By Joe Morey
News Editor
A digital marketing grant has been awarded to the LCO Child Support Program (CSP) that will allow them to create a fuel pump marketing campaign at the tribe’s gas stations.
LCO-CSP Director Sue Smith presented the plan to the LCO Tribal Governing Board on Monday, March 4, stating an agreement would need to be made between the tribe and CSP.
As part of the plan, the tribe would have to pay to upgrade the fuel pumps at the tribal gas stations and through the grant, CSP would pay for the fuel pump advertisement upgrade.
“Curtis DeCora is the project manager through CSP and he has reached out to both Lynette Tribble, manager of the C-1 Convenience Store, and Mike DeNasha, LCO Quick Stop manager, and they both like the idea,” Melissa said. “This is a regular upgrade that the tribe has to do by 2020 anyways.”
Melissa said in the agreement we would have lease of the pumps for the digital advertisements, but the tribe would always maintain ownership.
“Child support, using the grant funds, will pay to offset the cost of the fuel pump upgrades, exclusively for the video integration. The tribe will be upgrading the pumps, dispensers, handles and hoses. The grant would cover the cost of modem, router, software package and the 10-inch screens.”
Sue Smith explained there would be six 30-second slots in a pre-programmed order which child support would have the first slot until the end of the grant period, Sept. 30, 2020, at which time, the tribe would take over management of all the spots.
“Child support would still need a spot,” Smith said. “Up till that period, child support would have ownership over all six slots. According to the grant, the spots cannot generate revenue. Once the tribe takes over, they can sell five of the slots and generate revenue.”
Smith said a new agreement would have to be made. She said so long as the agreement has dedicated ad space to child support, they can budget for upgrades of software whenever they come necessary. This will result in less expense to the tribe, she said.
“At the time the tribe takes over, they will need someone to manage the software and ad space and a billing process set up to get revenue from the ad space,” Smith said. “During life of the grant, Curtis will manage the software and advertisements. Should anything need service, the pump company provides that.”
Melissa explained they intend to use most of the slots for child support advertising and will sponsor other programs by running an ad or flyer for them at no cost. She also said it’s a cloud-based system. Just need log in and can upload the ads. The gas stations would have access.
“We have to show that somehow this advertisement will increase awareness of the child support program and increase child support participation,” Smith said. “So many times people are confused and are not aware of the difference between child support and Indian Child Welfare. We don’t educate the community enough. We want to reach more people overall. We have a new website, and this will inform people to check the website and access apps that they can do stuff through. Our website is our first interaction and it will be launched on April 1.”
The video advertisements, through the life of the grant, will promote LCO Child Support, local programs and services. The ads will begin running in the programmed order once someone begins pumping gas.
According to LCO Child Support, the advertisements are purely informational and encourage viewers to visit their website for services, utilize reminders of benefits of programs, view upcoming family-oriented events, or any other call-to-action they wish to utilize.