers demonstrate the current strategy is driving above-average results when compared to the state.  

In FY'21, the digital ad server pushed out nearly 400 Discover Flagstaff digital ads supporting our stakeholders and partners.  These ads were served to audiences with a propensity to travel, to people highly targeted, qualified and engaged. 

Our current contract is nearing expiration and therefore an RFP process has been completed, and a new vendor has been selected by an evaluation committee which included. 

83% of the $170,000 budget allocation will be applied to ad placement and the balance applies to account management and reporting.

$170,000 has been the budget in previous years and will remain for FY '22 which was recommended by the Tourism Commission and approved by the Budget team and adopted in the final City budget.  This is funded from 053.07.214.0851.4.4271.

N/A

Priority Based Budget Key Community Priorities and Objectives
High-performance governance
Robust and resilient economy
Livable community
Environmental stewardship

Yes - Discover Flagstaff has been utilizing digital ad placement services since the beginning of digital ads -- more than 20-years.

1. Approve the agreement with See Source
2. Not approve the agreement with See Source

In the Executive Summary section we shared the history of using a digital ad server vendor.

On June 14, 2021 the Purchasing Section posted a Request for Proposals (RFP) solicitation for a Digital Ad Server on the PlanetBids website, and advertised the RFP in the Arizona Daily Sun on June 20 and June 27, 2021. There were six (6) proposals received on July 1, 2021. A five (5) member Selection Committee consisting of four (4) City staff and one (1) outside consultant, evaluated the proposals. Based upon the numerical scoring, the Selection Committee determined See Source LLC to be top scoring firm.  All scores are below in order of rank:

See Source, LLC               454
Sojern                                433
Adara                                 430
Media News Group            368
Inuvo                                  361
Az Daily Sun                      356    

The vendor that has been selected to render the digital ad service is See Source. See Source was selected because they are data-rich and have the ability to utilize historical geo-geography location data. This is important because they can generate a custom audience of known past visitors. Our mission is to not only welcome new visitors but to serve advertisements to prior visitors to encourage a repeat visit. See Source's reporting metrics can even tell us if a person we served an advertisement to actually comes into our market. As we get more familiar with all the options afforded, we will continue to share the metrics with our stakeholders, Commission and Council.

See Source received the highest evaluation score from the panel.

The overall cost of our digital ad server program is $170,000 which has been budgeted.

A strong consideration is that See Source is well versed in Arizona with clients that include Experience Scottsdale, Visit Sedona, Travel Southern Oregon, Visit Santa Fe, Visit Breckenridge and mountain towns such as Ogden, Tacoma and more. See Source also has over 500 data partners with amazing resources. We feel that our destination will receive great results with this partnership.

Terry Madeksza gave invaluable input as she sought input from her downtown partners throughout the process. Terry is also familiar with our current digital ad server and saw how we can take the next step with the same budget and be more strategic with See Source.