12 Extraordinary Examples of Brand Partnerships

Brand partnerships, or co-branding, happens when two brands or companies work together in a mutually beneficial relationship. Oftentimes, these companies are complementary and not direct competitors. However, there are some instances where competitors call a truce and double in to monopolize the market, and everyone else trying to get into the game. When done well, brand partnerships can offer domination and seriously high profits.

Finding the perfect partnerships.

Can you change by creating brand partnerships? Of course, you can. Business changes every day. But how versatile, agile and quickly can you adapt yourself and your organization to stay relevant in today’s society?

Organizations are always evolving. What’s different now, is that we set new speed records of change on a daily basis. Technology gives us unprecedented possibilities. And this sea of opportunities is pushing the traditional bureaucratic, controlled and hierarchical organization into an identity crisis.

However, just like any relationship, some are better than others. It takes a lot of small working parts aligning perfectly for a brand partnership to really take off. Over the years, there have been winners and losers. Here’s a look at some of the best brand partnerships to date, and what they did right:

Apple and IBM

This is an example of when two competitors actually worked well together. According to IBM, this marriage “brings together the analytics and enterprise-scale computing of IBM with the elegant user experience of iPhone and iPad to deliver a new level of value for businesses.”

Obviously, Apple has the background in giving customers what they want and they could seriously improve the IBM image. However, it’s IBM’s incredible big data and software that will give Apple a boost. Who says two giants can’t play nicely?

Apple knows how.

Alexander Wang and H&M

A high end designer partnering up with a budget retail outlet is nothing new, and H&M is known for snagging some seriously hot designers (as is Target). However, the Alexander Wang partnership is especially worth noting. Just like every other H&M designer, the Wang marriage is planned to be short-lived, but offers Wang a chance to make a connection with a brand new generation. Obviously, the benefits are H&M scores yet another killer designer while Wang will likely develop a few customers willing to pay couture prices in a few months or years.

The Art of Shaving and Gillette

Well, this is an obvious hookup everyone saw coming! The Art of Shaving is a luxury chain known for offering the best accoutrements for shaving around, including gold plated razors. Of course, Gillette is known for offering close shaves on a budget, and is arguably the best-known shaving brand in the US. However, when these two sidled up to one another, the result was the Fusion Chrome Collection: An Art of Shaving razor that only worked with Gillette blades. It costs $150 and gave both brands a corner on the market.

Benjamin Moore and Pottery Barn

What does one of the world’s premium paint brands and one of the globe’s most renowned home goods store have in common? A gorgeous interior, of course! While Pottery Barn was doing everything possible to provide furnishing and bedding to make interior décor dreams come true, customers kept asking about paint colors — especially the ones in the Pottery Barn catalogue. The obvious answer was to work with Benjamin Moore to design a unique palette for every season.

Betty Crocker and Hershey

Talk about a sweet coupling! Everyone knows both Betty Crocker and Hershey, and both are connected with comfort foods, desserts, baking, and goodies. Betty Crocker has been the go-to brand for baking since 1921, and teaming up with Hershey to create easy to make treats was a no-brainer. After all, if you’re going to call for chocolate chips in your recipe, you may as well specify America’s most beloved brand.

One Direction and Nabisco

Clear direction to develop effective teamwork

Yes, really! A “brand” doesn’t necessarily have to be a company providing goods or services — it can be a band, too. Nabisco has a penchant for partnering up with the most popular bands and musicians in the world, so it only makes sense to “brand band” with this boy band. Nabisco is sponsoring the group’s tour including brand mentions in 20,000 retail locations via store displays and on 8,000 end-caps around the country. A bit of a brand hopper, One Direction has also worked with Nokia, Pepsi, and Target to name just a few.

Lexus and Coach

Remember when Lexus was the ultimate luxury car, especially in the hip hop sector of the 1990s? You may also recall that this is when Coach joined forces with the car giant to offer one of a kind luxury leather interior seating. It was a perfect pairing, especially in a time when Coach was also one of the most in-demand brands and the logo craze was just taking off. Nowadays, Coach is looking to expand but will always be linked to those bags.

New York’s Ace Hotel and Stumptown Coffee

Ace Hotel is one of the most well-known hotels in all of Manhattan, and it has a knack for choosing fantastic partnerships including Stumptown Coffee. Arguably the most popular brewer in New York, any traveler (and locals, too) demand the best café in the mornings, and Ace is happy to help serve that up. Forget that mediocre, free coffee in the lobby and enjoy the real New York experience. Coffee and hotels go together like jam and peanut butter, so it was a natural fit.

MAC and Everybody

Celebrity-endorsed MAC products include special lines each year or season that are an homage to the celeb flavor of the day. Some of the most well-known celebrity “designers” include RuPaul, Cyndi Lauper, Lady Gaga, and Nicki Minaj. Obviously, MAC likes celebrities with an edge, which goes in line with its industry-approved makeup, bright colors, and sleek designs. The most recent MAC designer: Miley Cyrus, of course.

Coca-Cola and Jack Spade

What could America’s most popular beverage possibly have in common with a designer? Don’t underestimate the power of Americana, because Jack Spade has launched a series of clothes, bags, and accessories that feature the icon everyone knows and loves. For the designers, connecting with classic beverage brands tap into the nostalgia and classic adoration that many fashionistas adore. For the beverage brands, they can tap into a different market and up their class/ desirability factor at the same time.

McDonald’s and LEGO

McDonald’s is another company known for jumping in bed with quite a few brand partners. One of the most successful was LEGO, and together the companies produced a mini restaurant (built with LEGOs of course) as well as Happy Meal Toys. There’s nothing kids love more than LEGO, except maybe McDonald’s, which is why this partnership was easy to come by and benefited all (except maybe the parents who ended up stepping on those restaurant building pieces).

KFC and Susan G. Komen

Remember the 2010 “Buckets for the Cure” campaign that was touted by KFC in collaboration with the Susan G. Komen Foundation? Of course, chicken can’t cure cancer — or can it? With 50 cents of every purchase being donated to the Foundation, $2 million was raised in week one alone. While some critics mocked the idea of fast food trying to help cure cancer (“eat a breast to save a breast,” anyone?), it was ultimately a goodwill effort that did what it was designed to do: Sell more chicken and raise some funds.

The bottom line

The notion of a lone genius has always been a myth. As W. Brian Arthur observed in The Nature of Technology, innovations are combinations, so it is unlikely that anyone ever has all the pieces to the puzzle. Even Steve Jobs depended on a small circle of loyalists. Today, however, the ability to collaborate is becoming a key competitive advantage.

Try it and see the advantages first hand.

Now, what about you and your business? What are some of your ideas for collaboration and potential partnerships?

And what’s the conclusion? The conclusion is there is no conclusion. There is only the next step. And that next step is completely up to you.

It’s up to you to keep improving the growth hacking of your business. Lessons are all around you. In many situations, your competitor may be providing ideas and or inspiration. Or maybe offering to collaborate. But the key is in knowing that it is within you already.

All you get is what you bring to the fight. And that fight gets better every day you learn and apply new lessons.

When things go wrong, what’s most important is your next step.

Test. Learn. Improve. Repeat.

Are you devoting enough energy to improving your growth hacking for your team?

Mike Schoultz is the founder of Digital Spark Marketing, a digital marketing and customer service agency. With 40 years of business experience, he blogs on topics that relate to improving the performance of your business. Find him on Twitter, and LinkedIn.

Digital Spark Marketing will stretch your thinking and your ability to adapt to change. We also provide some fun and inspiration along the way.

Check out these additional articles on local business and its performance in our library:

Does your business use breathtaking commercials to win the hearts of your customers? Have you ever given it a try?

Like David Freemantle says, feelings have a critical role in this regard. Few of any ads will make an emotional appeal. They will try to amuse and dazzle more than touch the heart.

Which factor do you feel is most effective in drawing attention to your advertisements? There are many to choose from, aren’t they?

Leo Burnett’s fledgling firm got off to an inauspicious start when it opened in 1935. With one client account, a staff of eight, and a bowl of apples in reception, cynics said that he would soon be selling those apples on the street.

Yet, even in the midst of the Great Depression, the firm survived, and Burnett, along with other pioneers such as David Ogilvy and Bill Bernbach helped create the consumer culture that defined the post-war economy. Those halcyon days are now long gone.

If you’re in advertising, then The Advertising Effect: How to Change Behaviour is probably one of the best books you can read on your craft right now. It’s Nudge for advertisers.

Outlining ten evidence-based effective advertising strategies, each with a scientific underpinning, Adam Ferrier (psychologist and founder of Naked) is up there. He is up there with fellow Antipodean Byron Sharp regarding must-reads for marketers.

Check out our thoughts on creative marketing.

Feelings have a critical role in the way customers are influenced.

David Freemantle

This is a critical missed opportunity in our view. We have studied and evaluated commercials for more than five years.

Our focus is somewhat unique; we aren’t interested in entertainment value, we are interested in business impact. We study each spot and evaluate its power to build the business and the brand.

What is the best advertising media design you have ever put to work for your business? We would love to hear about it. As a favor, please share it below. It would be greatly appreciated by our readers and us.

While emotional spots are not common, they are some of the most active we have seen. Consider these emotional spots:

Jeep

Last year Jeep ran a remarkable commercial saluting the troops fighting overseas. The ad was grave and emotional. It noted,

“There will be a seat left open, a light left on, a favorite dinner waiting, a warm bed made…because in your home, in our hearts; you’ve been missed. You’ve been needed, you’ve been cried for, prayed for. You are the reason we push on.”

Jeep touched deep emotions about loss and longing. And the spot worked to build the brand; it made people feel proud of Jeep and its values.

Remember this Budweiser emotional appeal?

Emotional advertisements examples … Budweiser

Perhaps more than any other advertiser, Budweiser knows the power of emotion. Over the years the brand has run a series of emotional spots featuring the iconic Clydesdales.

The 2013 spot, for example, highlighted the emotional bond between a horse and its trainer. It was one of the top spots of the year.

It isn’t easy to create an emotional spot for any commercial. Many environments are fun and energetic, and people aren’t primed for serious themes.

And, in many ways, the safe approach that many brands will take is to air the funny and lively commercials.

But, if we are lucky, some brands will tap into our emotions. And if they do it well they will emerge as some of the most efficient spots. Here are eight great examples we have reviewed recently that certainly touched and won our hearts.

Extraordinary commercials … Guinness

In this commercial, Guinness uses an inspiring story to convey its emotional influence. Like great stories, it has a beginning where sympathetic characters encounter a complicating situation.

It has a middle where the characters confront and attempt to resolve the situation.

And it has an end where the outcome is revealed. It does not interpret or explain the action in the story for the audience.

Instead, a good story allows each member of the public to understand the story and its emotion as he or she understands the action. This is why people find good, emotional stories so appealing. It is why they find advertising that merely conveys facts and information boring.

Here is the Guinness ad video to refresh you or for you to review in case you haven’t seen it.

To calibrate designs for you, here is a short video on the top ten commercials of all time.

Guinness’s marketing story based on emotion has flipped traditional beer advertising on its head by getting rid of the template. Instead, it tells a real emotional story – that connects with people.

The responses were overwhelmingly positive … customers and particularly the target customers are looking for meaningful stories. The emotion in this marketing strategy certainly is addressing this end state in our opinion.

Breathtaking commercials … Zillow

The family in this ad is looking for a new home using the real estate company Zillow. It eventually can find exactly what they are looking for.

What the mother and children don’t expect is what is waiting for them on moving day.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HHLoWctz8q4

Some of the best emotional stories effectively use the element of emotional surprise like Zillow has done here.

Bell

Have you seen the remarkable branding video design from this South African business? The Bell’s TV commercial features a father whose intrepid spirit demonstrates just what it takes to be a real man of character.

The video was created to market and build the brand. It is a very simple story. It advocates learning to read no matter your age or status in society. To us, it creates pure magic with the story, the visuals, the music and the emotion. It certainly finds emotional triggers.

Not a real secret here. The story and music that are created, while familiar, are as distinctive as they are heartwarming. Watch the faces, actions, and passions of the people in the story and listen to the music. They draw you into the emotion.

Experiences that trigger our emotions are saved and consolidated in lasting memory. Why you ask?

It is because the emotions generated by the experiences signal our brains that the skills are important to remember. Certainly, there is that kind of emotion in this story, isn’t there?

If you haven’t seen it, watch it now, it is only 2 minutes, and it will inspire you. It is certainly easily in our top 5 of all time.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VteDp3IK-60

Apple

Apple makes the messages as clean and straightforward as possible in this ad. You cannot overachieve on the simplicity of the message.

A message that the reader will quickly understand. Keep in mind that pictures are far more valuable than words.

Have you seen the Apple iPhone5 TV ad? If not, you should invest 1 minute now and check it out. It will grab you with the simplicity of the emotional influence.

Budweiser

The Budweiser puppy love commercial was, by most accounts, the biggest winner of the 2014 Super Bowl. There are no better means of influence or the power of persuasion than emotion for animals.

Hands down the best, in our opinion.

Experiences that trigger our emotions are saved and consolidated in lasting memory. It is because the emotions generated by the experiences signal our brains that the skills are important to remember. Check out this ad here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dlNO2trC-mk

There are eight basic, universal emotions – joy, surprise, anticipation, acceptance, fear, anger, sadness, and disgust. Successful appeals to these basic emotions consolidate stories and the desired calls to action in the lasting memories of audiences.

Remarkable isn’t always the same. Get in the habit of doing the “unsafe” thing every time you have the opportunity is the best way to see what’s working and what’s not.

The key to being remembered is remarkable. Don’t let your marketing take the back seat; stand out like Budweiser does in this commercial.

This puppy love commercial focuses on emotional appeal in grand fashion. It is the secret of this business’s success.

Use breathtaking commercials … Samsung

In this great commercial, Samsung uses pictures/visuals to convey the message much better than words. “Seeing is believing” and “actions speak louder than words” are two common sayings that reflect a bias and preference for visual presentation.

Here is a four minute Samsung ad with 15-20 new features shown for their iPhone. No talking. And so simple that you quickly grasp the features and don’t lose interest.

And the coordinated music has a way to keep you tied in emotionally. Creating customer interest doesn’t get any simpler than this, does it? A very simple, yet clever design, don’t you think?

Creating customer interest doesn’t get any simpler yet still emotional based on the music, does it? A great ad design emotional element is to match what viewers see with what they hear.

People expect and prefer coordinated audio and visual messages because those messages are easier to process, feel, and understand.

A very simple, yet interesting design.

Dawn emotional appeal

We recently viewed a Dawn Liquid Detergent advertisement that caught our eye for several reasons. An effective TV ad that combined traditional advertising with advocacy advertising. Something you don’t see very often.

Interesting information, well presented, showing emotion, always holds attention, yes? Keep in mind that people don’t watch ads … they watch what interests them. Your ad messages must be compelling to your target communities.

This message certainly grabs and holds attention based on emotion, superb visuals, and great issue advocacy.

Letting the visuals be the best influencer. People will watch, remember and most likely talk about, won’t they?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z9qLIz1SJsk

The recent Dawn TV commercials started as YouTube videos and grew out of the success shown on that platform.

Use breathtaking commercials … Chrysler Dodge

“And on the eighth day, God looked down on his planned paradise and said ‘I need a caretaker.’ So God made a farmer,” preached Paul Harvey in the advertisement’s opening lines.

The message delivered by Harvey’s oratory became immediately clear: It was a celebration of the hard work of America’s farmers.

The two-minute advertisement for Dodge Ram, which paid tribute to America’s farmers and was composed entirely of still photographs depicting the farming industry, won the hearts and minds of viewers by evoking strong emotion.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GdR5TOhHJGM

Harvey’s narration, patterned on the Biblical account of the creation, was taken from a 1978 speech, “So God made a farmer,” which Harvey gave to a national convention of the Future Farmers of America. It was set to a collection of stark, still photographs — both color and black and white — of farmers at work.

As the advertisement concludes with the still image of a brand new Dodge Ram against the backdrop of a U.S. farm, we are reminded of one final message: “To the farmer in all of us.”

Key takeaways

The higher degree of emotion creates the more differentiation and makes it easier for your brand to project uniqueness and its word of mouth messages.

Emotion is the secret language of the brain. Work on emotion if you want to improve your persuasion or influence.

Need some help in capturing more customers from your marketing strategies? Creative ideas to help the differentiation with potential customers?

Call today for a FREE consultation or a FREE quote. Learn about some options to scope your job.

Call Mike at 607-725-8240.

All you get is what you bring to the fight. And that fight gets better every day you learn and apply new ideas.

When things are not what you want them to be, what’s most important is your next step. Call today.

Test. Learn. Improve. Repeat.

Are you devoting enough energy improving your marketing, branding, and advertising?

Do you have a lesson about making your marketing strategy better you can share with this community? Have any questions or comments to add in the section below?

Digital Spark Marketing will stretch your thinking and your ability to adapt to change. We also provide some fun and inspiration along the way. Call us for a free quote today. You will be amazed how reasonable we will be.

Mike Schoultz is a digital marketing and customer service expert. With 48 years of business experience, he consults on, and writes about topics to help improve the performance of small business. Find him on Facebook, Twitter, Quora, Digital Spark Marketing, and LinkedIn.

Apple and IBM

Alexander Wang and H&M

The Art of Shaving and Gillette

Benjamin Moore and Pottery Barn

Betty Crocker and Hershey

One Direction and Nabisco

Lexus and Coach

New York’s Ace Hotel and Stumptown Coffee

MAC and Everybody

Coca-Cola and Jack Spade

McDonald’s and LEGO

KFC and Susan G. Komen

Now, what about you and your business? What are some of your ideas for collaboration and potential partnerships?

And what’s the conclusion? The conclusion is there is no conclusion. There is only the next step. And that next step is completely up to you.

It’s up to you to keep improving the growth hacking of your business. Lessons are all around you. In many situations, your competitor may be providing ideas and or inspiration. Or maybe offering to collaborate. But the key is in knowing that it is within you already.

All you get is what you bring to the fight. And that fight gets better every day you learn and apply new lessons.

When things go wrong, what’s most important is your next step.

Test. Learn. Improve. Repeat.

Are you devoting enough energy to improving your growth hacking for your team?

Mike Schoultz is the founder of Digital Spark Marketing, a digital marketing and customer service agency. With 40 years of business experience, he blogs on topics that relate to improving the performance of your business. Find him on Twitter, and LinkedIn.

Digital Spark Marketing will stretch your thinking and your ability to adapt to change. We also provide some fun and inspiration along the way.

Check out these additional articles on local business and its performance in our library:

What Makes a Day at Brevard Zoo So Enjoyable

14 Walt Disney World Stories and Facts Not to Miss

7 Ways to Create a Customer Service Evangelist Business

Does your business use breathtaking commercials to win the hearts of your customers? Have you ever given it a try?

Like David Freemantle says, feelings have a critical role in this regard. Few of any ads will make an emotional appeal. They will try to amuse and dazzle more than touch the heart.

Which factor do you feel is most effective in drawing attention to your advertisements? There are many to choose from, aren’t they?

Leo Burnett’s fledgling firm got off to an inauspicious start when it opened in 1935. With one client account, a staff of eight, and a bowl of apples in reception, cynics said that he would soon be selling those apples on the street.

Yet, even in the midst of the Great Depression, the firm survived, and Burnett, along with other pioneers such as David Ogilvy and Bill Bernbach helped create the consumer culture that defined the post-war economy. Those halcyon days are now long gone.

If you’re in advertising, then The Advertising Effect: How to Change Behaviour is probably one of the best books you can read on your craft right now. It’s Nudge for advertisers.

Outlining ten evidence-based effective advertising strategies, each with a scientific underpinning, Adam Ferrier (psychologist and founder of Naked) is up there. He is up there with fellow Antipodean Byron Sharp regarding must-reads for marketers.

Check out our thoughts on creative marketing.

Feelings have a critical role in the way customers are influenced.

David Freemantle

Related post: What to Expect from a Creative Advertising Strategy

This is a critical missed opportunity in our view. We have studied and evaluated commercials for more than five years.

Our focus is somewhat unique; we aren’t interested in entertainment value, we are interested in business impact. We study each spot and evaluate its power to build the business and the brand.

What is the best advertising media design you have ever put to work for your business? We would love to hear about it. As a favor, please share it below. It would be greatly appreciated by our readers and us.

While emotional spots are not common, they are some of the most active we have seen. Consider these emotional spots:

Jeep

Last year Jeep ran a remarkable commercial saluting the troops fighting overseas. The ad was grave and emotional. It noted,

“There will be a seat left open, a light left on, a favorite dinner waiting, a warm bed made…because in your home, in our hearts; you’ve been missed. You’ve been needed, you’ve been cried for, prayed for. You are the reason we push on.”

Jeep touched deep emotions about loss and longing. And the spot worked to build the brand; it made people feel proud of Jeep and its values.

Emotional advertisements examples … Budweiser

Perhaps more than any other advertiser, Budweiser knows the power of emotion. Over the years the brand has run a series of emotional spots featuring the iconic Clydesdales.

The 2013 spot, for example, highlighted the emotional bond between a horse and its trainer. It was one of the top spots of the year.

It isn’t easy to create an emotional spot for any commercial. Many environments are fun and energetic, and people aren’t primed for serious themes.

And, in many ways, the safe approach that many brands will take is to air the funny and lively commercials.

But, if we are lucky, some brands will tap into our emotions. And if they do it well they will emerge as some of the most efficient spots. Here are eight great examples we have reviewed recently that certainly touched and won our hearts.

Related post: Creative Secrets from Budweiser Advertising Examples

Extraordinary commercials … Guinness

In this commercial, Guinness uses an inspiring story to convey its emotional influence. Like great stories, it has a beginning where sympathetic characters encounter a complicating situation.

It has a middle where the characters confront and attempt to resolve the situation.

And it has an end where the outcome is revealed. It does not interpret or explain the action in the story for the audience.

Instead, a good story allows each member of the public to understand the story and its emotion as he or she understands the action. This is why people find good, emotional stories so appealing. It is why they find advertising that merely conveys facts and information boring.

Here is the Guinness ad video to refresh you or for you to review in case you haven’t seen it.

To calibrate designs for you, here is a short video on the top ten commercials of all time.

Guinness’s marketing story based on emotion has flipped traditional beer advertising on its head by getting rid of the template. Instead, it tells a real emotional story – that connects with people.

The responses were overwhelmingly positive … customers and particularly the target customers are looking for meaningful stories. The emotion in this marketing strategy certainly is addressing this end state in our opinion.

Breathtaking commercials … Zillow

The family in this ad is looking for a new home using the real estate company Zillow. It eventually can find exactly what they are looking for.

What the mother and children don’t expect is what is waiting for them on moving day.

Some of the best emotional stories effectively use the element of emotional surprise like Zillow has done here.

Bell

Have you seen the remarkable branding video design from this South African business? The Bell’s TV commercial features a father whose intrepid spirit demonstrates just what it takes to be a real man of character.

The video was created to market and build the brand. It is a very simple story. It advocates learning to read no matter your age or status in society. To us, it creates pure magic with the story, the visuals, the music and the emotion. It certainly finds emotional triggers.

Not a real secret here. The story and music that are created, while familiar, are as distinctive as they are heartwarming. Watch the faces, actions, and passions of the people in the story and listen to the music. They draw you into the emotion.

Experiences that trigger our emotions are saved and consolidated in lasting memory. Why you ask?

It is because the emotions generated by the experiences signal our brains that the skills are important to remember. Certainly, there is that kind of emotion in this story, isn’t there?

If you haven’t seen it, watch it now, it is only 2 minutes, and it will inspire you. It is certainly easily in our top 5 of all time.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VteDp3IK-60

Apple

Apple makes the messages as clean and straightforward as possible in this ad. You cannot overachieve on the simplicity of the message.

A message that the reader will quickly understand. Keep in mind that pictures are far more valuable than words.

Have you seen the Apple iPhone5 TV ad? If not, you should invest 1 minute now and check it out. It will grab you with the simplicity of the emotional influence.

Budweiser

The Budweiser puppy love commercial was, by most accounts, the biggest winner of the 2014 Super Bowl. There are no better means of influence or the power of persuasion than emotion for animals.

Hands down the best, in our opinion.

Experiences that trigger our emotions are saved and consolidated in lasting memory. It is because the emotions generated by the experiences signal our brains that the skills are important to remember. Check out this ad here: