The Old Meets the New: YouTube partners up with Walt Disney

This should be interesting….The New York Times is reporting that YouTube is teaming up with Disney to make Disney content available on its popular video engine. The new ‘family friendly video channel’ will include current Disney original series and user-created content as well as original content.

Why is Disney doing this? Let’s face it….video has gone digital and the delivery is mobile. Have you seen sales of DVDs lately? Not exactly on the rise. In my opinion, content is as much about the delivery channel as it is the content itself. Smartphones, tablets and notebooks that weigh slightly more than a feather is where it’s at and most, if not all, come preloaded with a YouTube ‘app’ or application making the video engine giant the largest and most popular database of video content on the planet.

If you are Disney, you just need to ask yourself….can I afford not to be a partner with YouTube? As popular as streaming platforms like Netflix and Hulu are and the emergence of iTunes into movies and tv programs, most people watch video on YouTube and do it daily. I like this partnership for both sides and what I like most about what Disney is doing here, aside from committing to a popular content delivery service like YouTube, is that they are ‘buying in’ to where the viewers are and committing resources to building a home there and not leaving it solely to the public to showcase chopped up Disney video clips in the form of bastardized, low quality versions of the real thing. Look out… The magic of Disney is coming to YouTube and in a big way.

Logitech partners with Google to enhance your TV viewing experience

The Logitech Revue is a new product that allows one to watch whatever you want from the Web or on your TV and comes with a Google TV companion box. Is this the future of TV?

Co-Branded Ads – A new trend?

I’ve been noticing more and more that brands are partnering with clients, suppliers and partners to co-brand their ads. It’s a great way for brands to demonstrate the strengths behind their proposition and almost creates a new identity for them. Some good examples are the ads by GE Capital and Bobcat as well as the University of Notre Dame and Xerox. I like the way these ads come together and demonstrate first hand how GE Capital is helping Bobcat and how Xerox is helping the University of Notre Dame with their solutions. I talk about Co-Branded advertising in my latest book called “Partnership Marketing” (Wiley). Would love to hear about some interesting Co-Branded ads that you have come across lately and what you think about them.

GAP Canada wants you to support their non-profit partners

The GAP recently launched their new e-commerce website in Canada and is now pushing online subscribers of their email coupon alerts to enjoy 30% off between November 11th – 14th and is promoting that during this event, they will give 5% of what you spend to their non-profit partners. The list includes Boys and Girls Clubs or Canada, Canadian AIDS Society, CARE Canada, Humane Society of Canada and The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society of Canada. All great causes, yet when you divide the proceeds raised during this campaign to so many partners,there will certainly be less to go around. Perhaps a better way to do this would be to rotate a campaign around one non-profit partner every month and then you could actually see if there are certain causes that customers gravitate toward more than others and if sales during given periods spike better than others. It also would give the non-profit partner more visibility in the marketing communications as well. Good on The GAP though….nice cause related partner campaign. I refer to some examples of these types of campaigns in my new book: Partnership Marketing (Wiley).

Tridel & The Art Shoppe – Partnering to sell more condos

I recently came across a direct mail piece from Tridel advertising their latest luxury condo development called “The Republic of Yonge & Eglinton” and took particular note of the partnership with a local high end furniture store called The Art Shoppe who happens to have their Toronto store location a few doors down from where this new condo development is going to be. The brochure talks about life at the Republic and how “refined living reaches new heights at midtown’s most luxurious condominium address”. “From the elegant lobby entry with attentive 24 hour concierge services and meticulous finishes such as 10 foot ceilings, marble accents, signature cabinetry and oak hardwood floors”, you get the picture.

OK, now to the partnership….what I took notice of is how they encourage prospective buyers to tour their signature model suite ‘Exquisitely Furnished By The Art Shoppe’. There are some great photos of the suite and The Art Shoppe’s logo is very prominent on the front of the brochure. This is not only a great way for the furniture retailer to get their name out there, but it’s an extremely targeted mailing mainly to those who live in the area (and may want to check out The Art Shoppe) and think of prospective buyers going to check out the signature model suite and maybe even buy a condo unit. The Art Shoppe has an opportunity to display their skills and goods to prospective buyers and because they are located within a block or two of the development, they benefit by giving prospective buyers an idea of what they can do for their new condo. These kinds of highly targeted Marketing Partnerships can really drive revenues from a retail business and if you were to compare the returns somewhere down the line of what a partnership like this had brought to The Art Shoppe in terms of incremental sales from new condo owners compared to their local advertising efforts, it would likely be pretty safe to say that the partnership with Tridel would result in a more cost effective customer acquisition program than that of other efforts that they spend on. Oh yeah……. the partnership should help Tridel sell more condo units too at a higher price point than if they decorated the model suite on their own, as well – not too bad for them either.

Starbucks partners with Yahoo! to create in-store digital network

Starbucks recently partnered with Yahoo! in the US and launched what they are calling a unique digital network in their 6,800 store locations. They already offer free Wi-Fi, so according to Starbucks senior management, this would be the next step in enhancing the customers digital experience. Starbucks hand picked a selection of popular sites like The Weather Channel, Foursquare, LinkedIn and offers in-store access to the network from smart-phones, lap tops or tablets that are logged on to Starbucks Wi-Fi. Click here to get a screen-shot of what it will look like.

I’m really not sure about this one. Yahoo! knows how to develop digital platforms and bring content together. They have been doing it for years , so I see why Starbucks would want to work with them and get in to the ‘digital network’ game. Could be quite lucrative. The question remains as to whether or not the news and entertainment sites selected will appeal to Starbucks customers. They have such a wide demographic and so many different segments – can you really pick for them? It will all come down to the value proposition and whether customers want to use their network or navigate the web on their own when having a coffee in store. I like Starbucks, but do I really need them to aggregate the web for me? Providing free Wi-Fi access on it’s own should be good enough.

How to acquire the right Marketing Partners to drive successful customer acquisition and distribution

It’s not too late to sign up for my seminar on “How to acquire the right Marketing Partners to drive successful customer acquisition and distribution for your brand and products” which I will be giving tomorrow in downtown Toronto. You want to Partner with other brands, yet which ones should you be going after? Do they have what it takes to be the right Marketing Partner for you? Can they successfully drive customer acquisition for your business and distribution of your products? I will address all of these questions and more. I invite you to come out and be part of session where I will go through case studies as well as tools for prospecting, pitching and negotiating your Marketing Partnerships and provide valuable insight on Partner Marketing models that truly work. Participation in this practical, hands-on, half day session will dramatically increase your Partnership Marketing knowledge and help take your business to a whole new level.

To register, click here.

How To Get Customers Through Business Partnerships

I’m happy to be co-presenting with John Follett from Demand Metric on the topic of How To Get Customers Through Business Partnerships via a FREE WEBINAR in conjunction with the NFIB on Wednesday, June 30 at 12 PM ET. You can register for the event by clicking here.

Here is a description for our Webinar:
You want to partner with other brands, yet which ones should you be going after? Do they have what it takes to be the right marketing partner for you? Can they successfully drive customer acquisition and distribution of your products? Join Ron Kunitzky from Geyser Marketing Group as he discusses how Geyser Marketing Group clients acquire the right marketing partners to drive customer acquisition and distribution and are leveraging their partnership marketing programs to increase the social and commercial capital of their brand.

Key topics include:

* How to search and select the right partners
* How to tie your partner channels to revenue and measurable key metrics
* How to formulate a compelling partner value proposition
* Understand the difference between partnerships that increase brand awareness and those that drive revenue
* How to pitch a prospective marketing partner

You can register here. Hope you can make it!

YouTube has two types of Partnership Marketing Programs

I was checking out the YouTube Blog and stumbled across this video which features a couple of YouTube.com employees speaking about the different types of Partnerships they offer their users. It’s a great overview for how you can generate revenue by posting videos, should they become popular. I like the way YouTube.com is working harder to collaborate with their users and engaging with them more.

Nonprofits & Corporate Partners: View the recorded webinar if you missed it!

I really enjoyed teaming up with the fine people at Artez Interactive last week for our co-branded webinar titled Nonprofits & Corporate Partners: Tips for Boosting Your Brand Through Their Social Media Channels. If you were not able to make it, you can click here and view the recording. Was an interesting session and special thanks to Kiran Balladin for putting this together and Claire Kerr for moderating.