R--Development and Implementation of a 3 State Region Publicity Campaign to promote surveys conducted by NASS

The National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) intends to award a sole source contract to Southeast Agnet Radio Network for a base year, and four additional option years. This firm will design, produce, and implement a 3 State regional publicity campaign to promote specific USDA Ag Statistics program activities. This will involve a series of repetitive network radio station announcements during regularly scheduled farm and ranch news programs. The announcements will air between July 2004 and June 2005 throughout Alabama, Florida, and Georgia. The campaign should include a minimum of 200 (combination of 30-second and 60-second) network announcements, for 12 months, which equals approximately 12, 200 individual radio station announcements. Background. The National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) is the primary collector of U.S. agricultural data and publishes official statistics as authorized by the United States Department of Agriculture, (USDA). NASS serves the basic agricultural and rural data needs of the country with accurate, timely, and unbiased statistical information and services to the public. The primary sources of data for NASS reports are information provided by farmers, ranchers, and agribusinesses. NASS relies on the voluntary cooperation of respondents to report data. Data reported by respondents is confidential and protected from disclosure by federal statute. NASS has 46 field offices (called State Statistical Offices (SSOs), each headed by a State Statistician), servicing all 50 states and Puerto Rico. Data collection is conducted by mail out and mail back of report forms. NASS has two primary target audiences for Publicity efforts:1) Data Providers - Much of our current publicity and promotion work is directed toward data providers. Data Users - May include Government and academia, agricultural communicators (print, broadcast, and television), agricultural analysts, agricultural producer groups (e.g. the Farm Bureau, the Corngrowers Association, National Pork Producers Council, etc., and agribusinesses who supply, buy from, or support agricultural production. Purpose. The purpose of the campaign is to increase awareness of NASS surveys and how they positively impact agricultural producers. Goals:The goals of the 3-State regional publicity campaign are: 1) To convince farmers and ranchers to respond to surveys conducted by NASS/USDA, 2) To raise the level of name recognition of the NASS, and create positive associations with the data it collects and disseminates. 3) Ownership and Confidentiality. NASS shall retain the copyright of any published work, including original photography and illustration, if required. All information received by any contractor in the course of working with the NASS is considered confidential, and remains the property of NASS. Please e-mail your brief technical proposal (3 pages or less) and your cost proposal for the base year and four option years to lfischer@ars.usda.gov, or you can fax them to (202) 720-3987 by April 16, 2004. Note that e-mail responses are preferred. Original Point of Contact Linda Fischer, Contract specialist, Phone Number (202) 720-7684, Fax Number (202) 720-3987, E-mail: lfischer@ars.usda.gov. Place of Performance States: Alabama, Florida, and Georgia