At a glance
Client: Port of Olympia, Washington
Proposals received: 33
Finalists interviewed: 3
Selected agency: Snowberry Media, Erie, Pennsylvania
Contract amount: $74,325
Budget: up to $100,000
Price weight in evaluation: 15%
The project
The Port operates a marine terminal, a marina, a regional airport and commercial real estate. Its website serves residents, businesses, visitors and government stakeholders.
According to the Port’s review, people had trouble finding information, some content wasn’t updated promptly, and historical documents were missing. The Port allocated up to $100,000 for a redesign.
The requirements included clearer navigation and search, accessibility improvements, content migration, and a CMS the Port’s communications team could maintain. The site also needed maps, event calendars, multilingual content and an intranet for about 50 staff.
How Snowberry was selected
The Port received 33 proposals and scored them on nine weighted criteria:
Technical solution: 20%
Project understanding and approach: 15%
Experience and qualifications: 15%
Reasonableness of cost: 15%
Accessibility and inclusivity: 10%
Design and user experience: 10%
Security and compliance: 5%
SEO and analytics: 5%
Support, maintenance and training: 5%
Price was 15% of the score. The RFP asked for pricing that was “competitive but not necessarily lowest bid.”
After two rounds of review, the Port interviewed three finalists and selected Snowberry. In their presentation to commissioners, staff said Snowberry met every project objective and scored highly in every evaluation area. The first thing they listed under experience was the Port of Vancouver.
What was in the winning proposal
The Port published Snowberry’s proposal in its October 14 commission packet. Three things stand out.
Proof that looked like the client. The proposal includes a case study of the website Snowberry built for the Port of Vancouver USA, another Washington port, with multilingual content, forms and resources. The Port of Olympia was asking for the same things.
Ideas built for a port. On page 2, Snowberry proposed a real-time operations and alerts center with tides, wind, AIS vessel traffic and berth status. They also proposed a resources library with PDF search, and an interactive map covering the marine terminal, Swantown, the airport and the Port’s real estate.
A price the Port could follow line by line. Every part of the job was itemized, down to “5 unique homepage designs, one each for Port, Airport, Real Estate, Seaport and Swantown.”
What did Snowberry charge?
Discovery and strategy: $6,875
Design and development: $48,750
Intranet portal: $5,725
Multilingual functionality: $4,500
Data migration: $5,225
Launch and training: $3,250
Total: $74,325
That’s about $26,000 under the Port’s budget. Hosting and support were priced separately, from $100 to $600 a month.
What the records show
Thirty-three proposals became three interviews and one contract.
We don’t have the other proposals or the score sheets, so we can’t say exactly what separated Snowberry from the other two finalists. But we have what the Port asked for, how it weighted its decision, what staff told commissioners, and the proposal that won.
The Port didn’t have to imagine whether Snowberry understood ports. It could see the one they’d already built.
Read the original documents
Port of Olympia commission packet, October 14, 2025. The staff presentation starts on page 22, the RFP on page 37, and Snowberry’s proposal on page 60.
Inside the Win is a Bigger Budget Projects series examining real project selections and the documents behind them.