Co-op Advertising

Teaser Trailer for Twihards

Friday, March 12, 2010 by Leah Laskarris

The Twilight saga continues! It's true fellow Twihard admirers; the new teaser trailer of the third book, "Eclipse" was released to the public yesterday. The vampire series continues to captivate and totally annoy the nation. The one-minute-and-thirty-second clip that arrived online dabbles into the not too surprising events about what we'll see in the upcoming movie.

Watch the trailer below and let's break it down, shall we? When the music begins instant goose-bumps occur and Edward’s hypnotizing voice mesmerizes all enthusiasts. We all know that Bella and Edward love each other but for all you Jacob fans we believe that Bella should choose the irresistible Jacob (sorry Team Edward I’m loyal to Team Jacob). “The Vulturi do not give second chances” and Bella has to change from a human to a vampire but Edward is hesitant with the consequences to follow. Jacob will fight for Bella (shirtless) until “her heart stops beating” showing off his hunky, muscular figure. A new Victoria, with her firey red hair, is back to obtain her vengeance. Rest assured I will be standing in line alongside the die-hard fans to purchase my ticket for the midnight opening showing.

After reading the very popular Stephenie Meyer books, people of all ages (yes not just girl teeny boppers) eagerly search for the new trailer and click on whatever sight pops up first. Local businesses are utilizing the effective and affordable local internet marketing by posting these clips to generate demand to their sites. Local store marketing is taking advantage of the hype utilizing POS materials to drive sales of the last video which will release the 20th, even Volvo saw significant lift in their sales when the movie was released! By using co-op advertising and local marketing ideas, stores are placing Twilight posters, wall hangers, and selling fan gear to effectively drive brand awareness. This movie has spent significant marketing dollars developing and nurturing their name which has proven successful. Twilight set the opening-day box office record taking in $72.7 million on the first day and grossed $258.8 million! New Moon pulled in $26.3 million just on the midnight showings and broke the record for the most pre-sales for any movie! Let's see what Eclipse has in store for us.

What Dental Advertisers Can Learn from the Kardashians

Tuesday, February 23, 2010 by Betsie Richardson

Love them or hate them, the Paris Hiltons of reality TV - famous for having a famous name - can teach us something about branding. Sure, they are clogging our news racks and cable networks with their ridiculous drama, but we must give them credit for staying top-of-mind and creating a recognizable brand. And when I say "brand," I mean face. For these celebrities in the business of being famous, their faces are their brand identity.

Advertising Age commented on how the E! network created stars from scratch with "Keeping Up With The Kardashians" in a February story: "E!'s highest-rated show in network history attracted 4 million viewers a week in its fourth season. It also banked $18.4 million in measured-ad spending during the first 11 months of 2009."

For many of the dental surgeons for whom we plan local advertising and perform local media buying, their name is their brand. Some dental clinicians feel uncomfortable with putting their own face on an advertisement, which is understandable. But they need to build brand awareness with some sort of consistency, like their logo and tag line.

Few dental clinicians who use our local advertising services understand the importance of branding in their media campaigns. They want to run advertisements that make the phone ring. Again, understandable. However, if we can learn anything from the Kardashians, it's that branding efforts provide the long-term benefits of name-awareness where lead gen can be short-sighted.

(Nobel Biocare taps into our local marketing automation software to provide a co-op advertising solution for their partner clinicians. Using our print ad builder, these clinicians tag their advertisements with their photos, logo and customize the messaging.)

Yes, Consumers Still Use Stamps

Wednesday, February 10, 2010 by Betsie Richardson

Who said print is dead? Who said broadcast TV is failing to perform? Before making such blanket claims, advertisers need to consider their target audience.

We just launched a campaign for a small business owner who had never advertised direct-to-consumer before last month. The business has had astounding results thanks in large part to local broadcast TV. We tracked 250+ calls in the first 5 weeks.

Speaking of the "dying" print industry, within the first week of running a full page ad and a business reply card in a local lifestyle magazine, our client received four business reply cards. And get this - the consumers actually put their own stamps on the cards! (I don't remember the last time I used a stamp, but I'm not the target demographic.)

I work with Nobel Biocare partner clinicians to help them market dental implants directly to consumers in their local market. (Nobel Biocare runs a Co-op Advertising program.) Their primary target audience is female, 55-70 years of age, with a HHI of $100,000+.

Our local advertising plan for this client includes an integrated media mix that has strong reach to the target demographic:

Broadcast TV on the ABC and Fox local affiliate stations
Billboard on a major local highway
Local lifestyle magazine (full page + business reply card)
Local Internet marketing - pay-per-click on Google search

Our client's phones are ringing, and we tracked a 2.5x ROI in first 5 weeks. When looking at an older, edentulous consumer, traditional media can still perform.

Co-op Advertising the Product Placement Way!

Friday, February 5, 2010 by Alex Fascilla

Perhaps the least hackneyed, most unforced example of product placement advertising I've ever seen appeared in the movie that made the phrase "that's what she said," famous. "They made a 'The Office' movie?!" You wonder excitedly, if not a little clumsily because of the whole "a The" part. No, there is no 'The Office' movie... But there will be, relax. The movie I'm referring to is the impeccable 1992 comedy--yes kids, 'that's what she said' is 18 years old and still alarmingly funny--Wayne's World. In one particular scene, we find Wayne quickly cycling through the product-placement agreements the movie was committed to feature as he damns those that--very similarly--"sell-out" to big business. Note Garth's Reebok get-up. I'd pay hundreds for it if I could find it on eBay.

So what's new in the product placement arena these days? Well, shucks, if you have a feeling it's become a new form of co-op advertising, you'd be correct. See, whereas Pepsi, Pizza Hut, and Doritos probably plunked down hundreds of thousands of dollars for each of those blatantly--but remember, that's why they were effective--shameless plugs that were so "seamlessly" integrated into Wayne's World, advertisers lately have pulled off product placement at virtually no cost to them. How? Well, as MediaBuyerPlanner recently reported, via a co-operative structuring.

Oscar bait and recent Clooney showcase, Up In The Air features American Airlines and Hilton Hotels placements almost as much as it does Clooney's muse (and Best Supporting Actress nominee) Vera Farmiga. The deal? Well, as the article outlines, hotel stays for the cast and crew and plane rentals for in-plane scenes were on the house--paid for by none other than Hilton and AA, respectively. In return, of course, they'll enjoy all the benefit those product placements produce--on that note, I assume they'll accrue more benefit as the movie continues to grow in popularity given the recent Best Picture nod. Although, as a media planner, I wonder how you measure ROI on product placements... hmmm... *stroking chin* Interesting medium...

Is this the typical sort of thing we'd be able facilitate in Balihoo's co-op marketing software platform? Perhaps. We currently facilitate co-op advertising for more traditional mediums like TV, radio, magazines, etc. But why not add product placements? I'd love a crack at negotiating a client's request to product place in the next Nicolas Cage bomb. Daydreams aside, it's an exciting time for the co-op model--and startups like Balihoo that foster collective ad spending--as firms discover increasingly inventive ways to band together in their marketing efforts to the benefit of all involved!

So as I calmly slip into daydreams once again as Paparazzi by Lady Gaga blares in my ear buds, I imagine calling Gaga's producer, urging him to change the chorus to "Pe-Pa, Pe-Pa-Roniiiiii" in exchange for a lifetime of stuffed-crust pizzas to the satisfaction of recent client Pizza Hut and of course a very stuffed-crust-loving Lady Gaga. Now that's co-op advertising!

Building a Better Co-op Advertising Program Webinar

Monday, February 1, 2010 by Shane Vaughan

Last month our CEO, Pete Gombert, presented a webinar in conjunction with EE Times entitled: Building a Better Co-op Advertising Program.

This webinar is now available for recorded viewing here: Building a Better Co-op Advertising Program

An overview of what's covered:

As a product manufacturer reaching your customers through a reseller network, you know it’s critical to coordinate and leverage marketing activities with them. More than ever your marketing budgets are under scrutiny, while at the same time there’s ever-growing pressure to achieve sales goals.

This webinar is designed to address 5 specific areas to build a higher-performing co-op marketing program:

Increase adoption by making it easy
Templated flexibility
Give your resellers certainty
Answer the question “How”
Close the Marketing Loop

Attendees will leave this webinar with an understanding of what their resellers are looking for in a co-op marketing program and clear direction on how to deliver on these needs.

Let us know what you think!

Hope for the Rebate

Thursday, January 14, 2010 by Kelly Mason

I don't know about you all, but if I find something I want that's a great price, but then upon a closer look I see that the great price requires the dreaded "mail-in rebate", I will set it right back down. Think about that. I've already evaluated the product enough to know that A) I want it and B) I'm willing to pay the price, and after a couple seconds of evaluation, I can put it right back down, walk away and never look back. (Well, maybe look back, but only once).

One word: Experience. I know, from experience, that I will pay what I deem to be too much for that product, and then I'll go home with big plans to get the cash that is rightfully mine back into my pocket where it will burn a hole until the next can't-beat-it deal comes along. But what will actually happen is that I'll get home and start playing with my new purchase. I'll remember my rebate a while later, and attempt to cut out the UPC code, and then I'll soon realize that my kitchen scissors won't be able to handle the job. So I'll put the box in a 'safe' place and continue playing, with a plan to dig the box cutter out of the garage in the very near future. What happens next is always a little fuzzy. I clean out my purse and ditch what appears to be a worthless receipt. My 'safe' place to store the box will turn out to be a 'hiding' place - from myself. And as a fairly frugal consumer, I'll remember 6 months later and get a pain in my stomach when I realize my money is burning a hole in someone else's pocket and there's nothing I can do about it.

Now, imagine you're a small business owner and the purchase is a year's worth of local advertising. You have a shoebox full of receipts, and instead of one UPC codes, you're cutting ads out of newspapers, magazines, and radio tapes as your proof of performance. Balihoo has designed a co-op advertising solution that redesigns the rebate experience.

Through Balihoo's co-op marketing software program, franchise owners can do it all in one place - select and customize the creative, place their ad in various publications, pay the total costs and yes, receive their rebate RIGHT AWAY. No box cutters necessary. No need to clip ads. Because all the required information needed to get that refund is housed right inside the ad builder software. The system calculates the total, reduces it by the subsidized amount, and then only charges the affiliate - get this - what they OWE! But you know what else happens? People make the purchase! It's what they call a win-win.

As a product specialist, I feel proud to see a co-op advertising solution that works the right way for our users. And as a rebate-repelled consumer, I feel hopeful that the current way isn't the only way.

4 Questions to Evaluate your Ad Builder Software

Wednesday, January 6, 2010 by Shane Vaughan

If you have a franchise marketing solution or run a co-op advertising program, chances are

that you also use some sort of ad builder software to manage the customization of your creative assets for local advertising and marketing.

Is your ad builder software as effective as it should be? Here are 4 questions to ask yourself and your business to evaluate your ad builder software:

1. What is your adoption rate? That is, of your affiliates, what percentage have accessed and used the ad builder software in the last 3 months? If it's less than 50%, you have a fundamental problem.

2. How many mediums does your software address? If you just have a print ad builder solution, you're leaving your affiliates on their own to manage other mediums, which significantly decreases the likelihood they'll use your one-medium solution. Push for a cross-medium solution.

3. Is it easy to use? This is a bit objective, but there's a simple litmus test here. Grab a co-worker, friend, spouse or anyone who is not a marketing professional and ask them to use the tool to customize an ad or in-store piece. If it takes them more than 5 minutes from start to finish, you need to work on the usability of your solution.

4. Is it ONLY ad builder software? Or, are using the opportunity to help your affiliates be successful locally by providing a true local store marketing solution? Providing just a simple tool is not the answer, you need to deliver end-to-end development and implementation of local marketing ideas. Also, it's critical that you deliver local marketing strategy to help the affiliates be successful. Marketing software tools are valuable, but without the applied local marketing strategy, they are useless.

Certainly this list is not comprehensive. However, I strongly believe that if you answer these questions honestly, and modify your program based on the answers, you'll end up with a solution that is more effective for both you and your affiliates.

Outdoor Adventures in Co-op Advertising

Tuesday, December 22, 2009 by Brian King

Like most people in Boise, I’m an outdoor enthusiast. It’s a big part of why I chose to live here. With a love for outdoor activities comes the insatiable thirst for top of the line gear. Sure, call me a gear-head. Self admitted.

When it comes to purchasing the latest and greatest outdoor gear, I automatically gravitate to REI for two simple reasons. One, their customer service is second to none. And two, I’m a member of the REI co-op program. REI was established as a co-op providing members with an annual dividend check formulated from the member’s total purchases throughout the fiscal year. The use of co-op for retail stores is a simple concept that has worked incredibly well and is best seen by REI’s history of steady growth in a crowded retail sector.

So if it is so simple, why aren’t more brands using co-op for their retail distributors the way retail distributors use co-op for their customers? Easy answer. It’s too damn complicated. The paperwork and filing process associated with co-op reimbursement for distributors has been so cumbersome that, oftentimes, retailers will leave eligible dollars on the table at yearend simply because the co-op marketing program wreaks havoc on the retailer’s cash flow by the time they are finally reimbursed. The concept of co-op advertising works so long as it is easy to use and straight-forward.

Enter Balihoo’s new Integrated Co-op Marketing Solution: An easy solution to enable effective co-op marketing at a local level. For fun, let’s play out a brief scenario to show just how powerful co-op marketing can be.

Brand X releases a new lightweight soft-shell jacket with state of the art fabric technology and happens to offer a 75% co-op for all advertising dollars spent by retailers promoting the product. Brand X does this via Balihoo’s new solution. Retailer, REI in this scenario, decides to run a strategic local advertising campaign at their Boise location that features a co-branded advertisement with Brand X’s new product and REI’s logo. And for the sake of this story, the ad happens to be localized via Balihoo’s local marketing automation tool (yep, all located in the same online portal). Brand X loves this because their product is being marketed at the local level. REI loves this because it is simple and Brand X is helping pay for the ad real-time, meaning that there is no waiting or messy paper work associated with receiving reimbursement. Co-op is applied at the time an order is placed and full transparency is seen by all parties involved.

…Along comes a gear-head such as myself. I see the ad, and go to REI to check it out because I trust the retailer and the products they sell. Oh, and did I forget to mention that I go to REI because I love the REI member co-op program? I purchase the product, and go figure, I use my REI Visa to purchase the coat because it increases my eligible co-op amount on the product and thus results in a larger yearend dividend. I then receive my dividend check and the whole process starts over when I see another co-branded REI ad promoting a new Brand Y cycling shoe that REI just started selling. And guess what? Brand Y is offering a 90% co-op.

To sum it up, much like retail stores can drive consumer behavior via co-op, brand’s can drive retailer behavior using the same simple concept.

Co-op advertising. It’s a beautiful thing.

Tags: Channel Marketing Software, Co-op Advertising, Co-op Marketing Software, Co-op Marketing Solution, CRM Marketing Automation, Retail Marketing, Sales Promotion Marketing, Trade Promotion Marketing

Integrated Co-op Marketing Whitepaper

Monday, December 21, 2009 by Shane Vaughan

For those of you involved in Co-op advertising or co-op marketing programs, I wanted to make you aware of a new whitepaper we have entitled, "Integrated Co-op Marketing."

You can access the whitepaper here: Integrated Co-op Marketing

The overall concept of the whitepaper is that organizations who integrate the creative and financial components of their co-op marketing solution see significantly increased results from their channel marketing program. We believe that by deploying sophisticated co-op marketing software an organization can dramatically increase reseller participation and success in their co-op marketing solution.

Marketing software tools, specifically co-op marketing software, have made significant strides in recent years and this whitepaper will help you understand how to identify and deploy the most effective co-op marketing solution.

Would love to hear any feedback!

The Evolution of Sales Promotion Marketing

Monday, December 14, 2009 by Shane Vaughan

Sales promotion marketing, using co-op advertising funds, has typically been a very promotional-based type activity. The brand builds the ad, in which the retailer plays a minor role, then a print ad builder is used to customize it for the retailer.

However, as suggested by this Ad Age article, Walmart is taking a unique spin on these ads. They're focused more on the product itself, with the retailer taking the back seat in terms of visibility. It suggests that because Walmart has established a positioning of low-price leader, they're able to run these more brand-based (or product based) ads without the need for a heave dose of sales promotion marketing messaging.

While interesting in and of itself as a general trend, I think it's important for product manufacturers to consider how this could play out in their co-op advertising programs. Specifically, manufacturers need to consider the role their creative and creative templates play given this information.

Our recommendation to clients of our co-op marketing solution is that they need to develop creative templates that allow for a spectrum. At a very basic level you can create two versions of your product ad - one where the retailer plays a starring role and one where the retailer plays a minor role. Then, fund these templates at different levels (for example, 25% co-op for one version and 50% co-op for the other). Approaching it in this fashion allows the retailer to implement their sales promotion marketing efforts in the manner the best suits them and they're rebated at a level that is comfortable to the product manufacturer.

Of course, this approach assumes that you have a print ad builder (or other mediums) implemented in your co-op advertising program that can manage this level of specificity. Balihoo's channel marketing software can handle that, I hope yours can too.

Balihoo Announces Integrated Co-op Marketing Solution

Tuesday, December 8, 2009 by Shane Vaughan

Note: This post originally appeared on the older Balihoo blog on 10/27/09.

JUST in case you missed our announcement on PRweb or our News section (we like to be thorough) I wanted to let everyone know that we have some pretty exciting news today - we’re announcing the wide availability of our Integrated Co-op Marketing Solution.

This is a big deal for us - we’ve had co-op functionality in our system for awhile, but for the first time we’re packaging it up nicely and making it widely available to all of our customers (and potential customers). I’ve seen firsthand the delight on a reseller/distributor/franchisee face the first time they log into this co-op marketing solution and realize that they can manage both the creative and financial ends of their co-op advertising spend through one easy system. The time savings and cost savings they realize are immediate and significant.

And for the national brand running the co-op advertising program - the biggest deal here is the visibility they have into what’s going on at a local level. Imagine being able to completely understand the local support of a product launch BEFORE it’s launched. Or, view marketing activities at a local level to understand what’s working for your affiliates. Invaluable.

If you want to learn more about using a centralized system to manage a co-op program, check out our Integrated Co-op Marketing Software whitepaper at: www.balihoo.com/icm

OK, enough about us, back to our regularly scheduled programming……

Co-op advertising or MDF advertising: Who cares?

Tuesday, December 8, 2009 by Shane Vaughan

NOTE: This was originally posted on the older version of the Balihoo blog on 10/20/09 by Marcie Blagden.

Here’s an interesting blog posting - Co-op or MDF: Who cares? in which the author discusses the differences between Co-op advertising and MDF advertising programs and analyzes the current trend of manufacturers to move more towards MDF-based programs.

I agree with the author here – who cares as long as it’s successful?

Regardless of the format of the program, more time and attention needs to be placed on building programs that are easy-to-use (both for manufacturer and distributor) and ultimately successful in the marketplace. The MOST successful co-op advertising programs minimize the administrative efforts required by both parties while maximizing the return-on-investment (and time) of dollars placed into the system.

It’s Called ‘Co-op Advertising’ Because it Requires Coordinated Cooperation

Thursday, December 3, 2009 by Shane Vaughan

Co-op marketing solutions and co-op advertising program can be incredibly valuable and effective; however, unless they are clearly executed by all involved parties they can be reduced to simply an additional headache that never seems to perform quite as desired.

Consider the following:

Do you really believe your co-op advertising budget is being well spent?
Can you guarantee coordination of timing and messages for product launch marketing efforts?
Are your resellers spending more time complaining about delayed reimbursements than working to achieve results in your upcoming key selling season?
Have your competitors started to outflank you with more effective co-op advertising program - even though they offer an inferior product?

Co-op Marketing Strategies: Building a Better Co-op/MDF Program
View more presentations from Balihoo.

Tags: Channel Marketing Software, Co-op Advertising, Co-op Marketing Software, Co-op Marketing Solution, CRM Marketing Automation, Retail Marketing, Sales Promotion Marketing, Trade Promotion Marketing

Co-op and MDF Programs - Adoption is your key Front-End Metric

Thursday, December 3, 2009 by Shane Vaughan

Note: This post originally appeared on Balihoo's old blog on 11/17/09

The Trade Promotion Marketing Association (TPMA) reports that there are approximately $50B in co-op/MDF dollars available in a given year, while only $30B are actually used. This means that 40% of the dollars that manufacturers make available to their channel to drive local demand generation go unused.

Let me rephrase that - manufacturers offer free money to resellers to drive their business and it’s only accepted 60% of the time. Does that sound right to you? Does that sound like an effective co-op marketing solution?

As channel and trade managers, you should not accept this as the due course of business. My belief is that adoption rate - the % of your resellers eligible for your co-op program who actually engage - should be the key front-end metric you measure to understand the value of your overall co-op marketing solution. No, it certainly won’t replace the key back-end metrics of revenue and ROI, but on the front-end it is the main thing you should be looking at in your co-op marketing software. Why? Because your adoption rate can tell you so much about your program.

Getting a deep understanding of your adoption rate (over time) can help you understand:
- Are my salesforce engaged and being ambassadors for the program?
- Am I effectively communicating the program?
- Is the program easy-to-use?
- Am I providing enough flexibility within the program?
- Is the creative valuable to my partners?

So - tip of the day - track your adoption rate. If you see it anywhere below around 80%, you should be taking a deep dive to understand why your resellers are not taking advantage to move their business forward. FYI - your co-op marketing software should be able to help here!