Brand Collaborations /

This article appeared in Contagous issue Eighteen.

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expert opinion / brand collaborations /

Recent years have seen a remarkable courtship ritual in marketing. Brands and media that had kept their distance in fear of competition or blurring their self-image have started to pal up with each other.

Fashion and luxury brands led the charge. Theo Fennell crafted silver lids for Marmite; Karl Lagerfeld created dresses for H&M; now Diesel is designing a version of the Fiat 500.

Partnerships put brands into new people’s hands. In luxury travel, Virgin Atlantic, Scott Dunn and Descent struck exclusive deals with marques to supply guests with chauffeured cars. On a less grand level, everyone could enjoy Walkers’ Heinz Ketchup flavour crisps. In media, Publicis Groupe opened a joint venture with Google, an organisation that Sir Martin Sorrell described as a ‘frenemy’.

Suddenly Hunter S. Thompson’s description of something looking ‘as out of place as a pair of cashmere Levi’s’ sounded like a decent marketing idea.

An early issue of Contagious called these matings brand alliances. It’s apt to choose a word from diplomacy rather than marketing, because the weak versions of these pairings can owe more to the calculation and image management of diplomats than to the imagination of brand builders. Alliances can be tentative toes-in-the-water, where brands pull back as fast as they go in. They can be dynastic marriages, where a big ugly partner searches for a mate to bring some looks and life to the family. They can be trade deals, where bagging exclusive rights is a bigger consideration than giving value to the public.

The significant and lasting pairings are more than alliances. They are brand collaborations. If alliance is a diplomatic term, collaboration is a creative term: two parties working together to make something new. The real opportunities lie here.

Collaboration brings two brands’ strengths together. Partnerships such as My Coke Music and Nike+ are almost as familiar as individual brands. These are

examples of proper synergy, where two brands’ strengths multiply. Pairing a chic brand with a mass brand, such as Matthew Williamson’s range of Sky Plus PVRs, might create temporary buzz, but it’s the marketing equivalent of a trophy marriage. As utility becomes a stronger concept in marketing, a true collaboration should lead to the creation of a new form, something that would not exist without the two brands. Lego’s collaboration with Star Wars created a range that was far more playful and had more character than a typical collectable figure, and generated over a billion dollars of sales for the two brand owners. The rationale for any partnership is to create something you could not achieve alone. Brand collaborations are no different.

The biggest factor driving brand collaborations is technology, as splicing software together is often easier than changing the run on a production line. And we are seeing more tech brands using collaborations as a route to market. Google boasts a series of collaborations, lending its Maps and Earth technologies to enhance other brands. Yahoo! has been revitalised as the iPhone’s default browser. Premier Inns built details of its hotels in to TomTom satnavs. Expect many tech brands to distribute themselves through other brands.

If collaboration is such a commercial opportunity, brand management needs to open up to it. The old ‘target audiences’ are better understood as real audiences. They might be interesting for another brand. Their other interests might be a source of inspiration for a new business. Likewise, the notion that a single brand has one key message is limiting, when a successful marque connects with people through a cluster of activities. Here, its actual strengths and assets become more useful than a dry list of values and personality attributes. Conversely, brands will need a new modesty about what they can and can’t achieve on their own. Brand owners can stop protecting the white space around their brands and start looking for what they can achieve when they blur it.

Brand Collaborations / The days of temporary, tacical pairings are over. Today’s alliances are mutually beneficial, and built to las / By Tom Morton /

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TiVo + Domino’s Pizza Digital recorder TiVo collaborated with Domino’s to present an interactive ordering system, where Domino’s pizzas can be ordered, selected to be delivered or collected, and then tracked all through a remote control /

Choosing a Build-Your-Own-Pizza option, TV viewers can choose the crust type, plus select type and number of toppings all from the comfort of their sofa. The remote control becomes a journeying device between the two services. For example; advertising points provide access straight from the advertisement into the digital ordering. The user need only click ‘I want it’ displayed on the ad with their remote control to be redirected to the order. Subscribers of TiVo can even create a user ID to order their pizzas even more speedily by visiting the Domino’s website and setting up a user name and password, which will then provide them with an account number. Thus the website and interface work together to direct the consumer between the two brands. The service function, which was launched in November 2008, is free of charge to all broadband connected TiVo subscribers. Crispin Porter, the agency responsible, claims that this led to an additional $100m in online revenue. Heightening experiences is a natural area for brand collaborations. When entertainment brands combine with food and drink brands they create a new area of ‘couch commerce’.http://tinyurl.com/6g54rh

PlayStation + Nissan Gran Turismo is one of PlayStation’s biggest franchises. The game enables players to drive real cars on real racetracks around the world. Its high-definition outing on PlayStation 3 is the most realistic driving simulator available. Nissan’s new GT-R supercar promises Porsche-challenging performance /

My agency TBWA\London and our sister company Stream saw an opportunity to promote both brands by bringing real and virtual racing together.We created the GT Academy, a programme to recruit real racing drivers from the ranks of Gran Turismo fans. Players from across Europe registered through Gran Turismo Prologue’s online game on PlayStation 3. The fastest gamers competed in national Gran Turismo championships for a place at a rallying academy at Formula One’s Silverstone racetrack. The academy then selected two drivers who underwent professional training to take part in the Dubai 24 Hour endurance race in January 2009. 450,000 people followed the GT Academy online, while 25,000 gamers entered the initial competition. Sales of Gran Turismo peaked during the competition period: Nissan’s GT-R built a waiting list of over a year. The journey from gamer to rally driver will be the subject of a five-part TV series later this year, syndicated around Europe to channels including RAI Sports in Italy and Dave in the UK. www.granturismoworld.com/en/gt_academy

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expert opinion / brand collaborations /

AC/DC + Rock BandBrand collaborations offer particular appeal to properties that need new routes to market. Recording artists will benefit especially from collaborations that help them bypass conventional album releases. Wired magazine reported that Aerosmith earned more from Guitar Hero: Aerosmith than any single album in the band’s history. Another fine example is AC/DC who presented an exclusive album through the popular Rock Band computer game /

The album, which contains the songs from AC/DC’s famous 1991 Monsters Of Rock gig at Castle Donnington, was remixed specifically for the game, offering game players over 99 minutes of play for each instrument. As you might imagine, the collaboration is something of an endurance test. The difficulty of the game then reinforces the band’s status as skilled musicians and true rock performers. AC/DC gained a wider, younger audience, many of whom were not born when the band was in its heyday. Rock Band gained credibility and publicity as a game, as well as 99 minutes of hard rock assault course gameplay. MTV’s Paul DeGooyer captured the appeal: ‘An unforgettable concert is now an ultimate at-home entertainment experience.’ www.rockband.com/games/acdc

LoveFilm + Guinness The most basic brand collaborations give brands access to new markets and audiences. Guinness and LoveFilm joined together to offer customers a free Guinness Choice DVD box set of film collections such as the Tarantino set, The Godfather Collection, Monty Python and Robert De Niro and Al Pacino movies, when signing up for a month’s subscription to LoveFilm /

The promotion, found on multipacks of Guinness, introduced the idea of ‘Guinness Time’. By linking with LoveFilm

and the wider in-home film community, Guinness has positioned itself beyond its natural heritage at the bar and in to the growing home drinking market. The offer, which ran in November 2008, was part of a larger campaign in which Diageo sought to place Guinness at the heart of home entertainment. The bigger opportunity would be for Guinness to create an ongoing DVD rental property in order to cement its position in home entertainment and give LoveFilm access to a new audience. http://tinyurl.com/acffm2

CNN + FacebookPresident Obama’s inauguration gave CNN and Facebook the opportunity to pool resources – CNN’s live coverage and Facebook’s social network – to create an online social event for the occasion /

Facebook users were able to talk to each other online through the application, while from the same forum watch a live streaming of the event. This created a live, dynamic social space where people could, virtually, watch and talk about the inauguration together. During the event, Facebook reported that 600,000 users updated their status during Obama’s speech through the CNN.com live Facebook feed. This had a competitive edge over other networking sites in that, through the CNN application, viewers could communicate at the same time as watching, providing a sense of immediacy – being involved directly in the moment as it happened. Both brands benefited from their joint creation. Facebook became a channel for important shared experiences, while CNN reached a younger audience than its usual 35+ demographic. www.facebook.com/cnn

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Tom Morton is executive planning director at TBWA\London www.tbwa-london.com

Thanks to Mark Earls, Richard Huntingdon (Saatchi & Saatchi London), Gareth Kay (Modernista!), Adrian Langford, Ben Malbon (BBH New York), Frank Striefler (TBWA\Chiat Day\Los Angeles), Silvia Bartels (Tequila\London) and Faris Yakob (McCann Erickson New York) for offering examples for this article.

Doritos + Xbox Technology can add engagement and audiences to almost any brand. Doritos and Xbox launched the challenge for fans to submit designs for an Xbox Live arcade game that somehow reflected Doritos’ brand character /

This would be the first game created by the consumers themselves. Tips for participants were to consider aspects such as the intensity of the taste, the iconic shapes or the bold packaging design. Through the nature of the competition, fans were then given a large expanse of time in which they had the chance to engage and converse with both brands. Further interaction was also encouraged through invites to test five other games, and a forum for discussing and voting on their experiences with these games. Finally, fans were able to download and play the winning game without any cost. The winning game, Doritos’ Dash of Destruction, features a Doritos delivery truck and a T-Rex dinosaur in a high-speed chase. The goal of the truck is to reach the tunnel at the other end of the map, while the goal of the dinosaur is to eat the truck. Players can choose to either be the dinosaur or truck. The campaign generated one million Doritos site visitors, of which 72% were newcomers. Time spent on the site also increased to 11% during periods where users reviewed the games. Further, Xbox Live! saw more than 160,000 Doritos theme packs downloaded, well exceeding the known benchmark of 50,000. Andy Roberts, reviewing the game at www.teamxbox.com, believes: ‘The coolest part of Doritos Dash of Destruction is that you get to see what a unique project it has been – where a non-professional designed a game and won the contest, then saw it come to life as an established developer built that game for public consumption.’www.unlockxbox.com

adidas + Stella McCartney adidas has a long heritage of making shoes and clothes for specific sports. Athletes as diverse as Jesse Owens, Muhammad Ali and David Beckham have competed in adidas gear. While the wider sports industry clothes men well, women’s sports enjoy less of a profile and women’s sports clothing sees less brand innovation /

adidas’ link with Stella McCartney marked the first time that a high-end fashion designer had created a functional performance range for women. Collections include Gym Studio, Tennis, Running, Golf, Gym Yoga, Gym Dance, Swim and Cover Ups. The collection is available through 600 stores worldwide, including high-end department stores such as Harrods, and Nordstrom, as well as adidas Sport Performance stores and selected sports retailers worldwide. Both adidas and Stella McCartney benefit from reaching new audiences and helping women who participate in sport. McCartney said: ‘I really wanted to change what I saw out there. Sports clothing for women, in particular sports performance was such an ill-dressed subject. The colours were very basic and hardly any variations in design. I saw this as a real opportunity to put that right and offer women something they could work out in and still feel good about the way they look.’ adidas claim the collaboration has exceeded their expectations for sales, margin and image. As the range enters its fourth year, sales are growing by an annual rate of 20%. www.adidas.com/stella

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