Partnerships or alliances between brands whether they are from different sectors or diverse ends of the businesses is gaining the CenterStage again. To stand out in the attention economy, and one of the fastest ways to make your brand known in an industry or even cross-industry is to partner with a brand that conforms to a unanimous vision of what is expected out of the partnership. Over the years, the concept of partnership marketing has expanded tremendously, with many brands seeking a partner for effective results.
Striking a partnership with another brand brings more visibility to both the partners involved in diverse sectors. Besides more exposure, partnerships also attribute to the products and services that align with a low-risk ROI. One of the industry benchmarks for such an association is the BMW & Louis Vuitton Co-branding Campaign: The Art of Travel. Both brands value luxury and they are both well-known, traditional brands that are known for high-quality craftsmanship.
For such associations, its essential to outline the brand benefits from the partnership while the consumer seamlessly enjoys the best of both worlds. Other features that make partnership marketing a successful venture also touch upon expanding the brands into diverse domains, to bring cultural and social synergies, improve commercial dividends, and solve customer pain points, to name a few.
Through brand partnerships, the scope to reach a wider audience is amplified. Co-branding adds value to a company with an increase in brand awareness and the creation of brand trust. By combining two businesses, bigger and more potential markets can be explored. To make partnerships successful, both partners must collaboratively work towards creating new value rather than mere exchange or expecting something back in return.
The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted and changed permanently the way we consume content. We all saw how 2020 was the steppingstone in the growing popularity of OTT and how digital content platforms quickly became a necessity. With the second wave getting intensified, the watch from home phenomena is again seeing an upward trend. The pandemic has also bought agility and collaborations into the industry teaching us the importance of leveraging it to reach a wider audience to offer continuous entertaining and unique content.
Myriad sectors are now working to form collaborative services that would benefit all the stakeholders involved. OTT players are teaming up with Internet Service Providers and Telecom companies to come up with consumer-friendly bundled services that would be beneficial to everyone involved. This approach has proven to have positive results as it not only offers a smart content-led solution that helps expand the user base but also facilitates an increase in the Average Revenue per User (ARPU). For example, ShemarooMe has partnered with several global telecom and ISP companies to expand its reach beyond geographies and is now present in over 150 countries.
Another example of a strategic partnership is of ShemarooMe with BookMyShow for pay per view ticket sales, where audiences got to enjoy unreleased movies at the comfort of their homes through ShemarooMe Box Office and further ShemarooMe tied up with Coffee Culture to complete the movie going experience by offering a curated Bollywood menu for movie watchers, for home delivery.
The partnerships can be many kinds ranging from strategic to tactical, operational, interpersonal, and cultural, among others. A partnership should not just be about ROI for both parties involved. It is a synergic approach that benefits all the stakeholders involved and proves why such strategic partnerships are essential for businesses. To sum it up, for a strong and collaborative partnership, it is essential to acknowledge what is the purpose or the value that can be created with the right partnerships, especially in these times.
