Portsmouth opens bids, rehires same marketing firm

PORTSMOUTH

The city officially has hired the same marketing firm that it used for years while it did not have it under contract and did not let other companies compete for the work.

The city opened the work to other companies and chose Ringer/rg in a search that it began after The Virginian-Pilot in February requested invoices the company had billed to the city. The resulting contract includes a lower commission rate for the Virginia Beach-based firm than what it received in the previous arrangement.

Ringer/rg billed the city for more than $1.6 million over the four years of their informal partnership, though much of that money passed through Ringer/rg to pay media outlets for ads.

City staff said they discovered the need to let other companies compete for the marketing work while reviewing contracts for 2011. A former city marketing director later said, however, that the informal arrangement with Ringer/rg was long known in City Hall.

Jeff Ringer, president of Ringer/rg, said Friday the relationship started with his approaching the city for jobs, then building the partnership on a project-by-project basis.

"We got called because we were doing work that they were really happy with," he said. "We were doing it for much, much less than the original agency of record."

City spokeswoman Dana Woodson said one other company responded to the city's request for proposals to handle Portsmouth's marketing and public relations services.

Ringer/rg's new contract contains the same $135 hourly rate for creative, art and production services that it was previously billing the city. That's less than the $155 hourly rate the city agreed to in its last official marketing contract, with The Meridian Group in 2006.

Ringer/rg accepted a lower commission for placing ads - 13 percent - than the industry-standard 15 percent Ringer said he was getting before.

The contract includes cost-control measures, such as a requirement for the agency to provide a cost estimate for all jobs before it can begin work on them. The contract has a one-year term that is renewable for as many as four years.

Woodson referred requests for comment from Marketing and Communications Director LaVoris Pace to a news release that quoted Pace praising Ringer/rg for its "great work" in the past. Pace mentioned promotion of the Children's Museum of Virginia, the Coast Guard City Celebration, Umoja Festival, the Olde Towne Holiday Music Festival and Winter Wonderland.

The company's work on the Portsmouth Public Library website also recently garnered an "Outstanding Library Website" award from the Virginia Public Library Directors Association.

Ringer said his marketing plans for the city include luring more Hampton Roads visitors to Portsmouth and promoting its walker-friendly downtown. He said he is also interested in expanding on his firm's recent "Get more in Portsmouth" real-estate campaign.

Dave Forster, (757) 446-2627, dave.forster@pilotonline.com