Stefan Stroe: Marketing Strategist

Not all brands have to do TV advertising to promote their products.

But joint promotions are a sometimes an efficient solution to increase brand’s sales and popularity. Because they are “temporary marriages”, finding the similarities between the two brands at equity level is a highly sophisticated and delicate process that needs to be done foremost.

Take a look at Nike + Apple, it’s a smart idea of the two leading brands – I personally bought two months ago one Apple additional device for Nike+ shoes that I cannot find in Romania.

In Romania this kind of “reunions” are not popular. Reasons? I think that all categories are growing so fast that advertisers don’t rank as important this kind of efforts – but a planner has a critical role to convince its clients to join their forces (and I’m not talking of sponsoring an event with two of your clients because that’s easy).

To get more practical I will give also a Romanian example… I’m not sure that Domo (a Romanian electro-retailer) + Elita (Elite Coffee Romania’s most popular brand) is the best Romanian case study, but surely it’s one of the biggest joint promotions I saw on our local market and in which brands seem to be compatible. You can look for details here.

Although the promotion is a classical one, I think it’s ok to spend a minute or two on the subject. I wonder how it worked and how much each company won. Oh, and if it was a hit, I wonder who will take the glory at Romanian Effie Awards…

Second, DISRUPTIVE JOINT EFFORTS.

Joint efforts should not be only about quick sales response and graphic curves, because this is a different recipe of advertising, building brand equity and connecting with consumers.

One quick example. Internet is full of Mentos and Coca-Cola’s official co-efforts, after consumers discovered that amazing trick of combining Diet Coke and Mentos.

The two brands created with their audiences an entertainment connection that never existed – people talked about it for months. This link was so strong that its echo can still be heard… Check www.cokerockets.com website and a the video below. They’re very cool.