National brands and local retailers can be a powerful duo for driving sales; the trouble is that many brands struggle with creating top-down connection and alignment. One of the main obstacles here are the failures of broken, out-of-date processes like co-op advertising and digital asset management systems (DAMs).
Many manufacturers today rely on digital asset management systems to share marketing content with retailers and/or co-op programs to fund marketing efforts. The goal in both cases is to encourage retailers to market the brand’s products or solutions to their end customers.
Unfortunately, both of these approaches are laden with issues, typically resulting in disjointed marketing efforts that neither drive incremental in-store foot traffic nor increase brand value.
DAMs are notoriously ineffective and difficult to use. While they do provide retailers with access to brand content, the volume of content is so large that it is impossible to organize into customized campaigns for retailers.
Already strapped for time and often not fluent in digital marketing, retailers have trouble finding value in DAMs and become disengaged with participating in brand marketing opportunities in their local markets.
Cumbersome DAM programs can result in:
Related content: 4 Reasons Why Building an Asset Management System Doesn’t Work >
Much like DAMs, co-op advertising is a broken process. While it’s easy for brands to allocate and distribute marketing dollars to retailers via co-op advertising, it is far from a quick or easy process. To participate in a co-op advertising programs, retailers first have to:
It’s no wonder that as much as 50 percent of all assigned co-op funds go uncollected. Additionally, only 12 percent of co-op programs are digital. Most programs today still focus primarily on print, radio and TV advertising, a serious disconnect from where most consumers make decisions today: online.
Considering retailers often don’t have time themselves to stay current with how consumers are making buying decisions today, offline-only co-op programs only make matters worse.
Related content: 5 Ways Co-Op Advertising Could Be Made Easier [Retailer Survey] >
GE Appliances has a long history of supporting their independent retailers through co-op advertising. As a massive brand, though, they needed to update longstanding processes and marketing strategies to better embrace paid digital initiatives at the local level.
In their efforts to innovate and partner more effectively with retailers for marketing initiatives, GE Appliances partnered with Promoboxx.
Example co-branded Facebook share
GE Appliances’ Slate Appliances campaign centered around educating consumers about how they can save money by downloading a rebate from a retailer’s co-branded landing page. Using Promoboxx, a group of participating retailers promoted the rebate landing page with brand-approved content and funding from GE Appliances.
With this content, retailers were able to run locally targeted digital ads. Set up using Promoboxx, these ads ran across Facebook and top local mobile app networks with major success, outperforming their previous retailer-specific ad campaigns with:
In addition, the campaign’s innovative usage of Facebook and mobile advertising paid off in full, with 3.7 million unique Facebook ad impressions and 1.7 million geo-targeted mobile in-app impressions. The campaign was featured in Adweek for GE Appliances’ “fresh approach” to traditional co-op advertising.
“The ads generated foot traffic to our store, which absolutely translated into sales of GE Appliances. What’s good for GE is good for our business as well.”— Edward’s Appliance
“We were able to reach new local audiences and increase where-to-buy mindshare. It’s imperative for GE to continue to build brand goodwill with our retail partners.”— Jason West, General Manager of Merchandising & Training, GE Appliances
Quite unlike DAMs and co-op advertising programs, Promoboxx provides a collaborative, streamlined platform that allows brands to invite retailers to participate with timely campaigns and enables them to implement social, email, mobile and website marketing initiatives directly from the platform.
With a user interface and workflow designed to make it as easy as possible for brands to push campaign-ready content out, retailers are much more likely to engage.
5 Obstacles to Local Marketing Alignment Between Brands and Retailers >
5 Things Brands Should Know About Retail Marketing Support >
How New Balance Provides Scalable Retail Support [Case Study] >
5 Ways Co-Op Advertising Could Be Made Easier [Retailer Survey] >
4 Reasons Why Building an Asset Management System Doesn’t Work >
Quick Tips: Better Partner with Retailers for Brand Marketing Programs >
