Search, social, streaming, TV, radio, direct mail, billboards, receipt tape, truck wraps, embroidered shirts, trade-show kits, little-league fences. Co-op was built around print. Your dealers were not. Co-Op Command funds every option under the brand’s rules, with the proof captured by the order.
Source: the 2,171 manufacturer co-op plans listed on CoopConnect as of 2026, compared with the 7,489 plans in the 2018 RECAS export. Analysis by Co-Op Managers.
Co-op grew up around newspaper tearsheets, and most administrators still describe media in those terms. We do not. Every option below is a family in Co-Op Command with its own rate, cap, proof rule, and approval status, loaded from the brand’s plan. A Facebook ad, a radio script, a truck wrap, an embroidered polo, a receipt-tape ad, and a trade-show kit all run against the same balance under the same rules.
Paid search on Google and Microsoft, paid social on Meta (Facebook and Instagram), LinkedIn, YouTube and TikTok, display and programmatic with retargeting, online video and pre-roll, OTT and connected TV, streaming radio and audio, podcasts, email marketing, landing pages with call tracking, local SEO and Google Business Profile, directory listings, marketplace ads.
Local broadcast television, cable TV, radio. Station affidavits and scripts captured with the buy.
Billboards and digital boards, outdoor displays, transit, bus boards and shelters, bench ads, reader boards, airport, exterior building signs, stadium and arena signage, rink boards, gas-station pump TV, cinema pre-show, mobile billboards, and the banner plane over the beach.
Daily, weekly and free newspapers, tabloids, supplements, classifieds, coupons, magazines, trade publications, inserts, circulars, shoppers, pennysavers, handbills, newsletters and bulletins, Yellow Pages and other printed directories.
Postcards, self-mailers, EDDM, shared mail, coupon mailers, bill stuffers, variable-data pieces, targeted by radius or trade area, postage handled by each brand’s rule.
Signage, banners, flyers, brochures, spec sheets, business cards, catalogs, circulars, print-on-demand with the brand zone locked and the dealer zone open.
Register-receipt advertising, shelf talkers, floor graphics, window clings, counter mats, in-store audio and video, yard signs, displays.
Staff shirts, uniforms, caps, jackets, embroidered logos and screen-printed pieces from a brand-approved catalog and licensee.
Giveaways, premiums, branded merchandise, event handouts, from the brand-approved catalog, which is the approval.
Wraps, door decals, tailgate graphics, trailer signage, fleet lettering. Template locks the brand elements; the install photo is the proof.
Booth graphics, banners, table throws, literature and apparel as a pre-planned kit, shipped to the show with a prepaid return label, shipped back, and reused. Home shows, dealer shows, demo days, grand openings, open houses.
Little-league and youth-sports sponsorships, county fairs, chamber events, charity events where the plan allows, the local sponsorship the dealer already does in cash.
| The other administrators still the industry standard | Co-Op Command |
|---|---|
| Creative is approved one medium at a time, usually print, and everything else goes to a review queue. | Templates are approved once at configuration and rendered per medium: a 1080×1080 social post, a responsive search ad, a 30-second radio script, a 6-inch receipt strip, a truck-door decal, a 30×90 aerial banner. Same locked brand zone, same open local zone. |
| Proof means a tearsheet. Digital, broadcast, out-of-home, apparel and events get argued about claim by claim. | Proof is whatever the option produces, captured by the order itself: platform screenshot and delivery report, station affidavit, vendor invoice and install photo, USPS acceptance scan, return-shipment scan on a trade-show kit. The proof rule is set per option, so nothing is argued later. |
| Eligibility is a paragraph in the plan that dealers have to interpret. | Eligibility is a switch per option, loaded straight from the plan’s own media list: pre-approved, approval required, or not eligible. Dealers only see what they can buy. |
| Trade shows: the dealer buys the booth, banners, literature and shirts up front, ships them once, throws half away, and files a claim for the rest. | The trade-show kit is approved once, ordered from the balance, shipped to the show with a prepaid return label, shipped back, inspected, restocked, and reused. Cheaper for the dealer, cheaper for the brand, and the shipping scans are the proof. |
| New medium? Ask the rep, wait for a ruling, hope it holds next year. | New medium? We configure it: name, rate, cap, proof rule. The ruling is in the system for every dealer from then on. |
Prior approvals still outnumber pre-approvals two to one on today’s plans. On Co-Op Command the approval happened when the template, the catalog, or the kit was configured, so the queue never forms, no matter which option the dealer picks.
We have configured aerial banners, pump-top TV, rink boards, receipt tape, embroidered uniforms, truck wraps, and a fishing-tournament sponsorship. The question is never whether an option is allowed. It is what the brand wants to pay toward it and what counts as proof, and both are a configuration setting.
A program review walks through your plan’s eligible-media list and shows what each medium looks like configured: rate, cap, proof, approval, and what the dealer sees.