Central teams control most of the budget, leaving local marketers underfunded.

Essential Statistics

• Corporate (Central): 73%
• Local Franchisees: 27%
• Almost three-quarters of spend is controlled at the corporate level.
• Local marketers get less than one-third of the marketing budget.
• This split affects local relevance, speed, and authenticity.

Key Takeaways

• Franchise systems centralize budget for efficiency—but sacrifice local agility.
• Local marketers are under-resourced despite their proximity to customers.
• The 73/27 split may limit neighborhood-level ROI and personalization.
• Corporate campaigns may dominate at the expense of relevance.
• Local teams need more control to test, iterate, and localize quickly.
• This imbalance often slows down in-market responsiveness.
• Brands that shift even a portion of central spend unlock new growth.

Actionable Insights

• Shift a portion of central spend to local teams to test targeted offers.
• Create shared campaigns with customizable assets for local flexibility.
• Build in performance-based budget releases for franchisees.
• Train local marketers on digital tools so they can execute efficiently.
• Use this stat to advocate for more bottom-up planning in your strategy.
• Match budget with accountability—local spend should come with measurement.
• Document wins from local activations to expand the budget case.

Empower local voices. Shifting even a slice of central spend to franchisees can multiply authenticity, engagement, and neighborhood-level ROI. – Neil Patel