Sunrise, FL -- The State Of Co-op and MDF Programs in Channel Marketing Unveiled by Most Extensive Report to Date, 1,536 Brand Marketers Across 11 Industries Surveyed

Finally, brand marketers can steal a page directly from the playbooks of the best in channel marketing. A groundbreaking new benchmark report from Gleanster Research identifies the best practices of industry superstars as well as gives actionable insight into the disconnect between brands and their local business network. The report goes behind what everyone involved in co-op and MDF programs already knows - that billions of dollars in co-op and MDF programs go unused every year. Through the industry’s most extensive survey of 1,536 brand marketers in 11 industries and 5 additional years of intensive data, a roadmap to success is revealed, providing actionable steps in what is essentially a roadmap to ROI. It is precisely because Gleanster used such deep resources for this study that Brand Leaders rose to the top, each with a proven record of success: beating their own 2014 revenue objectives by 10%. SproutLoud, the report’s Gold Sponsor, is offering complementary copies of this must-have benchmark report titled: The State of Co-Op and MDF- Benchmarking the Success and Failure of Co-Op and MDF Programs. Visit http://info.sproutloud.com/l/24972/2015-10-22/35lg2g to receive your copy.

“We wanted to explore tactics and insights that will help brand marketers champion change internally. Yes, billions of dollars allocated to Co-Op and MDF go unused each year, but what do business leaders do about it today?” said Ian Michiels, Gleanster principal analyst. “It turns out these programs can be incredibly effective for local businesses who use them – but marketers need to invest more effort in digital channels and focus on internal efficiency. It’s time to move away from spreadsheets and email for managing co-op and MDF programs.”

Key Report Findings:

• 97% of leading brands are investing or are planning to invest in packaged solutions that support local co-op and MDF programs. Yet 60% of these leading brands do NOT use automated workflow technology to support this effort.
• 83% of brand marketers believe that co-op and MDF programs positively impact annual sales. Yet 86% of these same brand marketers don’t have updated programs that reflect the wants and needs of their local business agents.
• 62% of brand marketers said that managing the funds for these programs was difficult.
• 44% of brand marketers responded that review and approval processes are cumbersome.

“This report is a must-have for everyone in channel marketing. It serves as a starting point for many brands who find themselves struggling with co-op and MDF and it inspires even the most successful with best practices from across the industry,” said Gary Ritkes, President of SproutLoud, one of the industries leading channel marketing companies.

Steps to Channel Marketing Stardom:

· Measure – Brand Leaders are more likely to measure the effectiveness of co-op and MDF programs, but more importantly, Brand Leaders are 210% more likely to also track and monitor funds that go unused by local businesses.

· Allocate – Brand Leaders allocate strategically. They tend to be larger companies, but by comparison have smaller co-op and MDF investments on the whole,

· Automate: 97% of leading brands are investing or are planning to invest in packaged or out-of-the-box solutions that support local co-op and MDF programs enabling them to achieve goals in brand consistency and improve operational efficiency.

· Repeat – Brand Leaders are growing their revenues by effectively using co-op and MDF programs.

Important Takeaway:

There are billions of dollars on the table and those using this report to their best advantage are poised to make real, measurable and repeatable growth now and in the foreseeable future. In addition, the data in this report offers insights that even Brand Leaders haven’t completely figured out: niche technology providers are developing and advancing solutions that effectively address all of the challenges and stumbling blocks uncovered in this study. Now brand marketers can take a sure-footed step forward in using co-op and MDF programs and track improvements in KPIs like participation rates, brand-compliance, growth objectives, and measuring ROI for each program.

About This Report

Gleanster Research surveyed 1,536 marketers in 11 key industries (Energy, Financial Services, CPG, Hardware, Heavy Equipment, High Tech, Insurance, Manufacturing, Software, Telecom/Entertainment Delivery) at corporate brands with over $250M in annual revenue. In addition, the findings build on surveys conducted by Gleanster Research over the last 5 years capturing 3,590 brand marketers in distributed marketing environments. In order to ascertain the “state of the market,” Gleanster Research used conditional logic in the survey to capture unique perspectives from brand marketers actively involved in administering co-op and MDF programs, and local business stakeholders who have opportunity to use these programs.

About Gleanster Research

Gleanster Research helps business leaders uncover best practices in technology adoption by benchmarking successes and failures of Top Performing firms and publishes the findings online. Research of this magnitude uses a proprietary benchmarking research methodology and continuously builds on a significant library of data that yields actionable intelligence that expertly serves a wide array of top-tier technology firms across the globe.

About SproutLoud

Sproutloud is a hyper-local marketing platform that helps brands in any vertical manage and govern their marketing campaigns and programs with the channel partners that sell their products or services (Local Retailers, Distributors, Agents, Sales Reps, Dealers, VARS, Employees, Franchises.) The platform is deployed by enterprise marketers looking to protect brand integrity and to increase speed to market messaging with pre-created high quality content to be co-branded by the partners. The award winning platform has four distinct strengths: providing the most flexible advertising and co-op funds management tool on the market, automating the customization and distribution of local marketing messages, aggregating the most comprehensive advertising services and tactics through best-in-class marketing service partners, and delivering real-time business intelligence to the brand.

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Cynthia Srednicki