Quest TV channel and Meantime Brewing Company are running a multi layered promotional and content partnership that spans off trade, on air and digital.

Quest is producing six films for Meantime that will support the brewer’s wider ‘Make Time For It’ campaign, which celebrates ‘time’ as the fifth ingredient in all of its beers. The films will showcase six different craftspeople across six UK cities, each making something in six weeks (the same time it takes to brew a Meantime beer) to create the perfect drinking environment. The craftspeople include a glass blower, sign maker, furniture designer, lighting designer, wallpaper maker and tailor. All the items they are making will appear in a meantime pop-up bar at the end of the campaign.

Meantime are releasing the films on its website, starting in June and finishing in September, the coming months (the first of which is launching this June), while Quest is supporting through on-air competitions across its programming.

To support the partnership, Meantime Brewing Company is running a Quest TV on-pack promotion across 1.5 m bottles of Meantime’s London Lager, Pale Ale and Yakima Red to give consumers the chance to win a money-can’t-buy trip to Yakima Valley in Washington State.

The winners will accompany Meantime’s founder and Brew Master, Alistair Hook, on his annual hop-sourcing trip to the Yakima Valley and get a taste of outdoors with river rafting and fly fishing activities. As the home of hops and adventure, the Yakima Valley trip offers something for fans of both Meantime’s award winning craft beer and Quest’s adventure programming.

Simon Downing, Head of Quest, says: “The Quest viewer takes time to indulge his interests and to embrace new challenges. Our Yakima Valley trip promotion with Meantime connects them with their passion points of craftsmanship and adventure. Our collaboration enables us to deepen brand engagement with a 7,000,000 strong audience.”

Consumers will be also in with the chance of winning limited edition Meantime beer, brewed specially for each of the six craftspeople involved, as well as tickets to Meantime’s crafts exhibition planned for October 2016.

The activity, which runs from June to September, was developed and negotiated by Mediator Communications. Mediator has brought TV channels including UKTV, A+E Networks and Discovery Networks together with brands for mutually beneficial partnership marketing campaigns.

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Jo Coughlin of Mediator Communications reports back on the IPM’s first ever Partnership Marketing Conference, Creating the Perfect Blend

In an ever-changing marketing landscape, brands are looking at alternative approaches to engage a hard to reach consumer. As a result, we’re seeing the growth of Partnership Marketing, as it earns its place amongst the marketing mix as a more engaging, effective and innovative tool.

This was the subject of the IPM’s recent conference, Creating the Perfect Blend, which took place on Friday 22nd April 2016. Organised in conjunction with the UK Partnership Panel and chaired by Mediator Communications’ Managing Director, Tara Honeywell, speakers from British Gas, Warner Music, Comic Relief, NOW TV, Cinema First, LiveNation and Fusion Festival discussed the pros and cons of Partnership Marketing, talked through case studies and drew on their own experience to talk about trends and best practice.

Everyday, consumers buy into brand propositions; often, those that resonate most are where great brands, retailers and common causes come together to create the perfect match. The conference saw those at the forefront of shaping the future of partnerships share their views on why partnerships has become so important in today’s marketing mix as well as demonstrate the powerful combinations that have grown brands.

There can be some ambiguity around what is meant by ‘Partnership Marketing’ and its scope. Tara Honeywell began the day’s proceedings by outlining the definition that was created by the UK Partnership Panel, whose role is to raise the profile of PM across the industry.

This definition states:

“Partnership Marketing is the discipline of brands working together to co-create ideas that are collectively more effective for their businesses and more compelling to their consumers.”

Matthew Leopold of British Gas then shared how the energy giant’s sponsorship with British Swimming created a ‘new world’ model of marketing partnerships, focusing on the depth of the ‘fanship’ rather than on the more activation-led approach which they had previously applied to the sponsorship.

By engaging people who care about the sport, British Gas was able to help British Swimming grow the fanbase and increase participation in the sport and in turn trigger likability, affinity and consideration of British Gas over the long term.

This deeper engagement and a more meaningful association helped change the way the customer felt about British Gas outside of a standard sponsorship badging exercise. Truly integrating the partnership and sharing objectives created a more credible association.

For Ciara Godley at Comic Relief, having clear objectives and working together has been the secret ingredient in Comic Relief’s hugely successful and long term partnership strategy.

Sainsbury’s has partnered with Red Nose Day for years and is their biggest partner outside of the BBC. Not only does the retailer raise a lot of money for charity, but it has also benefited itself – ‘Red Noses’ have driven footfall into stores and engaged with shoppers on a much deeper level. For Comic Relief, a flexible approach to a partnership and having passion and belief has reaped rewards for the charity and all involved.

Tanya Easterman from Cinema First took us through the journey of how Meerkat Movies changed the game of movie partnerships by applying a full business response to the partnership with significant investment that built the momentum.

For Cinema First, it was important to re-invigorate the ‘Orange Wednesday’ proposition and evolve the partnership. It was important for them when choosing a new partner that this was a genuine partnership that promoted the industry and would drive incremental business for all parties. For the cinema industry, the partnership has opened the offer up to multiple day visits and are looking at a family offering and for Compare the Market they’ve retained customers as well as impacting customer perceptions.

Tara Honeywell closed the day with a round-up of the outtakes, from movie and charity partnerships to sponsorships and music collaborations there were three clear aspects required to create the perfect partnership:

• Strategy first;
• Collaborative approach;
• Clear KPIs and evaluation metrics.

The IPM’s Managing Director, Carey Trevill concluded: ‘We decided that Partnership Marketing as a discipline needed a spotlight – an important part of any marketers tool kit, this first Partnership Conference started to explore the future thinking of the industry. We were delighted to work with the Partnership Panel on this and look forward to a close working relationship in the coming year.”

If you are looking to use partnerships to help your brand grow take a look at the Partnership Panel’s Best Practice Guidelines.

Jo Coughlin is New Business Director of partnership marketing agency Mediator Communications. She can be contacted on jo.coughlin@mediator.co.uk

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The Institute of Promotional Marketing has joined with The Partnership Panel for a one day conference titled Partnership Marketing: Creating the Perfect Blend, bringing together heavyweight industry speakers from big names including Warner Bros, Comic Relief, Unilever, Sky, British Gas, Cinema First, Now TV, Live Nation and Fusion Festival.

The conference will explore a range of topics, including:

• Why Partnership Marketing has become so powerful in today’s marketing mix;
• How powerful combinations can grow brands;
• How consumers respond to great partnerships – and what consumer expect from them;
• How to deliver the perfect blend to create successful partnerships;
• How to measure the impact and cost-effectiveness of partnerships.

Speakers include:

• Tara Honeywell, Managing Director of Mediator and founder of the Partnership Panel (chair);
• Bob Suppiah, Director of Promotions & Partnership Marketing, SKY;
• Matthew Leopold, Partnerships (market development and brand), British Gas;
• Bob Workman, Senior Vice President Brand Partnerships, Warner Music;
• Tanya Easterman, Senior Relationship Manager, Cinema First;
• Fiona Thornton, Partnership Director, Live Nation;
• Lindsey China, Partnership Controller, NOW TV;
• Jack Horlock, Partnerships Director, Fusion Festival;
• Krasimira Byalkova, Brand, Unilever.

The conference takes place on Friday April 22nd 2016, starting at 8:30 AM and finishing at 5:00 PM, in the distinguished surroundings of 30 Euston Square, London NW1 2FB, next to London Euston mainline and tube stations.

If you’re a marketer across brand or agency responsible for planning and securing activation, this conference is for you. You’ll finish the day equipped with a clear understanding of why partnerships work, how they should operate and what you can do to secure partnerships for your brand.

Tickets are available to book now with early booking discounts available to IPM Members including further discounts for bulk bookings. Bulk ticket purchases may also be available for non-IPM Members – please get in touch on contact@theipm.org.uk.

Spaces are limited so early booking is advised.

The conference is being run in association with The Partnership Panel, a select group of twelve partnership specialists who get together once a quarter to discuss, debate and share insight on the evolving role of Partnership Marketing. The Partnership Panel will be represented at the event and will be available for question and answer sessions. Read more about the Partnership Panel here.

The IPM has over 200 members, drawn from brand owners, marketing agencies and service partners, and its mission is to protect, promote and progress effective promotional marketing across all media channels, helping create confident and informed marketers. It acts as the voice of promotional marketing, working alongside other marketing bodies to ensure that members’ interests are properly represented in Whitehall, Parliament and Europe.

The IPM has serving representatives on various industry committees, such as the Committee of Advertising Practice, the body responsible for writing the rules that underlie the UK’s self-regulatory system for marketing.

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Partnership marketing agency Mediator has announced four new recruits for its Partnership Panel, which it established in 2015 to help develop best practice, guidelines and resources for marketers who use partnerships.

The new additions to the Panel are:

• Scott Radcliffe, Senior Partnerships Manager, Sport England;
• Fiona Thornton, Partnerships Director, Live Nation;
• Sharon Reid, Senior Content Partnerships Manager, O2;
• Lindsey China, Partnerships Controller, Now TV.

Since launch, the Partnership Panel, which meets once a quarter, has agreed a global definition for Partnership Marketing; created Partnership Marketing best practice guidelines; and explored evaluation and measurement metrics for partnerships.

The aim panel is to produce content that can help those in the industry produce best-in-class partnerships. It is collaborative by nature and all insight and resources derived from the panel will be shared in the public domain.

For 2016, the Partnership Panel will be looking at:

• Commissioning an academic piece of research around Partnership Marketing;
• Organising a Partnership Marketing conference in association with the IPM;
• Establishing networking events

The full panel now consists of:

• Bob Suppiah, Head of Promotions and Partnership Marketing, BSkyB;
• Scott Radcliffe, Senior Partnerships Manager, Sport England;
• Fiona Thornton, Partnerships Director, Live Nation;
• Sharon Reid, Senior Content Partnerships Manager, O2;
• Lindsey China, Partnerships Controller, Now TV;
• Tanya Easterman, Senior Relationships Manager, Cinema First;
• David Peters, Managing Director, Dentsu Aegis;
• Tara Honeywell, Managing Director, Mediator Communications;
• Katie Coteman, Senior Director, Commercial Operations, Discovery Networks
• Zoe Jobson, Publisher, Immediate Media;
• Dino Myers Lamptey, Head of Strategy, 7 Stars;
• Adrian Varma, Head of Regional Marketing, Virgin Trains.

The aim is to have a panel of expert marketers, all of whom specialise in partnerships and have a minimum of five years experience in the field, from a range of sectors, each bringing a different perspective to the table.

Fiona Thornton, Partnership Director, Live Nation, says: “I’m excited to be joining this panel, working with experts across various sectors to share knowledge and learnings on partnership marketing. Having worked in partnerships for a number of years in both media and the live music industry, partnerships continue to be hugely relevant for brands and publishers – this panel provides a great platform to share best practice.”

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