Summary
Effective co-op marketing often involves using a range of tactics that retailers may not have much experience deploying and managing. Retailers are great at merchandising, servicing, and closing deals, but they often need the support of a brand’s marketing muscle to reap the rewards of their marketing and promotional efforts fully.
A best-in-class co-op program not only will support a range of full-funnel marketing tactics, but it will also provide the consulting necessary to help retailers make the best use of the available options. Valassis’ co-op solution offers this sort of frontline consultation and tactical recommendations for your co-op program to simplify the implementation experience and enhance your program’s overall effectiveness.
Finding the Right Mix
As mentioned in our blog post on evaluating a campaign’s success, we had an HVAC distributor that wanted to showcase its installers on local TV. Unfortunately, budget and audience targeting constraints made that task seem impossible. A Valassis marketing expert was able to introduce, explain, and deploy Connected TV advertising as the solution and assure that the campaign fit within the co-op program’s parameters, ensuring that there was never any doubt that this campaign would be reimbursed by the brand. We also set up marketing tests to help the co-op partners evaluate adding this tactic — along with related standards and guidelines — to the program for the long term.
In another case, we had a national grill manufacturer that wanted to expand into new markets and needed a way to increase store traffic and drive sales. Their Valassis team proposed testing a new digital campaign for one month; the campaign led to a 28% increase in sales versus the prior year. The co-op program added an effective tactic to the client’s menu of marketing choices without adding unnecessary stress and frustration for the retailer.
This informed, creative thinking is just one of the benefits of partnering with an experienced consultant. A solid co-op expert enables retailers to focus on what they do best and avoid getting bogged down in the program details.
Building a Better Program
A co-op supported marketing campaign can provide substantial results with the help of a partner that has in-depth local marketing expertise and real-world experience with the industry’s best practices. This outside perspective rounds out the team necessary to plan and execute effective co-op programs.
Self-service tools are an option, but they can leave your dealers navigating the finer details on their own. Instead, look for providers that offer free full-service, turnkey campaign management and dedicated teams trained on your brand and market. And if you’re looking for a hyperlocal targeting focus, you’ll want a provider with a nationwide network of households that can monitor and respond to the in-market signals necessary to execute an agile campaign.
Choosing the Right Partner for You
Don’t leave the success of your co-op program up to chance. Valassis offers a team of marketing experts who can fine-tune your co-op programs for maximum efficiency. We can help you better define your target audience and the tactics necessary to reach them on a local level — and grow your business.
Need to improve the ROI of your co-op marketing program? This series provides a step-by-step guide to help you actualize your co-op marketing objectives. Click through for more details on taking a hyperlocal approach to co-op, how performance can help the partnership grow, where a full-funnel approach might fit in, and how to uncover insights for campaign success.
Greg Potts is currently a senior sales executive at Valassis. He has more than 20 years of experience in the marketing and advertising industry including martech, media, and branding. Co-op advertising has been a part of each of Greg’s career stops and he has worked with all three sides of the co-op advertising triangle: media, brand, and local affiliate.
