We have a responsibility within our community to be leaders in our industry and help the businesses that surround us. We’ve gathered a set of partners, dedicated to providing our expertise, services, and financial backing to support.
Announcing the first annual
V.I.B.E.
(Venture to Ignite Black Entrepreneurship)
Creative Marketing Grant.
With this grant, a collection of local creative agencies & media companies will be helping local Black-led New Orleans businesses bolster their marketing and give their business a push in the right direction.
A Systemic Issue
Our community is full of many small businesses that work in a variety of different industries. Unfortunately, the Black-led businesses and other minority-led businesses are severely underrepresented and receive far less in spending dollars than other businesses. While systemic change will take decades, we’re working to do our small part. You can learn more about the disparity between minority business owners and white business owners in New Orleans in this piece by one of our clients, The Data Center.
The Data Center reported that although Black people own 40% of businesses within New Orleans, they only receive 2% of all receipts. In the spirit of Bettering Our Community and continuing our mission to better support the Black community, we want to provide an annual digital creative marketing grant for Black-led business in New Orleans.
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What Can I Expect With This Grant?
You will receive the following items, with the launch of your campaign.
- $5,000 in paid digital advertising budget, spent on your behalf, over two months.
- Two months of management of one of the below services:
- Google Ads
- Facebook & Instagram
- Video production package courtesy of ComfyStone Films, including:
- Full 1 – 2 minute video production piece
- Additional edits for social media usage.
- One written article about the company and its services, featured on TalkDatNOLA.com and The New Orleans Agenda ($1,150 value)
- 10 radio slots/month for two months on WTDN iRadio ($3,000 value)
- 1000 banner ad impressions on TalkDatNOLA.com
- One video/audio feature on ‘The Blueprint’ podcast
- 2-hour photoshoot at your business, provided courtesy of Catchfire Productions
- 15-second animation produced by Online Optimism
Your business will own all assets, including photography, video, and animations, produced through the grant.
Presented By:
Requirements for Grant
As most business owners may already know, a marketing campaign can include a number of different strategies that you can learn about here. Our marketing grant seeks to cover whichever strategy works best given what industry your business is in. To be chosen for this grant your business has to provide the following:
- Employer Identification Number (EIN).
- The business must be at least 51% owned by Black business people.
- The business must be located and function solely in the New Orleans metro area.
- Your business must have between 5-50 employees (including the owner/s)
- The business must have been in operation since 2017 or earlier.
- Research into what marketing strategies you think will help your business the best.
We will consider all organizations that take the time to apply. Businesses that don’t quite meet 100% of the criteria are welcome to apply but preference will be given to those that do meet the criteria. We’d also ask that you use the “anything else” section to further explain whichever requirement you don’t meet.
Judging the Winner
You may be asking, “Well, how will this grant be judged?” There are many aspects of a business that we could judge this grant on but we’ve decided on 5 main principles:
- Funds: The ideal winner would have a great business model but may not have enough funds to run a marketing campaign.
- Strategy: We want to help businesses that are interested in marketing for their business but haven’t yet been able to put the time, money, or attention into it. The ideal winner would have done some research into why marketing will be good for their business and which strategies would work best. Having done their research, the ideal winner will be able to provide detailed answers to the various questions in the application form.
- Locality: The ideal winner hires mostly New Orleans natives and works to build a strong relationship with other people and businesses within the New Orleans area.
- Diversity: The ideal winner should have a diverse staff that reflects the New Orleans community.
- Growth: We want this grant to really help your business grow and so we are looking for businesses/organizations where we believe this extensive campaign will provide quantitative and qualitative growth.