One of Andrew Davis’ favorite stories about how brands can build creative partnerships between complementary businesses and offer a powerful strategy to amplify their reach and impact involves the Ford Fiesta. In 2010, after years of marketing its supermini car, Ford reached out to 100 online personalities and gave them a Ford Fiesta to drive for six months. In exchange for the vehicle, the personalities were asked to document their experiences.
The marketing exercise, in which Davis—the bestselling author and internationally acclaimed keynote speaker, dubs brandscaping—ended up creating scores of original, fun and engaging content that was delivered to the already existing large fan bases of these online talents. The approach, a textbook example of how co-creating marketing materials can enhance brand value for everyone involved, deviated from the traditional car marketing technique of inundating their audiences with creative and highly produced ads about everything from safety to higher fuel efficiency.
Brandscaping is the formation of a landscape of brands that target the same audience and amplify each other’s message. It is all about identifying authentic content creators and partnering with them with a long-term vision. “Creating partnerships with complementary brands allows you to develop great content and establish successful, meaningful long-term relationships that deliver value for both your audience and your brand,” says Davis, author of the bestselling book, “Brandscaping: Unleashing the Power of Partnerships,” and an internationally
acclaimed keynote speaker. Davis says engaging in co-creating marketing materials with complementary partners offers myriad opportunities to boost your brand’s story. First, the partnership helps expand your messaging by accessing new audiences without relying solely on paid advertising. Second, you can share resources by pooling your assets to create better content than you could individually. Finally, the partnerships enhance credibility by introducing brands to new audiences through trusted partners, instantly building trust and credibility.
“This approach offers an efficient way to grow your audience, improve content quality and establish trust with potential customers,” Davis says.
When identifying potential partnerships, Davis says it is crucial to seek out brands that share your values and objectives regarding your target audience. This will help you narrow down the list of possible partners to those with the greatest potential. It also is important to ensure your audience genuinely appreciates the partner brand, which will lead to mutually beneficial outcomes when sharing content or resources. “Once you’ve identified a potential partner, reach out to them to confirm that their goals, objectives and values align with yours, and that their audience is receptive to your product or service.”
After finding a partner, the real work begins. Davis says to maintain cohesive and aligned identities and messages during a collaborative effort, you must focus on long-term partnerships rather than short-term campaigns. This enables a deeper integration
and alignment of values, which often is more powerful and effective than one-off collaborations. “The most successful brand partnerships in the marketplace are those built on shared values and long-term commitments, as these naturally lead to more cohesive messaging and stronger brand alignment.”
Refining the Art of the Partnership
Brett Townshend has spent his career generating sizable revenue and success on both the corporate and agency sides of consumer insights. Over the years, the Senior VP of Strategy at Quester has worked in domestic and global branding and innovation for iconic brands like Pepsi, Doritos, Ruffles, Walmart, Frigidaire and Lowe’s. In each relationship, Townshend has helped build successful innovations, brand extensions, product improvements and marketing campaigns worth tens of billions of dollars globally. As a leader in the field, one of his favorite partnerships is the one between Apple and Mastercard, which he says marries the best of what each wants and needs from the relationship. “It is such a practical partnership, which offers an easily identifiable solution to the consumer and solves a key consumer need.”
A deeper dive into the relationship hits at the core of what makes successful partnerships work. The most important step is to identify which partner can help you solve a consumer need. Townshend says it is shocking at times to see how many brands are going into partnership because the CMO is friends or wants to make a “splash,” with little or no consideration put into helping their respective consumers. “The two brands don’t necessarily have to fit together like peanut butter and jelly, but the consumer need they’re filling should be obvious.”
The second step is to find the opportunity for both brands to benefit from consumer crossover, i.e., consumers from Brand A are getting positive exposure to Brand B and vice-versa. The third step is to make sure each brand’s offer is mutually beneficial. “Sometimes, big brands try to partner with smaller brands, but the big brands want most of the benefit because they feel they’re bringing more to the party. There should be no inequity in the partnership and both brands should benefit equally.”
To ensure a successful brand partnership, it is essential to define clear roles, responsibilities and investments from the outset. This prevents resentment and misunderstandings as the partnership progresses. Additionally, addressing legal and contractual issues early on is crucial, especially when creating shared content or a joint brand. Clarify ownership of content, talent and any potential new brands that may emerge from the collaboration. For example, drafting detailed partnership documentation can help avoid future conflicts.
“Before committing to a full-scale partnership, it’s advisable to start with small, free experiments to test brand alignment, partnership dynamics and team compatibility,” Davis says. “This approach can provide valuable insights before making larger commitments. When measuring the success of a creative partnership, the primary focus should be on sales and revenue. Track how the partnership directly impacts revenue, monitor customer crossover, and analyze which products are selling. Other important metrics include reach, engagement, brand awareness and lead generation for B2B brands. Ultimately, measuring success in dollars and cents is the most effective way to justify and maintain a longstanding, strong partnership.” If there is one major takeaway from brand partnerships, it is that each one measures success differently, which means those parameters should be set forth at the beginning by each.
“Everyone can agree they want more sales/revenue from a partnership, but it diverges from there,” Townshend says. “Getting exposure doesn’t mean you’ve engaged consumers, so that engagement should be the measurement goal. You should have a plan in place after the partnership has concluded to continually grow the brand in an organic way that’s sustainable for the long run.” In the ever-evolving landscape of marketing, creative partnerships continue to emerge as powerful catalysts for growth and innovation. By combining strengths, sharing audiences and fostering mutual trust, brands can unlock new possibilities and create compelling narratives that resonate deeply with consumers. How and where it works is up to you.
