Media relations and communications services

The Canada Council for the arts (Canada Council) actively promotes a wide variety of projects, initiatives and campaigns each year. The Communications and Engagement team at the Canada Council does not have the capacity to lead all aspects of media planning and relations for all initiatives the organization undertakes in local, regional, and international settings, and will occasionally call upon external suppliers for short and longer-term support.

The Canada Council’s Project Authority will:
• Provide overall project management authority;
• Provide the Offeror with background documents for review;
• Assist the Offeror with obtaining Canada Council documents and data, when required;
• Will be the source of final approval and acceptance of all deliverables; and
• Provide feedback to the Offeror on all deliverables.

The Offeror responsibilities include, but are not limited to:
• public and media relations,
• issues management,
• media strategy,
• communications planning,
• campaign execution,
• event management,
• media monitoring and reporting.

The selected Offeror will have the resources necessary to:
• Help the Canada Council promote a variety of projects, initiatives, awards, and campaigns.
• Develop, implement, and report on the agreed-upon media and/or public relations strategy (locally, regionally, nationally and/or internationally) to support and promote specific Canada Council activities, with guidance and input from the Canada Council Communications team.
• Reach a broad and diverse audience by creating distribution lists, developing targeted approaches to media and community outreach, pitches, research, and development of story lines and managing embargos.
• Secure media interviews, op-eds, feature publications, blog posts, and other evolving digital platforms.
• Schedule and coordinate interviews with Canada Council prize winners and designated spokespersons.
• Collaborate with project teams at the Canada Council and identified partners to align and amplify promotion.

The Work, including tasks and deliverables, will be primarily completed in English; however, the team must be capable of providing services in both official languages, notably when reaching out to French media and coordinating interviews with French-speaking winners.

There will be a requirement for Offeror representatives to attend meetings on an as-and-when-required basis. These meetings will be virtual. No travel will be reimbursed, as no travel will be required.

The deliverables can include project work plans, findings assessment reports, process documentation and other related deliverables. The Project Authority will negotiate with the Offeror the level of effort (number of days), nature and/or scope of each task at the call-up stage.