If you’re a local marketer offering national or regional brands, you are probably aware of co-op advertising. And if you aren’t, you need to be.
Manufacturers provide co-op advertising reimbursements to retailers to share the cost of local advertising. These programs vary wildly as can their value. However, if you’re not utilizing co-op dollars to help pay for your marketing and advertising expenditures, you’re probably leaving some real money on the table and missing opportunities.
Some co-op programs pay media companies and agencies directly while others allow the retailer to accrue co-op dollars and use them for additional inventory. Regardless of the details, these programs are almost always a win for the store owner.
Until recently, co-op programs were limited to traditional forms of advertising: newspapers, radio, broadcast or cable TV. However, the shift in recent years to digital has been as dramatic as the overall advertising spend. In fact, Ford Motor Company requires their local market dealers to use at least 50% of their co-op dollars on digital media, and it has for years. Ford isn’t alone in this regard. Chrysler, General Motors and other manufacturers have modified their programs to encourage digital spending. It should come as no surprise that most consumers start their car buying journey online.
This trend isn’t limited to the automotive sector. In just the past few years, our team has worked with local businesses to help get their digital marketing campaigns paid by Valspar, Tony Lama, Chamilia, Wrangler and others.
There are thousands of brands with funds available for digital advertising support. The large national retailers have internal teams to ensure that all co-op dollars across all product lines are used within each local market, in addition to their existing marketing budgets.
As a local business owner, you need to compete with these retailers. Fully utilizing manufacturer co-op programs can help level the playing field. Just make sure you use the available funds wisely. To ensure the best strategy, you should work with a team that understand co-op and can research your individual programs and brands.
Reach out today and we’ll work directly to identify your specific co-op opportunities. We do all of the heavy lifting:
- Analysis: We analyze existing co-op programs across all of your vendors.
- Execution: We build your advertising creative units. This includes display, social media posts and videos, email campaigns, among any other relevant creatives.
- Compliance: Your ad units are pre-approved by your vendors and we verify compliance. We know you don’t like surprises, and neither do we!
The only thing you have to lose are those expensive advertising bills! Our co-op services are completely free to use. Let us help you stretch your available marketing budget!
