Plan B, Madness and the Power of Partnership

A trip on Tuesday night to Warchild’s Pub Landlord Jukebox at the Royal Festival Hall got me thinking about the power of collaborations and how they can help brands cut through the morass of functional and sales-oriented marketing. The delight of the audience when Plan B took the stage to sing ‘Our House’ with Madness and Al Murray (http://bit.ly/aHBx26) really brought home the power of partnership.

The Grammys and the Oscars have recognized for years that unlikely combinations of stars and musicians make for very compelling viewing – Britney-Madonna? Eminem-Elton John? Stars know instinctively that borrowing the equity of similar or perhaps more contemporary contemporaries can build their own credibility and power.

But the principles of the ‘smart collaboration’ and the cut-through these achieve apply equally to brands, whether it’s Nike working with its athletes (I hardly need to post a link here), Hermes teaming up with Bugatti to make this: http://bit.ly/3102YC, Panerai making a watch in honour of its internet fanbase (http://bit.ly/dyk40e) or Garmin teaming up with City AM to get the City (of London) running: http://bit.ly/cO088s.

Ultimately collaborations create buzz, capture imaginations and get the blogosphere and the media talking.

The best example out there of a brand which uses collaborations to create news has to be BMW. From working with Sennheiser to make branded earphones (http://bit.ly/d7hAON) and Embraer and Dassault for aircraft interiors to partnering with Jeff Koons on an ‘Art Car’ (http://bit.ly/aLqpU9) or Sirena to make espresso machines, the brand totally understands that working with others that have either similar or wildly different attitudes not only bursts them out of category to appeal to new audiences but also generates huge amounts of online and offline news.

Partnerships and collaborations are the ultimate in news and the key to unlocking online marketing potential and buzz: brands who recognize this are the ones who will win the ‘share of voice’ war both online and offline.

Taking inspiration from sport content

Amazing to think that 2-3 weeks ago we were all in a frenzy about the World Cup. Or at least the media were. Such is our (and their) appetite for the fresh, shiny and new, the biggest tournament on the planet is media-forgotten as everyone searches for newer, better stuff to watch. Or content as we call it.

People tune in to great sport for various reasons: aside from obviously to follow their team, they want to witness great skill, seminal moments, controversy, surprise, passion and iconic people doing what they do best. Great sports content does this well. Take Sky's new 'unpredictability of sport' campaign. Great skill? Check. Big moments? Check. Controversy, Surprise? In spades. Passion? It's inherent. Passionate? Iconic? It's Cantona FFS.

In the course of a project I've been doing for a sports equipment brand, we've been coaxing them into doing something a little more innovative and eyecatching. As inspiration, we used these. Whether it's Rooney having his way with a Coke can (http://bit.ly/d4la9F), American footballers showing their astounding skills (who cares if it might be 'airbrushed', that's surely part of the debate: http://bit.ly/aTDeiC) or a Djokovic tennis experiment (http://yhoo.it/bV9Y8T) good, magnetic content is based on 6 solid principles: Skill, Seminal moments, Controversy, Surprise, Passion and Iconic people.

Whether you're trying to build up brand equity in sport, film (http://bit.ly/crG0N2), music (http://bit.ly/9TTWfl) or any other area, don't leave your home (or branded content) without them.

An introduction

When anyone else other than me starts reading this stuff, they're going to need a bit of background so my first post is an introduction to me, what I do, what I think and what I'm going to be sharing over the coming weeks, months and (who knows) years.

As briefly as possible: I'm a multi-disciplinary planner with 10 years experience, now focussed on 4 categories: sport, luxury, food & drink and charity. Eclectic, but my view is that you do your best work when your interest is genuine.

As a planner I know 3 things:

1) the traditional marketing model is dead: everything's crossing over, everything's a hybrid. Gone are the days of the strategist without creative nous, the adman with no grasp of PR and discrete PR, ad, CRM campaigns . Every line is blurred.

2) it all starts and ends with content: you can talk the talk as much as you like but if you don't give it some substance with some great content (genuine news, video, photography, etc) your campaign is dead in the water.

3) innovate or die: sit still and you're screwed, online you either innovate or your brand dies a sad lonely death. Brands need to stay at the cutting edge and understand how their audiences are engaging with new technologies (yes luxury guys, you too).

I'm blogging because every week I discover stuff that makes me a better marketer and I want to share it more widely. I already share it through Twitter (@Macka7) and LinkedIn (http://uk.linkedin.com/pub/adam-mack/4/a85/2ab) but this will hopefully provide more insight.

My only hope is that it opens some 'old school' eyes to the potential of the cutting edge.