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Open RFPs — McCall Area Chamber of Commerce and Visitors Bureau

The McCall Area Chamber of Commerce and Visitors Bureau is currently accepting responses to three Requests for Proposals:

Agency of Record
Professional services including, but not limited to, year-round marketing strategy, creative production, media placement, campaign management, email & content marketing, and visual asset coordination. Ability to integrate marketing and advertising with public relations efforts and website content either in-house or alongside other contracted vendors.

Website Rebuild
Professional services including, but not limited to, creative development, design, user experience, SEO, and programming associated with a rebuild and reorganization of visitmccall.org.

Public Relations
Professional services including, but not limited to, media database subscription, pitching, media networking, building journalist database, content creation, press release creation, and soliciting journalists for site visits.

The timeline for the process, according to the Chamber, looks like this:

Timeline:

  • RFP Released: March 2, 2026
  • Deadline for Receipt of Written Inquiries: March 13, 2026
  • Written Responses Distributed: March 20, 2026
  • Proposal Due Date: March 27, 2026
  • Evaluation Committee Meeting: Week of April 6, 2026
  • Interviews (if deemed necessary): Week of April 13, 2026
  • Contract Awarded: April 28, 2026

Full details about each of the three RFPs can be found on the Visit McCall website.

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Madam President

116 & West recently announced that Partner Carolyn Lodge has been promoted from Chief Operating Officer to President.

Lodge joined the agency in 2005 as a media buyer, when it operated as Marketing Media Group. Over the past two decades, she has guided growth through acquisitions, departmental development, expanded service offerings, and geographic expansion.

“Carolyn has been with our agency for 21 of our 27 years in business; she’s been my partner for the last 14,” said Edward Moore, founder of 116 & West. “The experience she’s gained as our Chief Operating Officer and the tenacity with which she’s worked since day one indicate to me she’s ready to lead 116 & West.”

Kallee Mendonca, Director of Client Services, VP, echoed a similar sentiment. “She has an exceptional ability to anticipate where the industry is headed while holding our work to the highest standards of craft and creativity. Just as importantly, she is deeply invested in her people and committed to mentoring, supporting, and helping each of us grow. There is truly no one better to learn from or work for, and our agency’s continued growth is a direct result of her leadership.”

More details about Lodge’s promotion can be found on 116 & West’s website.

As an aside, Carolyn has been a professional colleague and friend for many years. This promotion is well deserved, and I absolutely expect to see continued greatness as a result.

Congratulations Carolyn.

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Job openings at Duft Watterson

Duft Watterson has two openings that they recently posted via LinkedIn:

Media Operations Coordinator

We’re seeking a Media Operations Coordinator to join our media team and play a critical role in keeping campaigns, billing and reporting running smoothly. This role splits time between supporting media billing and accounts payable processes and assisting with the execution, launch, monitoring and reporting of paid media campaigns across multiple channels and client accounts.

As a Media Operations Coordinator, you’ll support the media team by owning key operational and executional responsibilities across billing, campaign launches and reporting. This role is ideal for someone early in their media or marketing career who is highly organized, detail-oriented and eager to learn both the operational and execution sides of modern media buying in a fast-paced agency environment.

Performance Media Specialist

We’re seeking a Performance Marketing Specialist to join our media team and take ownership of performance media including: SEM campaigns, paid media analytics and conversion tracking across multiple client accounts. In this role, you’ll manage campaigns end-to-end, maintain dashboards and reporting, implement conversion tracking strategies and provide actionable insights to improve performance.

You’ll also have the opportunity to support SEO initiatives, including keyword research, audits, on-page optimization and monitoring organic performance. This role provides exposure to multiple platforms, channels and analytics tools and the chance to grow your expertise in digital marketing within a dynamic, fast-paced agency environment. As a performance marketing specialist, you will work with multiple internal teams and external clients from a wide range of industries.

Full details about each position and how to apply can be found through their respective links above.

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Saddling up for another round

Back in September we caught word that Paul Carew exited BrandCraft, followed shortly by the launch of The Trust Department.

He shared the announcement of the launch on LinkedIn.

This marks Carew’s second stint as a founder and agency owner. He previously founded Carew Co. in 2007, which operated until its merger with BrandCraft in 2021.

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A taxing situation for our neighbors to the Northwest

This could be worth keeping tabs on, to see how it plays out…

Beginning on October 1, 2025, a new sales tax on services takes effect in Washington. As reported by the Washington State Standard (and republished on the Idaho Capital Sun):

Senate Bill 5814 is one of the biggest moneymakers used to bring in an estimated $3.6 billion over the next two years to fill a shortfall in the operating budget. This law is expected to fuel $1.1 billion in the two-year budget that began July 1, and $2.6 billion over four years. Hundreds of millions of dollars will also flow to local governments, as they get a share of state sales tax proceeds.

Advertising services are among those that will now be taxable, and is expected to bring in roughly $475 million over the next four years, according to the Washington State Standard. Comcast, however, believes the sales tax on advertising services is illegal, and is suing to get it overturned.

The Washington State Department of Revenue issued a release in July outlining details:

Starting Oct. 1, 2025, businesses must collect retail sales tax on advertising services. Additionally, gross income from these activities is subject to business and occupation (B&O) tax under the Retailing classification.

What are advertising services?

Advertising services means all digital and nondigital services related to the creation, preparation, production, or dissemination of advertisements, including, but not limited to:

  • Layout, art direction, graphic design, mechanical preparation, production supervision, placement, referrals, acquisition of advertising space, and rendering advice concerning the best methods of advertising products or services.
  • Online referrals, search engine marketing, and lead generation optimization, web campaign planning, the acquisition of advertising space in the internet media, and the monitoring and evaluation of website traffic for purposes of determining the effectiveness of an advertising campaign.

Advertising services do not include:

  • Web hosting services and domain name registration.
  • Services rendered in respect to the following:
    • Newspapers as defined in RCW 82.04.214.
    • Printing or publishing under RCW 82.04.280.
    • Radio and television broadcasting within this state as defined in RCW 82.04 (section 1, chapter 9, Laws of 2025).
  • Services rendered in respect to out-of-home advertising, including:
    • Billboard advertising.
    • Street furniture advertising.
    • Transit advertising.
    • Place-based advertising, such as in-store display advertising or point-of-sale advertising.
    • Dynamic or static signage at live events.
    • Naming rights.
    • Fixed signage advertising.
    • Note: This does not include direct mail.

It will be interesting to see what comes of this, particularly the Comcast lawsuit, and how it ultimately affects agencies in Washington. It’ll also be worth watching to see if lawmakers in neighboring states — including Idaho — draft similar legislation in the future, using this model as a source of additional tax revenue.