TMCNet: Netsertive and Borrell Associates Announce

[August 13, 2015]

Netsertive and Borrell Associates Announce "The Changing Face of Co-Op Programs" Report

Netsertive, a digital marketing intelligence company that brings brands and local businesses together to win local customers, today released "The Changing Face of Co-Op Marketing Programs" report. Created in partnership with marketing research firm Borrell Associates, the report includes insights gathered from over 150 brands and local businesses, while exploring how digital marketing trends are altering the co-op landscape and the persistent barriers to adoption that brands and local businesses face. A copy of the full report is available for download here.

"Our research with Borrell Associates found that brands are leaving billions in annual revenue untapped as a result of inefficient and outdated co-op marketing programs," said Brendan Morrissey, CEO and co-founder, Netsertive. "Up to 40 percent of co-op marketing funds earmarked by brand managers for local advertising remain unused each year. It's time to revitalize co-op marketing programs with a focus on digital marketing channels, and to reinvent the broken relationship between brands and their local business partners."

Key survey findings include:

  • "Co-op" is a Dirty Word among Brands and Local Businesses. While 53 percent of brands and 65 percent of local businesses participated in co-op marketing programs last year, both report dissatisfaction and persistent challenges. Half of brands cite a lack of digital marketing knowledge among local businesses as the biggest barrier to co-op marketing success, while local businesses cite "too much paperwork" (38 percent), "too many rules" (38 percent) and a lack of information (31 percent) as their biggest challenges.
  • Local Businesses are Leading Digital Marketing Spend Locally. When it comes to local marketing spend, a majority of local businesses (61 percent) prioritize digital advertising over newspaper (56 percent), direct mail (53 percent), radio (45 percent) and cable TV (35 percent). Brands, meanwhile, still favor traditional mediums - newspaper (85 percent), radio (71 percent) and direct mail (71 percent) - over digital advertising (69 percent).
  • Search & Display, Email Marketing are Still the Most Impactful Local Marketing Mediums. Despite the recent landslide of digital marketing innovation, brands and local businesses still depend on search & display (62 ercent and 67 percent, respectively) and email marketing (46 percent) to drive leads and sales locally.
  • Brands and Local Businesses Aren't Prioritizing Mobile Marketing. Despite growing device dependency among consumers, 73 percent of brands and local businesses aren't leveraging co-op funds for their mobile marketing efforts. Those that are remain focused primarily on mobile search and mobile-optimized websites. In fact, 61 percent of local businesses report having mobile-optimized websites.
  • Adoption of Digital Video Advertising is Lagging Locally. A full 83 percent of brands do not provide co-op funds to support partner use of digital video advertising. In fact, 46 percent report that less than 20 percent of their local partners currently use digital video advertising and 68 percent rate partner knowledge of the medium as "novice" or "poor." Additionally, 22 percent of local businesses report never having used digital video advertising.
  • Millennials are Driving Local Sales Opportunity - and Brands are Missing Out. While 43 percent of local businesses reported an increase in sales to Millennials in 2014, the majority of brands (68 percent) do not yet offer co-op support for Millennial targeting at the local level.

"We were stunned to discover that advertisers are leaving $14 billion in 'free advertising' on the table - about twice as much as three years ago," said Gordon Borrell, CEO, Borrell Associates. "This is because co-op programs are out of sync with local advertisers' changing needs, particularly in the digital realm. With a few adjustments and the help of new technologies to grease the skids, brands have a big opportunity to tweak these co-op programs in a way that transforms local business partners into an incredibly sophisticated and powerful sales force."

For more information regarding this report or Netsertive's digital marketing intelligence solutions, please visit: http://www.netsertive.com/

About "The Changing Face of Co-Op Marketing Programs" Report
Borrell Associates administered a project focusing on cooperative advertising. There were two sectors of the project; one geared toward automotive groups and one geared toward non-automotive cooperative advertising. Both sectors contained two parts focusing on the "givers," those that provide it, and "getters," those that receive it. Three surveys (40-50 respondents each) were conducted and two sections of telephone interviews. The series began in May of 2015 through August 2015. Borrell partnered with various groups focused on cooperative advertising. Respondents entering their contact information at the end of the survey were entered in a drawing for a chance to win one of two iWatches.

About Netsertive
Netsertive's digital marketing intelligence platform empowers brands and local businesses to work together to win local customers. The company's two complementary solutions, MarketWise™ for Brands and StreetWise™ for Local Businesses, enable cooperative marketing and resource sharing between brands and their local business partners. Both are powered by Netsertive's proprietary learning engine, which combines the company's deep industry experience with the collective intelligence of its extensive network of automotive, IT technology, major appliance, furniture, consumer electronics, dental and eye care clients to deliver unprecedented campaign speed, performance and value. An award-winning marketing technology company and Google (News - Alert) Premier SMB Partner, Netsertive drives local marketing success from campaign enablement through scaled, local execution. Additionally, Netsertive helps brands with their co-op marketing to ensure localized brand compliance, seamless campaign execution and reimbursement tracking for local partners.

Founded in 2009 and based in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, the company has a history of rapid growth, a world-class team and the strength of venture capital funding from top firms RRE Ventures, Harbert Venture Partners and Greycroft Partners. Netsertive was named 2014 Software Company of the Year by North Carolina Technology Association and was named among Inc. Magazine's 500 fastest-growing private companies two years in a row. Additional information about Netsertive is available at www.netsertive.com.

About Borrell Associates
As a data-driven company, Borrell Associates is the expert in local advertising. Borrell Associates is the leader in tracking and forecasting local ad spending across any market in the U.S., Canada or the U.K., down to the county or province level. Borrell helps clients gauge the levels of advertising and marketing expenditures in their markets by any type of business. Through detailed ad-spending data, fact-based consultation and training, Borrell Associates helps media companies increase their market share and matters adjust budgets. Additional information about Borrell is available at www.borrellassociates.com.


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