Rules
Part of Local partnership marketing for people who want the details
Reading local partnership marketing case studies for conditions and record gaps
A nine field record for reading local partnership marketing case studies, with six real partnerships, their conditions, mechanisms and the result gaps left blank.
What to take away
- A federal technical-assistance project is not a private co-promotion benchmark.
- Record who held authority, who paid, and who was left out.
- Match the case's conditions to yours before copying anything.
- Keep the rejected options on file; the constraint that killed them can change.
Local partnership marketing case studies earn their keep when they name the parties, the place, the money and the measured result. Most published versions skip all four. What follows is a nine-field record for reading them, then six real partnerships written into it.
The nine-field case record
Field / Question
- Place
- Where did the partnership operate?
- Parties
- Who were the named organizations?
- Authority
- Who had the power to commit resources or change rules?
- Money
- Who paid, how much, and from what budget?
- Mechanism
- What action by each party produced the outcome?
- Measured result
- What number was published, and by whom?
- Selection criteria
- How were participants or sites chosen?
- Method
- How was the result measured or reported?
- Who was left out
- Which groups or areas were excluded?
Nine-field case record
- Placegeography and local conditions
- Partiesauthority, capability, interests
- Problemverified customer or community barrier
- Mechanismdistinct work each party delivered
- Resourcesmoney, staff, venue, trust, systems
- Participationwho joined, declined, lacked access
- Outcomewhat changed, for whom, when
- Evidencemethod, baseline, comparison, uncertainty
Six partnerships, read against the record
Read each case for the mechanism, not the headline number. Most public cases omit measured results; where that is so, the result field is left blank.
Cincinnati, Kroger and the EPA, 2017
The city of Cincinnati, the Kroger Co. and the U.S. EPA signed a Local Foods, Local Places agreement covering the Walnut Hills and Avondale neighborhoods. Kroger committed a full-service store on the Walnut Hills commercial corridor, and the city and EPA supplied planning and technical assistance.
The EPA partners report records the planned work and reported progress. The report is dated April 2017. Conditions behind it: a national grocer with a stated urban-format strategy, a city with redevelopment authority, and federal facilitation. Copy the coordination model, not the outcome.
Record gaps: selection not stated. Method: EPA partners report, April 2017. Left out not stated. Mechanism: federal planning plus city authority gave Kroger a path to site a store.
USDA's LFPA and the Wisconsin DATCP
Under the Local Food Purchase Assistance Cooperative Agreement Program, USDA signs agreements with state, Tribal and territorial agencies, which then buy from local producers and distribute through food banks. Wisconsin's Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection runs one such agreement.
USDA launched LFPA in 2022 with roughly $400 million from the American Rescue Plan, and LFPA Plus added a later round. The partner here is a state agency, not a private brand, and the stated purpose is food-system resilience. Program guidance puts a priority on buying from historically underserved producers.
Record gaps: selection is priority to underserved producers. Method: USDA program guidance, 2022. Left out not stated. Mechanism: state agency buys from local producers and distributes through food banks.
Business Improvement Districts: the Grand Central Partnership and the Downtown Denver BID
A BID is a defined geography where property owners vote to levy themselves and spend the proceeds on shared promotion, cleaning and events. The Grand Central Partnership in New York and the Downtown Denver BID are long-running examples.
The Grand Central Partnership funds sanitation, public safety and streetscape work on the blocks around Grand Central Terminal. The Grand Central Partnership was founded in 1988; the Downtown Denver BID followed in the 1990s. Annual budgets at the largest Manhattan BIDs run into the tens of millions of dollars; smaller districts raise under $1 million.
The condition that makes them work is a mandatory levy, which no voluntary merchant group can reproduce.
Record gaps: selection is property owner vote. Method: BID annual reports. Left out: non-property owners. Mechanism: mandatory levy funds shared promotion and cleaning.
A chamber and a local radio group
A chamber of commerce and a local radio group jointly sell a seasonal shop-local campaign, splitting production and airtime. The chamber contributes member access and credibility; the broadcaster contributes inventory.
Broadcast groups that sell this inventory include Townsquare Media, iHeartMedia and Cumulus Media. Results are usually reported as participating-merchant counts rather than sales, which is the field most often left blank. Condition: a member list big enough to sell and unsold seasonal airtime. Funding is in-kind; cash budgets depend on membership size and the station's rate card.
Record gaps: selection is member list and unsold airtime. Method: participating-merchant counts. Left out: non-members. Mechanism: chamber supplies members, station supplies airtime.
Small Business Saturday, American Express with local chambers
American Express created the day in 2010 and owns the name. Local chambers, Main Street groups and downtown associations recruit merchants and host events on the Saturday after Thanksgiving.
American Express has reported billions in spending at independent businesses on the day, about $17.9 billion in 2022, from its own consumer survey. Conditions: a national sponsor paying for media, free merchant participation, and a card network's promotional budget. None of the three travels to a single-town budget.
Record gaps: selection is chamber recruitment. Method: American Express consumer survey, 2023. Left out: non-participating independents. Mechanism: national media plus free merchant participation.
Grow with Google and the Public Library Association
Google and the Public Library Association, a division of the American Library Association, launched the Libraries Lead with Digital Skills initiative in 2018. Libraries received toolkits and small grants to run free workshops on digital skills for local businesses and job seekers.
Outcomes are reported as workshops delivered and attendees, not revenue. Conditions: a corporate funder, a library system with branches in the target area, and free meeting space. Those differ from a retail co-promotion, where the parties share customers and costs.
Record gaps: selection is library system with branches. Method: workshops delivered and attendees. Left out: non-library users. Mechanism: corporate funder plus library space and staff.
Comparison: the chamber and local radio case is closest to a single-location business. The federal, national and regional cases are not transferable without scaling down.
Audit the published evidence
The FTC advertising substantiation policy requires a reasonable basis before objective claims go out, and that applies to a case study you publish about your own campaign.
The FTC guidance on soliciting and paying for reviews covers fake feedback, selective requests, conditioned incentives, hidden relationships and paid rankings. Apply it when a case names providers or quotes participants.
Separate provider claims from measured records. Record selection criteria, commercial relationships, product version and population. Note the method, and note what evidence is missing.
Reproduce one material claim with local data before you copy a case. If the method is unavailable, label the item a lead for testing.
Keep the rejected options beside the chosen path. The constraint that ruled them out may change, and the record should show why they lost. Give each case a next review date and name the change that triggers an earlier check.
Common questions
Can a public program case predict commercial results?
No. It shows planning and coordination lessons. Audience, authority, resources and incentives differ, and the program's own selection process may be the reason it looks good.
Which field matters most?
The mechanism linking each party's delivered contribution to one defined outcome. Without it you have a press release, not a case.
What should a business copy?
A supported control, operating practice or research question, tested under local conditions. The questions practitioners ask most are a reasonable starting list, and improving an existing partnership usually costs less than starting a new one.
Where do event-based partnerships fit?
They follow the same record, with attendance and spend replacing foot traffic and sales. Event marketing case studies show the pattern.
