How to amplify the impact of your message, increase brand awareness and reach a wider audience? Among the most effective marketing strategies to boost visibility, we find co-branding or the act of capitalizing on other brands to gain visibility. Co-branding is a strategic partnership between two organizations whose interests converge in a communication campaign or a common product/service.

But because it’s not enough to simply double the number of calls to action in order to achieve your strategic objectives, multi-brand campaigns have to compete with each other in terms of originality if they are to find their audience. In this article, we take a look at the marketing competition format. This will allow you to boost your visibility through co-branding.

What are the benefits of a co-branding strategy? What are the different uses depending on your objectives?

What is co-branding ?

Co-branding is a marketing strategy in which two companies enter into a partnership by co-creating and marketing a common product or service. This operation therefore serves to promote both brands simultaneously.

Within a multi-brand partnership, we tend to distinguish between so-called “ingredient” brands, which benefit from a higher profile and visibility, and so-called “partner” brands, which benefit from this alliance to reach a wider audience.

The cornerstone of co-branding is therefore the choice of this famous partner. This can be based on a number of criteria and strategic interests for both parties:

Complementary value propositions, with each partner benefiting from the expertise of the other to enhance the relevance of its product or service ;

Complementary audiences. The two companies may have audiences of similar size, but among different consumer groups or in different markets. Co-branding will allow each partner to extend their area of influence to a new audience.

The benefits of co-branding for brands

While they are never strictly equal in terms of what they bring to partnerships, each co-branding player enjoys significant advantages.

Synergy: co-branding makes it possible to combine the strengths and competitive advantages of the two companies so that they can gain expertise or recognition in a specific marketing or reach a wider audience.

Cost sharing. This partnership also enables brands to halve their advertising and promotional costs and expenditure.

New audience. By opting for a partnership with one brand, companies can easily access the customer base of the other brand. This is an excellent way of reaching new marketing segments, a new type of consumer, etc.

Strengthening the brand image. Associating with a complementary brand (in tis value proposition or range of product/services) essentially improves the perception and credibility of your company.

The multi-brand marketing competition technique

Co-branding is an ultra-effective marketing lever to boost brand visibility and grow your customer base. But like all marketing levers, it is not enough on its own to achieve its strategic objectives.

For a campaign in partnership with another brand to resonate with the communities of both brands, it must be based on an innovative format that captures and engages consumers beyond the original partnership betwen the companies.

Gamification offers a number of advantages when two brands are associated. it introduces interactivity, promises rewards and give users the chance to test their skills or challenge each other.

The benefits of marketing gamification

By building a campaign around a competition (such as a creative challenge, instant win or prize draw), partner brands can benefit from:

The virality of competitions: gamification encourages sharing, which naturally increases the reach of the co-branding campaign (particularly on social networks).

Increased engagement with their respective communities. Competitions attract attention and encourage active participation from consumers (usually to win a reward or benefits) ;

A higher conversion rate. The contest allows you to offer discount coupons, vouchers, or even complementary products as prizes. It is therefore an excellent way to share effective incentives to encourage participants to make a purchase by going directly to the online stores two brand’s online or physical shops.

Customer date collection. To participate in the contest, users will have to fill out a form. This will allow brands to collect relevant information about their respective audiences as well as optins. They ca then reactivate this data in future campaigns (retargeting, for example).

Example of a multi-brand marketing competition

The Aubert brand uses co-branding via marketing competitions. The company has used this lever on several occasions to reach a wider audience. As well as developing and marketing products and services co-designed with its partners, Aubert has chosen to gamify its campaigns by offering the respective communities the chance to win them free of charge via a competition.

The products and services on offer will enable the two partners to leverage their respective expertise and boost their value proposition to a shared audience: young parents.

The competition format is designed to arouse the curiosity of this consumer segment and engage them by offering the chance to win that product or service for free. The mechanic is simple: just fill out an entry form for a chance to be selected in the prize draw.

3 tips for a successful co-branding competition

To replicate the success of Aubert’s co-branding campaigns, you need to:

ensure that your target market and rand image are aligned
and consistent with those of the partner brand. The two companies must share common values while targeting related but different audiences;

Meet the needs of your audience. The campaign in partnership with another brand must meet an identified need in its market. The value propositions of both partners is strenghtened because they benefit from each other’s expertise.

Adapting the mechanics of your competition to the challenges of co branding . The prize must be related to the world of both brands (and preferably linked to the co-created product or service). But you must also plan to announce the winners on their respective channels or include an opt-in for the partner brand.

Co-branding is a powerful lever to boost visibility with a wider audience. By opting for a contest, your co-branded campaign will naturally gain virality and engagement. Discover our interactive mechanisms to boost your communication and capture the attention of your respective audiences!