EASY DESERT

Celina Cabrera, Senior Management Analyst
Thomas Soule, Marketing and Tourism Manager
City of Palm Desert

RE: RFP No. 2026-RFP-055, Tourism Marketing and Creative Services

Dear Ms. Cabrera, Mr. Soule and members of the evaluation committee,

Palm Desert has something most desert destinations can only wish for: nearly everything a visitor comes to the desert for sits minutes apart in one central town. Mountain trailheads, The Living Desert, the galleries and sculpture of El Paseo, championship golf, resort spas and the McCallum Theatre are all close at hand. The opportunity now is to make that advantage unmistakable, so that choosing Palm Desert over Palm Springs or any other desert destination becomes the easy decision.

FourthIdea, together with our partners JSB Media and Benhaim PR, would be honored to help the City get there.

Travel and tourism is our core business. FourthIdea is a creative and marketing agency built around destination marketing, and every member of our collective brings the same focus. FourthIdea leads strategy, creative, production, social, email, website marketing and measurement. JSB Media leads media planning and buying, guided by a media lead who previously ran marketing for a luxury resort chain in the Caribbean and was measured on occupancy, length of stay and revenue, the same outcomes the City is investing in. Benhaim PR leads destination storytelling and earned media. Our relevant experience and case studies are detailed in Section B.

One partner, one point of accountability. FourthIdea serves as the City's single point of contact, with one account lead, one annual work plan, one weekly status meeting and one monthly report. Senior leaders from all three firms stay involved throughout the engagement. We carry the strategic and administrative load so City staff can focus on direction and decisions.

We will make this program easier to run and easier to measure. That means clear recommendations instead of lists of options, working media billed at actual net cost with transparent reconciliation, and reporting that tells the City plainly what to continue, change, test or stop. It also means connecting marketing results to what matters most to Palm Desert's visitor economy: overnight stays, length of stay, visitor spending and Transient Occupancy Tax trends. Easy for the City never means less ambitious for us.

Strategy first, then campaigns that move people. We start by finding the right strategy, built on evidence about which visitors bring the most value, when they plan, and what makes them choose one destination over another. From there, we build dynamic, integrated campaigns across paid media, public relations, social, email and the City's new tourism website that inspire travel, bring visitors back and connect them with Palm Desert's hotels, restaurants, shops, arts, attractions and events in every season, including summer.

Ready on July 1, 2027. We are prepared to begin substantive services on July 1, 2027. Our transition plan, detailed in Section G, keeps social media, email and in-flight media running without interruption from the first day while we build the City's first annual strategy and work plan. Naturally, we expect to invest meaningful hours prior to that start date to put our team in the best possible position to serve your city’s interests and achieve marketing success.

I will serve as the primary contact for this RFP and you can reach me anytime on my mobile (716.597.7812), or via email at thomas@fourthidea.com.

Palm Desert is a destination our team would be proud to represent, and we would love the chance to help it stand apart, delivering on the promise of an easy, rewarding desert experience. Thank you, genuinely, for your consideration.

Sincerely,

Thomas Mooney
Chief Executive Officer, FourthIdea

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