Brooke expects more than a 1,000 franchise locations by the end of 2007 resulting in an ever increasing footprint of the Brooke brand. As the Brooke footprint grows, the need to coordinate local advertising into a unified national message also grows.

Brooke has historically re-invested the profit sharing, overrides, contingency and marketing agreement payments it receives in the promotion of the Brooke franchise brand. This branding investment, coordinated by the advertising center, consists of local advertising reimbursements, discounts on logo supplies and advertising professional expenses. Brooke expects to spend approximately $7 million on brand promotion in 2007, which is significantly more than it expects to receive in profit sharing and other such payments for the year.

Brooke recently opened a new advertising center to coordinate local advertising, administer the expected $7 million advertising allocation and develop more effective advertising methods. The work of Brooke’s advertising center professionals will help create a nationally recognized brand that makes Brooke franchises more valuable.

Each region is allocated a portion of the total 2007 advertising allocations for investment in local and area advertising campaigns. Local advertising campaigns are oriented to promote individual franchisees as contrasted to area advertising campaigns, which are oriented toward promoting designated marketing areas, or DMAs, where groups of franchisees are located. Regional managers are responsible for dividing their regional advertising allocations among individual franchisees or groups of franchisees. The advertising center is responsible for administering and monitoring the spending of those allocations.

To help maximize returns on advertising investments, the advertising center uses advertising agencies, media groups, vendors and other professional resources. Brooke’s advertising center professionals also conduct research and analyze findings from information gathered through prospect sourcing by franchisees, feedback from vendors and other third-party reports.

In addition to regional advertising allocations, significant resources and dollars are allocated to lead generation activities via major search engines and promotion of the 866-77-AGENT call transfer line, activities anticipated to provide franchisees with real and measurable end results to help increase the value of each Brooke franchise.