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MCS Joint Contract to open lanes of communication

When you get $90 million from Gates, then spending $310,000 "to open lanes of communication" is probably chicken feed.

Reingold gets $600,000 a year to promote the Nation's Report Card (NAEP).

Memphis taxpayers can hope that Red Delux's PR performance is better than their website.

Trust Marketing says their website is coming soon.

Remember the old days when a superintendent could stand up and say, "Folks, this is what we're doing." Now what they're doing has to be spun 16 ways from Sunday.

by Jane Roberts

The city school board will spend $310,000 this year telling its story with help of professional communicators.

On Monday, the board approved a contract with Reingold, a Washington firm with several national education contracts, and local firms Red Deluxe and Trust Marketing.

The three-year contract is open-ended as far as money goes and renewal seems to depend on how well they perform.

Together, the firms are to come up with ways to help Memphians understand where the $90 million from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is going and what the impact will be for the city. Foundation money is financing the contract.

"This is something all of us have been looking forward to for a long, long time," board member Betty Mallott said, hoping the investment will help community involvement, "something we have been struggling with."

The board gave no explanation Monday of exactly what it expects the firms to deliver.

"Before we can craft a formal contract we have to look at the data in order to determine exactly the direction that the communication plan will take," said board president Freda Williams.

"Some research has already been done by our communications department. So it's a matter of taking that and compiling it into the research they will do," she said.

Williams expects a formal list of projects as early as next month, saying "this work has to begin. It's important that we begin very soon to put a positive message out there and to clarify things. There are so many misconceptions about the Gates grant and the work that is involved there."

In general, the firms will be responsible for community outreach, branding and a wide range of communications.

Stinson Liles, Red Deluxe partner, said he and other bidders expected one company would get the job.

"They thought our skills would work well as a team. Now that we are together we see what they saw," Liles said late Monday. "It's a great opportunity for us to work together."

Red Deluxe created the brand ThinkShow! last winter for the district's twice-annual exhibition of student work.

The pro bono work, Stinson said, gave him insight into district communications issues.

Red Deluxe is working in a joint venture with Trust Marketing, the 20-year-old firm owned by Howard and Beverly Robertson.

"We're excited to have the opportunity," Howard Robertson said. "It's important work at this time."

Reingold will coordinate the effort, starting with research, to improve teacher buy-in with the Gates project, according to Amy Buckley, vice president.

— Jane Roberts
Commercial Appeal
2010-09-21
http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2010/sep/21/mcs-joint-pact-to-open-lanes-of-communication/

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