Co-Marketing: The Emerging Marketing Game-Changer

What do Airbnb and the Art Institute of Chicago have in common? Not a whole lot. Yet both combined their resources to launch a brilliant co-marketing campaign to highlight an exhibition of Van Gogh’s paintings, specifically his ‘Bedroom Series.’ They recreated Van Gogh’s bedroom, complete with objects painted in Gogh’s classic style, and opened it up for people to book a night’s stay, to feel what it was like to “almost step into a painting.” The ‘Van Gogh BNB’ co-marketing campaign was a phenomenal success, with bookings for the first month closing within hours of the campaign going live. The campaign created an incremental attendance of 133,000 visitors at the institute and generated $2 million of incremental revenue, all with just $500,000 investment.1

Co-marketing campaigns come as a breath of fresh air in the dark and dusty corridors of ‘tried and tested’ marketing tactics. The nature of co-marketing is such that campaigns are often unique, different and original, and so easily grab attention, unlike traditional marketing tactics where interest is waning. It is no wonder then that we see more companies creating co-marketing campaigns than ever before.

Here are a few reasons why companies are getting on board the co-marketing convoy:

Increases Your Reach

Every marketer is concerned with reaching new audiences or new members of a specific audience. Co-marketing gives brands the ability to tap into new customers and new customer pools, in a legitimate way. Ross Simmonds, the founder of Crate, says, “One advantage surrounding co-marketing partnerships is the ability to capitalize on shared distribution channels. Partnering with someone who has a likeminded audience gives you an opportunity to reach new people through channels that were once not available. You can leverage their ability to connect with their audience, and they can leverage your ability to connect with yours.”2

“Co-marketing gives brands the ability to tap into new customers and new customer pools.”

When ‘Star Wars: Episode VII: The Force Awakens’ released, Lucasfilm partnered with CoverGirl, the makeup brand, to capture and excite a broader range of audience. The new line of makeup that they created featured two styles: the Light Side and the Dark Side, in keeping with the Star Wars theme. The collaborative effort was an instant hit with customers. Star Wars got a somewhat neglected section of their audience, fangirls, excited about the movie, while CoverGirl was able to ride the waves of the franchise’s popularity in the weeks leading up to the release of the film.3

Similarly, Flipboard and Airbnb engaged in a co-marketing campaign that was a match made in heaven. Airbnb had just launched ‘Trips’, a series on local experiences curated by passionate hosts. It included pictures, videos and great content. In a bid to give ‘Trips’ more exposure, Airbnb tied up with Flipboard, who was looking for meaningful content to draw its customers back. Together, the companies created four city magazines with 36 storyboards. It was advertised with targeted emails, ads, a microsite, push notifications and more. As a result, the campaign garnered 39 million impressions, generated 4.2 million page flips from 440,000 viewers on Flipboard. It also raised the number of Airbnb profile followers on Flipboard from 0 to 29,000 and drove 38,000 visits to Airbnb’s website.4 According to Amanda Sibley, Campaigns Manager at HubSpot, “Co-marketing helps brands build a new audience, and get a new type of content in front of their audience.”5

Creates Greater Impact

Capturing a customer’s attention is at a premium these days. With so much content being produced so frequently, there’s just way too much information floating around. Most often than not, really great content gets lost in noise and clutter. Brands are trying their best to maximise the impact of their campaigns. There’s a problem with being heard, with being visible to the right audience. That’s where co-marketing comes in. Co-marketing with the right partner can help you target your core audience with greater focus and intensity.

Like Intel did. “Intel Inside” is now synonymous with the world of PCs, though they are manufacturers of semiconductors. Intel, through clever co-marketing efforts with notable PC brands, positioned themselves as the thing that powers PCs. Their co-marketing efforts helped them target their core customers, the PC users, in a compelling way. Today, customers have very strong opinions on Intel vs AMD. The campaign got Intel into the top 10 list of best-known brands while simultaneously building value for thousands of licensed PC makers.6

Intel Inside - Co-Marketing Campaign

Co-Marketing Campaigns

Builds Brand Equity

Co-marketing not only gives brands the ability to connect with new customers, but it also gives them a legitimate voice with which to speak to them. It’s akin to being introduced, by the host, to people at a party. The host legitimizes and gives credence to the brand it is introducing. Customers accept and love the new brand by virtue of association. To quote Tony Paille, director of Marketing at AIIM, “Remember when your mom used to worry about you falling into the wrong crowd? Keep that lesson in mind when choosing your co-marketing partnerships. If you choose carefully, the leads you generate have the potential to be warmer than the leads you get from pay-per-click or your other advertising efforts. You become trustworthy by your association with a brand they already know and love.”7

“Co-marketing is akin to being introduced by the host to people at a party.”

The above examples are just some of the ways that brands can collaborate. From running a webinar together to co-authoring a blog post or thought leadership piece, joint emailers, content and discounts, the opportunities are endless, while the results are phenomenal. However, like all partnerships, the success of any co-marketing campaign lies in choosing the right partner.

Entrepreneur.com suggests that you ask five questions of any cross-promotion proposal:8

Do the partner businesses complement and not compete with each other?
Do they appeal to similar but not identical customers?
Will the partnership enhance the reputation of all partners?
Are the reputations, marketing styles and promotional goals of all partners a good match?
Do all partners agree to a promotion plan, a budget, a timeline and responsibilities?