Covault
The Covault platform bridges the gap between brand and reseller to capture the $35 billion in untapped co-op funding for localized, high performance marketing campaigns.
Finalist for:
Innovative Excellence (Software or Service)
Interviewee: Graeme Csath
What’s your company’s story?
Covault started when company founders Graeme Csath and Jeff Simpson were working together as marketer and dealership owner. The founders quickly discovered the difficult process for brand ad approvals that used highly antiquated systems: direct mail and faxing forms. The slow approval process significantly reduces speed-to-market and limits access to shared co-marketing funds (co-op) for localized advertising. When co-marketing programs are utilized, they are one of the most effective methods for brands to reach local customers. Leading industry research (LSA/Manta)
Who do you work with? What are some interesting projects you’re involved in?
Covault is working with Kawasaki Canada and Mercury Marine North America, in which their local retailers can select and intuitively customized co-op compliant ad campaigns to serve their local markets. We have reduced the co-op process from taking an average of 1.5 months to only 2 hours! Covault has dramatically reduced staff time and design fees to deploy a localized national ad campaign. We are engaging with several leading powersports brands and are expanding rapidly into real estate, mortgages, insurance and cannabis
What are you most proud of in the work that you do?
Covault is all about connecting brands and their retailers to create better customer experiences. We’re really proud our software streamlines a very difficult, time consuming process, so local retail staff can spend more time actually connecting with their customers. Having suffered through the pain-points personally, the founders feel proud that we can improve the experience of so many others dealing with the broken process. When Covault is adopted by retailers, they can essentially double their advertising budget at no additional cost—because these funds are already allocated to them. This gives retailers the ability to increase advertising, reduce staff time, and increase sales performance. This satisfies our mission of empowering local retail businesses in the age of online retail—when they need it most!
If your team had a theme song, what would it be and why?
A most challenging question, and the answer is a frequently played tune and one that speaks to the spirit of our company! It’s a nod to the powersports dealership in which our product was incepted by the founders and ‘kick starting’ is a great rationale for our dynamic ad templates and how they ‘kick start’ retailer’s marketing campaigns. You guessed it, “Kick Start My Heart – Motley Crue.” The ‘heart’ aspect, references our passion-driven ads and how they emotionally connect with customers—that and our co-founder used to hang with the Crue in Vancouver!
What are some hopes and dreams for your company?
The hopes and dreams of our company are essentially to reduce the overhead for local business and democratize modern advertising. Often it takes a significant budget to fund the creation and delivery of a targeted ad campaign and adapt to the digital-shift of consumer attention. We want all retailers to access their co-op funding and drive market share for themselves and their brands. We want to be the evoked platform to solve this pain-point and lead co-marketing globally, while maintaining investor transparency and positive corporate community outreach.
Why is Victoria a great spot for your organization?
Victoria has been great for us because of the vibrant tech community and advertising technological innovation that is very present here. As we launched in the powersports vertical, Victoria has been ideal because it has the longest marketing cycles in Canada for the “fair weather” industry. The co-founder Graeme, actually was introduced to the tech community in Victoria after taking a job as a steadicam operator at the 2015 Viatec Awards! This award nomination really brings the founder’s Victoria experience full-circle. It didn’t take long to see the common thread of the tech community in Victoria; and Viatec plays an important role in bringing the community together. Innovation is difficult in a silo, and Victoria provides a network of very approachable professionals that are willing to share insight and help young companies avoid some of the land-mines on the treacherous entrepreneurial road ahead. There is a pay-it-forward mentality in Victoria that fuels the vitality of the community through advisory, afternoon pints and angel investment.