The Power of Brand Partnerships in Wellness

By Robyn Doane, VP, Experience Strategy at Saatchi & Saatchi Wellness

When two great brands come together, the result can be marketing magic. New and diverse audiences connect; messages spread further and wider; insights are shared and developed. And where health and wellness are concerned, brand partnerships can be even more powerful because of the undeniable connection between how we live and how well we are.

Take, for example, the beautifully formed partnership between Grindr, a popular queer dating app, and a public health initiative called “Together TakeMeHome.” The partnership enables app users to order a free home test for HIV, a virus that continues to impact the LGBTQ+ community in the United States more than any other demographic. An app user need only press a button as they swipe and scroll, and a test is discreetly sent to their home, with results appearing in minutes. It’s clear how this simple, effective brand partnership creates more wellness in the world.

?

What Are the Benefits of Brand Partnerships in Wellness?

A wellness-driven brand partnership can open a new strategic avenue to give your customers transformative value in their lives. This value can be on a physical, practical level like the Grindr example above, but it also works on an emotional level. When two brands come together for a shared purpose of creating exponentially more wellness in the world, seemingly disparate audiences are unified, maximizing the effectiveness of each brand’s ability to help their audience face problems related to their health and wellness.

Moreover, a thoughtful partnership can reach people who may not be reachable by other means. Just as the Grindr campaign brought awareness of HIV testing to the community that needed it most, good wellness partnerships can create messages that reach an entirely new community.

It’s critical for brands to ensure that they choose partnerships in which the partnering brand has an authentic, meaningful, and valuable role to play to ensure the messaging and experiences delivered through the partnership are credible. As digitalization has evolved, consumers have learned to build relationships with trusted brands. These two-way relationships between brands and their audiences are most impactful when they are authentic. Within health and wellness, brands and marketers working within the parameters of the FDA, making authenticity and accuracy essential. While it can be “harder to have [influencers] say something that’s unique to their personality…when there’s important safety information and regulations,” when done right within the confines of the FDA there is incredible engagement not only in social platforms but across the brand ecosystem. Our in-network partner, Influential, allows us to identify the most authentic influencers to drive any brand partnership in wellness forward.

?

How Do You Begin a Wellness Partnership?

We’ve seen how partnerships that focus on wellness can bring benefits to all parties involved. What next? If you’re thinking about setting up a wellness partnership, how can you go about it?

?

1. Determine your brand’s objectives.

Initially, it’s crucial to determine your brand’s objective. What do you aim to accomplish? Which specific group(s) of people do you intend to assist? Begin by clarifying your goals, then generate ideas for collaborations that align with your objectives and contribute to achieving your partner’s goals.

?

2. Identify wellness gaps.

From this starting point, you can assess what barriers your customers are facing. What does this audience need? Do they need something as simple as a button to press for a free test? Do they need words of encouragement and affirmation? How will the partnership you envision serve to alleviate barriers and help audience members feel better?

?

3. Decide on the value you want to provide.

Next, you must consider the benefit you’d like to provide to your audience — whether they’re your existing audience or a new audience you’d like to reach. The goal of a partnership cannot simply be to outsource your experience strategy to a community organization or brand partner because they have something you want, such as credibility with a target demographic or scientific expertise. You want to create a true partnership with relevance and mutual benefit for both the brand and the customer.

?

4. Align on timing and implementation.

The last step in a successful brand partnership is deciding when and where. It is important to think through timing to ensure you’re maximizing your marketing efforts with events or celebrations going on around you. Look at the entire ecosystem surrounding your brand messaging and go from there. You must also think through where your message will live and how it will connect throughout your entire omnichannel marketing experience.

A brand partnership doesn’t have to involve famous influencers or costly science. It doesn’t have to revolutionize an industry or cure a disease. Even small partnerships can increase a brand’s relevance and impact when done well. After all, no step is too small when your goal is to generate more wellness in the world. If you could make one small decision to feel even 1% better, would you? Of course you would. The important thing is that any action toward wellness can start a ripple effect that spreads far and wide and comes back to serve your brand, your partners, and your audience.