Competitrack expands advertising monitoring business into Co-op and trade promotion tracking. Broadcast tracking capability an industry first.
Competitrack expands advertising monitoring business into Co-op and trade promotion tracking. Broadcast tracking capability an industry first.
New York, October 11, 2006 -- Competitrack announced today that it is expanding its two-decades old advertising tracking business into the co-op and trade promotion space. The company's new co-op tracking SBU will focus on ad activity in the continental U.S. and Hawaii. Tracked broadcast media includes network, cable, syndicated, and spot television as well as radio. The company also monitors print advertising in 150 markets across the nation. Print tracking comprises newspapers, magazines, store circulars, and other free standing inserts, or FSIs. The service includes Spanish as well as English language-based co-op monitoring. The company also tracks outdoor and online media, and advertising outside the U.S. for ad agencies and company clients in their other business lines.
For more and more brand marketers, Trade Promotion activity, the funds that manufacturers provide distributors to promote their products, is becoming an increasingly important addition to traditional elements of their marketing and advertising mix. Most consumers are surprised when they learn that the products that they see in their Sunday newspaper circulars are actually paid placements from the manufacturers themselves. While FSI distribution costs were rated the second-fastest growing medium in Q1 2006 (behind Internet advertising at 18.5% and 19.4%, respectively) according to industry sources, trade promotion industry experts think that figure is just the tip of the iceberg for dollars spent in this channel.
"The money spent here (estimated at over $125 billion annual USD) is absolutely astounding", says Michael Kantor, CEO of the TPMA, a trade organization with more than 125 corporate members who utilize trade promotion as part of their marketing mix. "The magnitude of trade spending has continued to escalate for the past 30 years, to the point where today it represents an average of 15-24% of a manufacturer's gross sales. It's that big."
Big enough that traditional ad monitoring firms like Competitrack have widened their stance on the category. "For Competitrack, formalizing our commitment to co-op ad tracking was an easy expansion" noted Bob Moss, President and founder of the 20 year old company. "We have been providing detailed reports in this space for several clients over the past decade. This step builds on the substantial investments we've made in digital pattern recognition technology, and of course the heavy customization that clients need in the co-op space is easy for us, because we've been a custom shop since day one."
He added, "Now clients can have one source that monitors their brand presence inside of this channel and in traditional media. This lets companies finally integrate traditional branding with co-op advertising spending, whether it's for themselves or the competition. Additionally, no one in the U.S. has ever offered integrated co-op monitoring in broadcast and print, so we're quite proud to provide both of these new features."
John Jelilian, Senior Vice President heading up the new initiative, echoed the founder's sentiments. "In today's rigid Sarbanes-Oxley climate, having co-op channel reporting you can trust is no longer a luxury, it's critical to meeting rigorous reporting requirements. At 200 people strong, our operation has both the scale and know-how to build a custom program for any advertiser. Clients can use our proof-of-performance data and literally reclaim millions in previously unrecognized revenues within a few months of signing their contracts. Suffice it to say that anyone who is investing in this channel should definitely talk with us."
For more information, contact:
Ian Wismann
Vice President of Marketing
Competitrack, Inc.
718-482-4245
iwismann@competitrack.com
About Competitrack, Inc.
Competitrack is a full service competitive tracking firm headquartered in New York City. They provide competitive tracking services for advertising running in the U.S. and over 60 countries around the world for Television, Radio, Newspapers, Magazines, Trade Publications, FSIs, Outdoor, Online, Cinema, Infomercials and Alternative Media. For two decades they have provided custom competitive solutions to premier brand clients, ad agencies, and the majority of Fortune 100 firms.
Using sophisticated technology and industry-specialized staff, Competitrack offers client-specific, customized competitive solutions that permit detailed information gathering unavailable from other vendors. In the U.S. they provide competitive spending data, ad monitoring, intellectual property use reports, and co-operative advertising tracking services. U.S. monitoring includes Hispanic and Asian media.
http://www.competitrack.com
About the TPMA
The Trade Promotion Management Association (TPMA) is a trade organization with more than 125 corporate members who utilize trade promotion as part of their marketing mix. Members include manufacturers, retailers, media outlets, advertising agencies and providers of enabling technology. TPMA serves as the industry's premier resource allowing trading partners to get the maximum value out of their channel marketing programs.
For more information and to register for the TPMA annual conference visit:
http://www.tradepromo.org
