developing effective co-branding projects

Developing Your Brand and Image Conference 30 March 2011

Developing Effective Co-Branding Projects

CharityComms is the professional membership body for charity communicators. We believe charity communications are integral to each charity’s work for a better world.

W: www.charitycomms.org.uk T: 0207 426 8877 E: emma@charitycomms.org.uk

Developing Effective Co-Branding

Projects

Jill McCall: Brand Manager Cadbury

Karen England: Fundraising Director Make-A-Wish

Foundation UK

Structure of the Session

What is co-branding? Why do it?

Forming your idea: what assets do you have that partners will be interested in? – Discussion

Picking the right company and getting your foot in the door – Discussion

Managing co-branding projects

What is co-branding?

‘co-branding is the practice of using multiple brand names together on

a single product or service’

Why develop a co-branding project?

• Donations– Lump Sum donations

– Percentage of profits from the sale of a product

– Join up with wider company volunteering and fundraising initiatives

• Raising awareness of your charity

• Opportunity to borrow your partner’s media to advertise your initiatives (e.g. facebook page)

Forming your idea:

What assets do you have that

potential partners will be

interested in?

Your logo

Putting your logo along with a donation message on a pack can help

build brand health

consumer response: ‘it’s great that Cadbury are helping a charity’

A logo & donation can demonstrate

even greater value for money at a

higher recommended retail price

It can get display space in-store (especially

if it’s a charity that the store are also linked

to)

It can help drive appeal with a particular target audience who resonate

with the cause

Do you know how many people are

aware of your charity and what it does?

• Most advertisers will want to create an advert that elicits some kind

of emotional response

• Why? Because if an ad can elicit these kind of responses….

• It’s more likely to be remembered than if it elicits this kind of

response…

• What stories do the people you help have?

Your Stories

Your Patrons

• Celebrities can command thousands of pounds just to send out a few tweets on behalf of a brand

• Access to a charity’s patrons can be very attractive to companies

Justin Fletcher: Patron of Make-A-Wish (who plays

Mr Tumble on the BBC) did an interview with

Mumsnet on behalf of Cadbury Wishes

Your People

• Every large company will have a sales force that they

want to motivate

• Having people along from your charity to present at

sales conferences can adds gravitas and motivation to

the event

and your advertising space

• Do you have a facebook page?

• Do you tweet?

• Do you send out an email newsletter?

• All of these can be of use for your co-

branding partner to talk about their

products or your partnership

Discussion

What assets do you have that partners may be interested in?

Groups to report back in 5 mins

Picking the right company and

getting your foot in the door

Picking the right company

Do They Want to Build Their Brand?

– Target companies that invest money in brand building. Do your homework – are they advertising? Are they launching new products?

Who Does Your Charity Appeal to?

– Are there any obvious links? E.g. children’s charities and children’s products. Animal charities and petfood? However, don’t be constrained by this – e.g. Innocent and Age Concern isn’t an obvious pairing

Are There Links With Where A Company Sources it’s Raw Materials?

– E.g. Cadbury do a lot of work in Ghana because it’s important that we look after the communities that provide our cocoa

Remember to Protect Your Brand Too

– What’s their company known for? Do you want to be associated with it?

• Think Big

– Companies can’t support lots of small scale initiatives so make sure your idea is big enough to make it worth their while

Link with agencies

– Brand Teams will brief agencies to come up with communications ideas for them so it’s often much better to speak to them

– Do you work with an advertising agency? Speak to them about other clients of theirs that would be interested in joining up with you

• Know your selling points

– Who does your charity appeal to, what proportion of the population are aware of your charity and what it does?

– Present images to give people an idea of what they could do with you. Show them what you’ve done with other companies

• Go via your company’s customers

– If the request to link with a charity is coming from one of their big customers, companies are far more likely to listen.

Getting Your Foot in the Door and Selling Your Charity

Discussion

Which companies might be a good link for your charity?

Groups to report back in 5 mins

Managing the partnership

• It is a partnership so keep your partners best

interests at heart

• Be clear about roles upfront e.g. do you need

approval? What on? How long do you need to

feedback? Who will do it?

• Be as flexible as possible

and to finish…