Getting The Best Out Of Brand Partnerships

It’s pretty clear why consumer brands want to associate themselves with Entertainment properties and global events.

• What’s in it for consumer brands? - an opportunity to increase brand affinity by association, strike a competitive advantage and leverage the eyeballs that a global event or entertainment brand offers.
• What’s in it for the entertainment brands? - an opportunity to organically, or often through above the line media support, reach a broader audience and sometimes offset costs

The you scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours brand partnership routine has worked well throughout history but a greater challenge is presenting itself. The proliferation of media channels through which to promote your brand, the extension of digital and real time social marketing opportunities and the amount of competition means that you need to do something special to stand out. There is also a growing cynicism towards branded partnerships so the closer you can get to an authentic and relevant tie-in, the better. At the very least, your campaign needs to be fully integrated across all of your marketing channels and supported by the earned, owned and paid channels. In our experience, its rare to see campaigns that utilise the full integrated marketing mix.

Coming from an Entertainment background, Way To Blue has always seen the connection between brands and entertainment. Whether its a promotional partnership offering above the line support and pack shots

or product placement in movies or television shows that can offset production costs and deliver a deeper and more meaningful relationship between the brand and the film/TV property

or brands investing heavily on celebrity endorsements which is still a very effective way to generate buzz. That said, whether they choose this route to target a newer audience, rebrand or simply increase sales, not all brands leverage their celebrity partnerships on social media channels

We also see brands sponsoring events, or using events as a platform to promote their brands to a sophisticated audience (in Cannes) or a broader audience (at the Oscars)

And of course, we have seen brands buy event spots around key events such as the SuperBowl, designed in most cases to sell product, and in some cases to increase brand affinity or a competitive advantage.

The Academy Awards, for example, is an opportunity for brands to be associated with the glitz and glamour of a star studded occasion and even possibly, become a global event themselves as seen last year through the Samsung Galaxy selfie image that took the world by storm. This year we saw Apple deliver a 60 second TV spot narrated by Martin Scorsese himself (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-LVf4wA9qX4#t=30). Cadillac used Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak in their ad, though what it has to do with cars, I’m not too sure (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M0mtsB0L3Ro). Xfinity created a beautiful ad using a visually impaired young girl who explains what Wizard of Oz looks like to her. It didn’t exactly explain what Xfinity is though. According to our research, Apple, Cadillac and Xfinity drove the most amount of buzz at the Academy Awards but I would have liked to have seen more digital extension through their owned channels to support their campaigns. Interestingly, American Express delivered a number of 30” spots (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OYP7ejP92uo#t=32) and came out of the event with the least amount of buzz.

So does the association between these brands justify the investment in sponsorship? Samsung for example, reportedly paid $20m to sponsor the Oscars (Yes, the selfie was probably a best practice case study of how it can work, but these opportunities rarely present themselves).Personally I feel these brand partnerships are often under utilised. It feels like a departmental decision and without the full backing of the business. I would like to see what I call ‘deep integration’ whereby the entire organisation gets behind the campaign. It requires over-arching strategic direction, incentivisation and the backing of all key stakeholders. It’s interesting to me, for example, that there is no mention of the Academy Awards on the Cadillac Facebook page despite the fact they are an official sponsor (they did however use the hashtag #DareGreatly). Interestingly, Cadillac chose not to reveal their brand overhaul designed "to disrupt people's perception of Cadillac” at the SuperBowl, choosing the Oscars instead presumably to save money on TV advertising. That said, if you look at what you get back from the SuperBowl, it feels like a much better opportunity to present your brand to the entire nation and it affords you an opportunity to be more integrated and more creative. Chrysler, who according to our research won the SuperBowl in the automotive sector have spent a reported $89m on SuperBowl spots since 2010. Of this the Detroit Free Press say that this has "helped the automaker reshape its image from a downtrodden, bankrupt automaker into gritty survivor that is gaining market share in the U.S. automotive industry and now has a nearly five-year streak of consecutive monthly sales gains in the U.S”.

Of course, it does depend on your overall objectives. Sometimes, its about increasing brand affinity driving more positive sentiment towards your brand and placing it ‘front of mind’ should a commercial opportunity present itself. Sometimes, its about driving a competitive advantage and sometimes its purely about sales and driving intent to purchase. Either way, if as an organisation you are going to get behind an event, a paid advertising investment, or a brand partnership, the question has to remain, how do you get the most out of your investment? Perhaps one way is to invest less, and use social to drive a deeper integration between your brand and the event.