Partnerships and brand collaborations…what’s the point?

strategic partnership (n);

an arrangement between two companies or organizations to help each other or work together, to make it easier for each of them to achieve the things they want to achieve;

dictionary.cambridge.org

collaboration (n);

the situation of two or more people working together to create or achieve the same thing;

dictionary.cambridge.org

Base Creative recently worked with Worldpay on a brand new website to showcase software companies that Worldpay partners with. It’s software vendors (like Shopify and Wix) that deal directly with merchants (shop owners and eCommerce stores) and this is a valuable source of new business for payment providers, like Worldpay.

Strategic partnerships and other associations like brand collaborations, I’ve always believed, are a brilliant way to leverage the strengths of each party.

Base Creative have recently collaborated with social media tool, ContentCal in the second series of the Sharing Social podcast. We share an audience segment, but we provide very different services (in fact, we’re a customer of ContentCal, as it’s one of the many tools we use to schedule social media posts).

And over the Spring and Summer months of 2021, we also partnered with the ICPA, a membership organisation for practising accountants in the UK, where we ran a series of live webinars on Google My Business, finding time efficiencies in marketing and marketing budgets.

With this in mind, I set out to learn more about some of the most successful partnerships and brand collaborations, and how they’ve benefited both parties.

Here’s my top 3.

• The soundtrack to your ride: Uber and Spotify team up to bring music to your trips out (or home).
• Lego and Ikea: This was a unique range of products that offered value to both of their customer bases – parents and children.
• Android and KitKat: A chocolate bar and a computer operating system got together that resulted in a huge amount of social media engagement (and not a penny exchanged between Google and Nestle.)

There’s also a really interesting guide by HubSpot on running your own co-marketing campaign.

So, what’s the point?

In short, it can provide several outcomes and benefits:

• Access to new clients, with a lot less marketing spend and lower cost per acquisition .
• An opportunity to reach new markets and sectors, especially if it’s a sector you’re looking to move into.
• Added value proposition for your existing clients. By partnering with those who offer similar services (or products), and providing those services to your clients, it reduces the risk of other ‘unknown’ companies approaching your clients that compete with you.
• Build brand awareness and trust. Becoming aligned with a well known organisation is a powerful way to instil trust.
• It can help to expand your geographic reach.

Happy collaborating.