Ads featuring multiple-brands are growing in popularity as brands partner with one another to cross-sell as well as share the costs of media buys. The challenge for advertisers, though, is creating co-branded ad creative that tells a cohesive story, in a short amount of time, and wins with audiences.
The MarketCast Ad Solutions team has pulled four simple tips to follow when creating multi-brand ad creative.
Multi-brand advertising partnerships should naturally fit together and provide audiences a combined product, service, or an offer that is “better together.”
Winning with Tacos and Baseball
Taco Bell and Major League Baseball hit a homerun with their “Steal a Base, Steal a Taco” campaign, which offered a free taco to baseball fans after the first stolen base of the 2023 season. In addition to shelling out thousands of free tacos, the multi-brand ad drove both hardcore and casual fan tune-in for many of the first games of the 2023 MLB season.
The highest performing co-branded ads, as measured by MarketCast, go beyond just slapping a partner logo on the ad’s end-tag. Instead, they find creative ways to integrate both brands in the storyline.
Delivering During Cold and Flu Season
When DoorDash partnered with cold and flu medication, Mucinex, the combined ad creative featured a DoorDash delivery driver zipping through traffic while avoiding Mr. Mucas, Mucinex’s “boogery” animated mascot. The ad was fun, relatable, and featured mentions of both brands nine times in 30 seconds, making it score off the charts for ad resonance, delivering +15% above the norm for multi-brand ad and brand recall.
Best Practices for Co-Branded Storylines:
- Storylines should be linear, simple, and relatable to audiences.
- Include repeated brand mentions when possible.
- Keep the pace balanced.
- Integrate both brands naturally.
Scoring with NFL Fans
When the NFL teamed with YouTube TV to offer the NFL Sunday Ticket after 29 years with another broadcast partner, its launch ad (during Super Bowl LVII) featured recognizable visual cues from both iconic brands. This included a popular YouTube character, Keyboard Cat, playing a piano accompanied by musical score synonymous with NFL Films, and a booming sports announcer voice-over.
Best Use of Brand Cues:
- Leverage brand color palettes, logos, and design shapes.
- Make your mascots co-stars.
- Integrate all your sounds – music, voices, and sonic logos.
There’s always pressure for both brands to have equal billing. Before you fight for screen time, however, consider your goals for the campaign.
Considerations:
- Define the purpose of the ad – awareness or outcomes?
- Which brand is more critical to your goal?
- How can you put the primary and ride along brands in the right context?
Made for Each Other
When Buffalo Wild Wings teamed with Pepsi to promote the combination of tasty wings and thirst-quenching soft drinks, it was clear who was the star and ride-along brand. The 15-second spot featured two guys sitting on a couch ordering wings and Pepsi for delivery – with Buffalo Wild Wings taking center stage and Pepsi a supporting character.
While the ad scored right at MarketCast’s norm level for Ad Breakthrough (Memorability), Buffalo Wild Wings delivered 91 percent for Brand Linkage and Pepsi 43 percent. Goal achieved.
To learn more about our benchmarks and best practices for co-branded advertising and MarketCast’s ad testing and in-market measurement solutions, contact us.