Your Brands
Want To Fund
Your Marketing.
Let Them.
The brands you carry have marketing budgets allocated specifically to support the retailers who sell their product. Most of that money goes unclaimed every year — not because it isn't available, but because the conversation never gets started.
Segments initiates that conversation on your behalf. We build the pitch, lead the discussion with your brand partners, and manage the full co-op program from approval to campaign execution — in partnership with you the entire way.
You Are
Leaving Marketing
Money On
The Table.
Every major brand you carry has a co-op marketing program. It's a real budget line, allocated specifically to support retail-level campaigns that promote their product at your store. It exists whether you access it or not.
The retailers who access it aren't doing anything special. They're not bigger stores, they don't have better relationships, and they didn't find a secret program. They made the ask — with the right structure, the right data, and a clear campaign proposal. That's all it takes.
The retailers who don't access it usually fall into one of three groups: they didn't know the funds existed, they didn't know how to structure the pitch in a way that gets approved, or they asked informally and got a vague non-answer. All three are solvable problems. That's exactly what this service does.
Co-op programs are real budget lines within your brand partners' wholesale agreements. They're not always proactively advertised. If your brand rep hasn't brought it up, that doesn't mean the program doesn't exist. It often means they're waiting for you to ask — or for someone who knows how to ask.
A casual "hey, can you help with some marketing?" doesn't move co-op budgets. Brand co-op approval processes require a clear campaign proposal, an audience strategy, projected reach, and a reporting structure. An informal ask gets an informal answer. A structured pitch with data behind it gets approved.
Even stores that get initial brand interest often let it stall — the campaign never gets built, the reporting never gets delivered, and the relationship resets. Co-op programs compound when you execute well and report back with results. The brand invests more next cycle. That only happens with consistent follow-through.
Managing multiple brand co-op relationships simultaneously — separate budgets, separate creative briefs, separate reporting for each partner — is a substantial operational lift. Most stores don't have the bandwidth. That's what Segments brings to this engagement.
From First
Conversation
To Live
Campaign.
We start by reviewing your current brand mix and sell-through data to identify which of your partners have active co-op programs and what your store's pitch case looks like. Not every brand is equally receptive, and not every store has the same leverage. We identify the best entry points before the first conversation.
We build the formal pitch — campaign proposal, audience strategy, projected reach, channel mix, and performance reporting structure. This is the document that gets approved. It demonstrates to the brand exactly what their investment will produce and how it will be measured. We build it with your store's data and market position as the foundation.
We lead the conversation with your brand rep — presenting the pitch, answering questions, and managing the approval process. You're in the room and part of the relationship. We bring the structure and the strategy. You bring the retail relationship and the credibility of your store's track record. Together, that's a compelling case.
Once approved, we execute the campaigns — brand-specific creative, dedicated audiences, and channel management across paid social, Google Ads, and display. After each campaign cycle, we deliver a performance report to the brand. That report is what gets the next cycle funded at a higher level. The relationship compounds.
We initiate and lead — but this is always built around your store's voice, your vendor relationships, and your market position. The goal is a co-op program your store owns long-term, not one that disappears when the engagement ends. We build the infrastructure. You keep the relationship.
Why Your
Brand Partners
Say Yes.
Understanding why brands fund co-op programs is how you pitch them successfully. Their incentives are real — and when you can speak to them directly, the conversation changes.
A campaign running at your store reaches customers who are already in-market for performance footwear, already trust your staff's recommendation, and are ready to buy. That conversion quality is meaningfully better than brand-level national advertising. Karnan Associates data shows run specialty's average selling price of $145.95 sits 40% above the all-channel average — a premium that exists because of the expert retail environment brands are buying into. Your store's audience is more valuable to the brand than they might realize — and showing them that, with data, is the pitch.
Independent run specialty retail is where serious footwear shoppers go to be educated. A brand that's featured in your marketing isn't just buying impressions — they're buying the credibility of your store's recommendation. That's a different value proposition than a banner ad. It's the kind of endorsement that moves product at full price.
The performance reporting we deliver after every campaign gives brand partners something most retail co-op programs don't: actual attribution data. CTR, in-store visit attribution, unit lift YOY, and audience reach — documented and delivered. That reporting is what builds the case for the next cycle's funding. Brands invest more where they can see the return.
Co-Op Funds
Real Campaigns.
Not Just
Conversations.
Co-op budget is applied to actual campaign spend — the media dollars that run your ads, the creative production that makes them work, and the events that bring customers through your door. Every dollar your brand partners contribute is a dollar you don't have to spend yourself.
The programs that perform best treat co-op funding as the accelerant for an already-functional marketing program — not the foundation for one. When your digital marketing is running well and your co-op partners are funding it, the result is a media budget that punches significantly above what the store alone could support.
That's the structural advantage. More budget, better targeting, stronger results — and the brand covers a meaningful share of the cost.
Meta and Instagram campaigns with brand-specific creative, targeting, and audiences. Each brand partner runs as a separate campaign to keep audiences clean and results attributable.
Local search and brand-specific campaigns with offline conversion tracking — showing brand partners exactly how many in-store visits their spend generated.
Display campaigns targeting high-intent locations with in-store visit attribution. Brands can see when their ad spend moved someone through your door — one of the most compelling data points in the co-op pitch.
Demo nights, vendor rep appearances, product launches, and run club events — co-op funding often covers promotion and event costs for events that feature the brand's product.
Photo and video content featuring brand products — usable in both the brand's channels and yours. Co-op funded content creation is a genuine win-win that many brands are receptive to.
Brand-specific sends to your subscriber list — shoe launches, seasonal campaigns, and rotation reminder campaigns that feature the brand's product. With a 20–25% run specialty open rate benchmark, your email list is a valuable co-op asset.
The Pitch
Only Works If
You Speak
Their Language.
Brand co-op pitches fail when they're vague. "We'd love your support with some marketing" is not a pitch. It's a conversation starter that goes nowhere — because it gives the brand rep nothing to take to their marketing team for approval.
What gets approved is a structured proposal: your store's sell-through data for their brand, the campaign channels and audiences you'll use, the projected reach and frequency, and the reporting framework you'll deliver after execution. That's a business case — and a business case can get a budget approved.
Segments brings the structure. We know how run specialty brand marketing programs are evaluated internally — because we operate in this industry exclusively. We know what the brand's marketing team needs to see to say yes, and we build the pitch around those requirements.
We understand how brand marketing programs in run specialty are structured, what metrics matter to brand partners, and how to frame your store's value in terms that resonate internally. This isn't generic co-op consulting applied to a new industry. This is built on direct experience in run specialty retail marketing.
Every pitch we build uses your store's actual sell-through data, your market footprint, and your audience profile. The brand sees a specific, credible investment case — not a generic ask for support. That specificity is what moves co-op budgets.
We don't hand you an approved co-op deal and leave. We execute the campaigns and deliver the performance reporting that proves the investment worked — and builds the case for the next cycle. The goal is a compounding co-op relationship, not a one-time win.
Managing co-op programs across multiple brand partners simultaneously — separate budgets, separate creative, separate reporting — is what Segments does operationally. Most stores can't run this at scale on their own. That's the bandwidth we provide.
Frequently
Asked.
The Money
Is Already
There.
Your brand partners have co-op budgets sitting allocated and unspent — waiting for a retailer who makes a compelling case for them. That case is what Segments builds. Let's find out what you're leaving on the table and go get it.
Start the Conversation →