Advertising, Communications, and Outreach Services for the Appliance Rules

The Bay Area Air Quality Management District (“Air District”) seeks proposals from qualified firms to develop and implement an advertising and outreach campaign for the Air District’s implementation of its amendments to Regulation 9, Rules 4 and 6 building appliances rules. The goal of the campaign is to raise awareness and educate the public about the Air District's new appliance rules. This campaign will focus on how these rules impact the public, clarify any misconceptions, highlight compliance dates, and promote the incentives available for replacing old water heaters and furnaces with zero NOx appliances. Collaborating firms must name a single, lead firm that will submit a proposal on behalf of the collaborating firms. The Air District, at its sole discretion, may select more than one contractor to meet the requirements of this Request for Proposals (“RFP”).

The Air District anticipates the contract to tentatively begin Winter 2025 for the work described in this RFP. The Air District has allocated $2.5 million for the overall campaign and is categorized into the 5 general components below. It’s important to note that the overall campaign contains a significant hard cost towards advertising and a firm's proposal must allocate at least $1,500,000 towards this category of the campaign. The firm should then allocate the remaining campaign budget* in a manner it believes will produce an impactful and successful strategy to raise awareness and educate the public.

Appliance Rules Advertising, Communications & Outreach Campaign
•        Advertising ($1,500,000 MINIMUM)
•        Media Relations
•        Social Media/Digital Promotion
•        Public Opinion Surveys
•        Targeted Contractor Outreach

*A firm's proposal to this RFP is an estimate and may be adjusted based on the final strategy and budget developed in collaboration with the selected firm.

The Air District is the government agency responsible for protecting air quality in the San Francisco Bay Area. The Air District is tasked with regulating stationary sources of air pollution in the nine counties that surround San Francisco Bay: Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, Napa, San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara, southwestern Solano, and southern Sonoma counties. It is governed by a 24-member Board of Directors composed of locally elected officials from each of the nine counties. The Air District’s mission is to improve air quality to protect public health, reduce historical and current environmental inequities, and mitigate climate change and its impacts.

The Air District aims to achieve its mission through many strategic goals, including: reducing and eliminating health problems caused by air pollution, achieving and maintaining air quality standards, leading the Bay Area’s efforts to fight global climate change, creating high-quality regulatory programs, and applying environmental best practices in all operations. To do so, the Air District regulates air pollution emissions from stationary emission sources such as factories, refineries, and power plants, and from smaller facilities like gas stations and dry cleaners. The Air District ensures that such facilities comply with air pollution laws and regulations, provides incentives to replace older, higher-emitting vehicles and equipment with cleaner alternatives, and gives grants and provides outreach to encourage healthy clean air choices by businesses and consumers. The Air District implements these efforts with an equity focus, aiming to reduce air quality disparities and promote environmental justice by targeting local air pollution in overburdened communities.