HiPP’s baby food products are enormously popular in Germany, even among grown-ups – as apparently one of four glasses of HiPP baby food is eaten by an adult. But how many consumers do actually know that HiPP also produces breakfast cereals? Very few, I would say. In order to increase awareness for its muesli, HiPP […]

The premium cosmetics brand MAC is well known for its high quality make-up products, its tireless commitment against HIV and successful co-operations with fashion designers and celebrities to promote its periodical limited editions. For its autumn/winter 2010 collection they teamed up with the young designer duo Rodarte. But this time the marketers of […]

In quarter two of 2010 approximately 290 newly formed co-operations concerning marketing were documented by Noshokaty, Döring & Thun. The figures are similar to quarter two of 2009 during which about 290 deals were sealed, too. Please see the following graph for a detailed analysis of the data recorded since October 2006:  

Having a look at […]

Dinner with Missoni and Jean Paul Gaultier, drinks with Roberto Cavalli – what sounds like the ultimate celebrity weekend in a summer hot spot like Saint Tropez or Portofino is the result of a current co-operation trend: big names from the fashion business and world famous beverage brands. We took a closer look […]

It was this July that Air Berlin announced its entry to the Oneworld aviation alliance, joining forces with British Airways, American Airlines, Iberia, Cathay Pacific, Lan Chile and Japan Airways amongst others. The newly formed co-operation was intensively covered by the media. Not surprising, considering the fact, that Oneworld is the world’s second largest alliance […]

Since I just came back from a nice, recreative week with turquoise ocean, lonesome coves and picturesque places, I’m still in a very relaxed and summerlike mood even though the weather here in Berlin seems to have forgotten that it is still summertime. So I thought about my favourite summer co-operations and asked my colleagues […]

Roughly two years ago UNICEF hit rock bottom in Germany. The scandal concerning the intransparent and allegedly inefficient use of donations was covered intensively by news networks. The entire board of UNICEF’s German division was exchanged after donations decreased by more than 20%. But UNICEF is slowly reclaiming its throne among charities. In order to […]

Launched in the early 80, the Swiss based watch manufacturer Swatch has become a global phenomenon. The inexpensive, classic wrist watch, produced in endless bright, snazzy designs, has even become a cult collectors’ item. But during the last years it seems to have disappeared from wrists around the world. Since nowadays anyone has a smartphone, […]

Two weeks ago we presented the Top 5 of outstanding co-operations for real men. Today, we want to nominate the five best alliances to attract women. So please follow me into the marvellous world of fashion, accessories, glittering rhinestones, beauty and dieting.
Top 5: Fashionista Meets Technique Nerd
Versace, D&G, Escada and Prada – […]

Insurances by its nature have always been considered intangible products with an intense need for consultation. The high competitiveness of the German insurance market has made it necessary for financial service providers to think of new ways to distribute their products. Co-operations with supermarket chains actually seem to be a favoured option to them. According […]

Things are getting hot in town! Not just because of the current temperatures and the ongoing world cup fever, but also because of the 10th Berlin Fashion Week, which started this wednesday. Twice a year, Germany’s capital Berlin is transformed into an international stage for fashion and lifestyle. Next to lots of talented young designers, […]

You might ask yourself whether there are still things that you can’t purchase online nowadays. There is probably only little that can be added to the overall online product portfolio. You can buy books, shoes, cars and some guys may even “order” their wife via internet. But isn’t something missing? It seems as if the […]

Men and the way they think, speak and behave are mysterious - even to themselves sometimes. They are warriors, bread-earners and each and every single one feels like the inofficial best national soccer team coach, especially now, as the world championship is steadily moving ahead. Although men can be a little complicated, a lot of […]

On Monday, 28th of June, the German spin-off of the American Rolling Stone Magazine announced a co-operation with the excentric, purple-loving artist Prince. On July 22nd, free copies of his new album 20TEN will be distributed with the August edition of the magazine. Throughout Europe, 20TEN will be exclusively distributed through similar deals like the […]

How often does this happen to you? You are in the bathroom getting ready for a dinner party when you realize you forgot to buy a new bottle of shampoo, your toothpaste is almost empty and toilet paper is also running out. Thanks to the newly formed co-operation between the German drugstore chain Schlecker and […]

Decisions are based upon beliefs, values and our own special attitudes and business behaviour is no exception. Sabine Kuester, Professor at the University of Mannheim and Director of the Institute for Market-Oriented Management and Thomas Rilling, Doctoral Candidate at the Department of Marketing III at the University of Mannheim conducted a study […]

When cooking, you just have to follow the instructions in the cookbook and in the end the outcome should be quite acceptable. In marketing matters the coherency between input and output, marketing activities and sales, isn’t always that linear. But it seems like someone found the recipe for a successful marketing co-operation:
Take a […]

Since temperatures finally arrived at a summerlike level, I’m once again addicted to Ben & Jerry’s Cookie Dough ice cream. Yesterday I had the idea to create my own Ben & Jerry’s flavour – Vanilla ice cream with cookie dough and huge chunks of a Mars candy bar. Delicious! While sitting on the […]

Golden Kölsch versus dark alt beer; “Alaaf!” versus “Helau!”; left versus right side of the Rhine.
Two cities so close, but so different – for hundreds of years the German cities Cologne and Dusseldorf, only separated by 40 kilometres and the Rhine, cultivate a strong and passionate feud.
The old traditions are there to overcome, […]

What do sexy women and construction vehicles have in common? Despite the fact, that the appearance of either of them turns men’s heads, they both play a main role in the 2006 blockbuster Casino Royale. Having seduced over 50 women, this was James Bond’s first interaction with a wheel loader. For New Holland, […]

For Sex and the City (SATC) fans the waiting is over: The second part of the successful SATC movie is coming to the cinemas today and with it a platform for endless co-operations and product placements. The first Sex and the City movie was already filled with all kinds of references to brands, designer names […]

Many co-operations are created because of personal connections and formed on daily situations like a lunch or on the golf course. They are arranged with a hand shake among friends and … often fail though. Generally, a co-operation based on friendly relations is not bad idea but establishing a successful co-operation is not as easy […]

According to a survey of GFK and Serviceplan, 70 percent of all new product launches in the field of fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) fail. A very high number of all new product innovations turn out to be flops and just 17 percent of those products are successful from the beginning.
At the same time the […]

We are already counting the days: 34 days to go until the FIFA World Cup in South Africa, and 15 days until the Champions League Final in Madrid – our office is gearing up for the biggest sporting events in 2010. Luckily, we get first hand information from spielerwahl.de that we can use to impress […]

Reaching new target groups? Check.
Offering a significant added value to customers? Check.
Increase traffic in stores? Check.
Partnering in order to overcome times of crisis? Check.
Increase customer loyalty, brand awareness and positioning through unique product offerings? Check. 
Retailer H&M has discovered the benefits of marketing co-operations and uses them as means of differentiation like no other fashion chain. […]

Thank you to all our mesh-box readers, contributors and interview partners for your support through three years of blogging. We would also like to thank all companies that implemented co-operations which were funny, creative, bizarre, successful, unsuccessful, controversial etc for being an inspiration for more than 200 posts!
Have a great day!
Please note: if you want […]

Santa Clara County leaders must have been reading our Blog these days. Recently, we called pester power an unbeatable weapon in children’s marketing and it appears that Californian law makers have followed our hint: In Santa Clara County, they have taken measures to fight pester power, and their arms are powerful. 
To fight overweight and obesity […]

Maybe you remember one of our Mesh-Box articles about charity co-operations where we picked up the aspect of “commercializing” donations.  Companies were criticised for their willingness to donate money while shifting the donation to the customers: The result was the incomprehension of customers. In search for marketing co-operations I found a great one […]

Co-operations end. Most marketing partnerships are created to exist for a defined period only. In some cases, contracts are prolonged due to the great success of a concept. In other cases, however, co-operations don’t take the intended turn even though they were based on a great idea. 
We recently discussed the case of Burger King and […]

In terms of the development of recent marketing co-operations the new year started with the same trend like the old one has ended. The climb of new marketing co-operations in the industry stays steady compared to the last quarter of 2009.
With an amount of ~310 (see figure 1) newly created partnerships, 2010 still starts with […]

Dirty laundry is their business: detergent brand Persil by Henkel and washing machine manufacturer Bosch have come up with an innovative concept to present their products “in the wild”, and to a common target group of students, young professionals and commuters, in short: young potential customers. 
The Wash & Coffee shop, launched on April 1 in […]

It all started with promising headlines: “Burger King attacks McDonald’s”, “Burger King is heating up the competition”, “Burger King starts coffee shops”…Sadly, now it looks like the tide turned. No moccha frappuccino will be served at German Burger King restaurants, for instance.

Last November, the fast food chain announced a change […]

You know the story: In the check-out line at a supermarket, there is a nagging child demanding this specific toy or that exact candy. The parent, getting impatient and embarrassed by the screaming, finally buys the desired product. Sounds familiar? Then you have witnessed the outcome of a successful marketing campaign directed at children, activating […]

Easter time is bunny time! Well, I guess that is what Jochen Schweizer thought why it would be a good reason to co-operate with Playboy for the occasion of Easter holidays. The German event and activity company managed to get an exclusive partnership with Hugh Hefner´s magazine.
Jochen Schweizer is Germany´s best known company […]

A recent non-representative survey amongst our staff showed that 66 percent of us have a severe addiction: The hit-series Mad Men, set in the 1960s, has drawn us in and keeps us from doing our work, as Don Draper’s latest affair seems more important than anything else. Fortunately, the creators of the show did something […]

My name: Martin Brings
My company: Deutsche Postbank AG
My position: Head of Performance Marketing
Selected co-operations I worked on:
So far I’ve been working on different co-operations including T-Mobile concerning the development of integrated and innovative financial products and mobile services.
Currently we are extending our co-operation with eBay in order to provide exclusive financial services for the […]

„If you can’t attract the youth, you’ve already lost“. With these words German newspaper “Süddeutsche Zeitung” comments on the highly competitive and difficult automotive market. Even more than in other industries, car manufacturers need to make sure to attract the next generation of drivers and build brand loyalty from an early point on.
Many automobile companies […]

“Only one of you will be on the cover of the German Cosmopolitan. Only one of you will become the face of the new C&A campaign…” The successful TV show Germany’s next top model (GNTM) is back on TV for its fifth season. This means the return of shootings, challenges, bitchiness, hopes and tears but […]

Something tells me that with McDonalds we haven’t come to the end of our surprises yet. As experts on the field of marketing co-operations, we pretty much enjoy watching the company’s marketing activities, which apparently have been planned with a great hint of humour.
After having changed their red logo into a green one, suggesting a […]

Don’t we all have enough of that persistent winter? The actually taking place ITB, the annual world’s leading trade fair for the international travel industry reminds us of how badly we long for sun, beach, sand and warm weather.
Many recent co-operations somehow are getting us in kind of a Caribbean vacation summer […]

Finally nerds will see the sun again: A recently announced co-operation between Nokia and eSports market leader Electronic Sports League (ESL) brings competitive gaming to mobile and smart phones.  
The ESL Nokia Mobile League was announced at the 2010 CeBIT. From this month onwards, the platform will allow mobile gamers worldwide to compete in an […]

Green sells. Not necessarily the colour as such, but the message it represents. In a world where LOHAS are everybody’s darling, a company cannot afford to miss out on the sustainability movement spreading from large corporations to small and medium sized companies to consumers (and vice versa). And what easier way for a company to […]

With the ongoing internationalization of markets and the globalization, culture has been recognized as an essential driver for success or failure of marketing co-operations. Is it possible to operationalize this influence? With the objective to develop a method to identify culturally determined strengths and weaknesses of twelve European countries by including the findings of the […]

Combining shoes and cars? Sounds like the perfect fit for me! 
This year, British car manufacturer MINI decided to co-operate with Onitsuka Tiger, subsidiary of the well-known Japanese sneaker brand Asics. Within the collaboration they designed three pairs of unisex sneakers as a limited edition. The products contain the characteristic design elements of MINI: the contrasting […]

Software giant Microsoft is venturing off the beaten track into the jungle that is the fashion industry: The Xbox 360 manufacturer is going to launch a retro-style t-shirt line in co-operation with British label Joystick Junkies. The line will hit the market this year along with the launches of Xbox Arcade games and will be […]

Working in Berlin means working at the heart of a pulsating fashion centre with great creative potential. This city attracts lots of talented designers and artists from all over the world. Every Fashion Week, new designers present their first collections. The other side of the medal is that many hyped fashion brands fail nearly as […]

The recent global economic crisis led many companies to freeze their marketing budgets in the wake of decreasing revenues. Instead of giving up marketing activities all together, an increasing number of companies began to establish marketing co-operations. Daniel Beye of the University of Applied Sciences Hanover addressed the topic of partnerships between companies in his […]

What qualifies a company often mentioned in connection with obesity to become a sponsor of the world’s largest sporting event, apart from being willing and able to invest around 100 million Dollar (and more) in the games? Articles and blogs currently discuss the irony of having top athletes, with strict dietary restrictions and needs, endorse […]

Who doesn’t like Valentine’s Day? We surely do as it is a period of love, gifts and partnerships – yes, we mean marketing partnerships. Out of all great co-operation ideas we’d like to present you the Top 5 campaigns for lover’s day. 

Top 5: Merci + „Nur die Liebe zählt“
In 2008, Merci, leading German company for […]

An exciting co-operation was recently announced in press.
Dell, US-American producer of computer hardware, is co-operating with the biggest German consumer electronics retailer Media Markt. 
Dell who is known for its computers with individual features and its direct distribution strategy, decided after a short-term co-operation with Lidl in 2009 to break its business model with a long-term […]

The German saying “Do good and talk about it” of Georg-Volkmar Graf Zedtwitz-Arnim is resounded throughout the land. Originally, it could be seen as a basis definition of PR but nowadays it is much more than that. It is the motto of charity activities. This kind of corporate social responsibility is getting more important ever […]

  
My name: Jens Fischler 
My company: eBay Advertising Group GmbH 
My position: Head of Cooperations & Strategic Partnerships 
Selected co-operations I worked on:

eBay and Mozilla Firefox,
Responsible for partnerships at eBay Germany 

Relevance of co-operations in our industry:

eBay can be used as a trustworthy testimonial for partner products/services. We are currently restructuring all partnerships to present […]

Though the amount of newly established co-operations in Q4/2009 doesn’t differ from the previous quarter (Q3/2009), it is still the highest number of new signings since the beginning of the regular screening by Noshokaty, Döring & Thun.
 
A closer look at the development from 2007 to 2009 reveals the upward trend of marketing co-operations. The annual […]

Eva Mendes for Calvin Klein, Megan Fox for Armani, Klitschko brothers for Milchschnitte, Patrick Dempsey for L’Oréal, Roger Federer for Rolex…and these are just a few examples of celebrities promoting strong brands.
Advertising with prominent faces is one of the best known marketing tools. The intention is to differentiate the own brand and to […]

Happy 2010 to all our mesh-box readers!
We are starting this year with good news for all members of Germany´s biggest social network VZ.net. The network teams up with national telecommunication companies T-Mobile and Vodafone.
The cooperation enables network members to book a data-flatrate (for a charge of 2,99€/month) for the 3 different types of […]

Christmas is a period of high profits. So it has been a sport to many companies to persuade customers that their products are the perfect Christmas gifts for our friends and family. Therefore they are creating spectacular advertising campaigns and co-operations. Now with the snow falling in Berlin we are getting into the Christmas mood […]

TV sitcoms have a serious rival to fear. Web sitcoms or ‘webisoaps’, which are particularly designed for the internet and adapted to the needs of young users enjoy growing popularity. ‘Webisoaps’ are only a couple of minutes long and can be watched on demand anywhere anytime. A few companies recognized this trend and discoverd ‘webisoaps’ […]

German mail order retailer Otto and people’s magazine Gala are testing a revolutionary advertising format in Germany this Christmas. To promote the new Otto catalogue 2010, a small LCD display will be integrated into Gruner + Jahr’s magazine Gala.  
By opening Otto’s magazine insert, Gala readers will discover a very thin screen. With the help […]

Have you ever thought about how Google really works? 
I always thought that the secret behind Google´s search engine algorithm is a very complicated and complex formula. The truth is far from it! In fact the algorithm is a wise librarian who quickly searches through her books when we hit the search button and presents all […]

Energy companies have a lot of marketing work to do. In times of rising energy costs and environmental concerns the awareness among consumers about this topic has strongly increased. Consumers actively want to monitor and reduce their energy consumption. Furthermore, speculations about illegal price agreements have brought the big energy companies in Germany in discredit. […]

As you know, this is a blog about marketing co-operations. About the potentials, opportunities, effectiveness and success of good partnerships. However, we should not forget the many co-operations that go wrong. So, I thought it would be time for a short post with some – let’s say not that successful – examples, reasons for their […]

Just imagine: You are driving to work and while you are stuck in rush hour traffic, you’re getting an exclusive Biotherm Spa treatment. How could that happen? Thanks to the co-operation of Renault and L´Oreal´s luxury brand Biotherm and their invention of the 100% electric ‘spa’ concept car called Zoe Z.E . While driving, Zoe […]

The idea of media co-operations has been around for a while now and we seem to get used to them, but are they boring yet? Actually, there are quite innovative cases when companies and brands co-operated with different types of media without mixing up editorial content with advertisement.  
Let’s have a look at the theory […]

This month a new interesting co-operation has been announced within the financial sector. To address new target groups, the German Postbank teams up with the world’s online marketplace eBay.  
The purpose of this co-operation is to offer financial products that are adapted to the particular needs of eBay users. The first customised product is the […]

How could the implementation of marketing co-operations be improved? Which are the success factors of marketing co-operations? How can these factors be addressed best when establishing and managing a partnership? In her recent Bachelor thesis Nicole Preininger, student from the University of Applied Sciences Heilbronn, analyses the topic in order to develop a guideline as […]

Declining sales, falling profits and sinking numbers of customers - the economic crisis has caught up with almost every sector and business. Although or precisely because of this situation, industries have discovered the feasibility of marketing co-operations and want to tap their full potential. The following examples show how collaborations can be used as an […]

In the third quarter of 2009 the number of newly created marketing co-operations has reached a new peak in Germany with a total number of ~330 (see figure 1). This is up 14 percent from last quarter and an increase of 29 percent compared to the third quarter of 2008. These figures show a quite […]

 
My name: Paul Fritze
My company: Audible GmbH - We provide audiobook downloads for iPods and other mobile devices for people who don’t have enough time to read all the books they’d like to read or simply for people who love audiobooks.
My position: Marketing Manager Co-operations 
Selected co-operations I worked on: Over the past 5 years I […]

Against the common myth that notebooks cannot be fashionable, there are brand alliances, which prove the contrary. But first things first, recently I stumbled over this innovative joint promotion campaign at New York’s Times Square (see picture below). To be seen are two billboards, one which advertises the Hewlett Packard (HP) Mini Vivienne Tam edition […]

Right before the MTV Europe Music Awards (EMAs) will take place on November 5th in
Berlin, I found an interesting co-operation bringing these famous Awards into teenagers’ virtual lives. 
MTV, world’s biggest music channel, agreed to a co-operation with Habbo, an online platform for teenagers where they can create their own avatar, meet and chat to friends […]

Just in time for this year’s book fair in Frankfurt, various eReader developers are presenting their models to the public. From Sony to Amazon and txtr, everybody wants to have piece of the growing eReader market. This year’s sales figures for the US market are predicted to hit the benchmark three million pieces.
    
However, compared to […]

“Forget about Top 40 radio; how about Top 40 TV!” was the suggestion of Bon Jovi’s music manager and the band put it into practice. In order to launch their new studio album “The Circle” in the US, Bon Jovi signed an exclusive contract to become the first band of NBC’s “artist in residence” project. […]

IKEA’s world-famous bookcase is celebrating its 30th birthday this month. Designed by Gillis Lundgren in 1979, BILLY is today the top-selling bookcase in the world. 41 million people around the world keeping their files, CD’s and books in this bookcase. German living rooms are sheltering 18 million BILLYs alone. Now, IKEA is celebrating BILLY’s birthday […]

Half a year ago producer and Hollywood star Bruce Willis and French spirit company Belvédère joined forces. The cinema icon signed a multi-year partnership contract to promote the company’s vodka brand Sobieski in a specially produced print-digital advertising and at events throughout Europe and China.  
From a marketing perspective it appears to be a good […]

Internet Explorer vs. Chrome, Bing vs. Google, Windows vs. Chrome OS – Google and Microsoft find themselves in a situation of increasingly fierce competition in different market segments. As they are competing in the markets of browsers, search engines, online advertising, operating systems, and others, both companies are fighting for market shares from one another. […]

After bodywear, socks, fragrances, body care products, bikes, glasses, and sunglasses, the “Puma Phone” will be the new addition to the company’s license portfolio. Together with French telecommunication company Sagem, Puma is planning to enter the market of mobile phones in the second quarter of 2010. The new phone will be sold in Puma stores […]

H&M reveals another exciting co-operation – Sonia Rykiel, the “Queen of Knits”, will be the next guest designer of the Swedish fashion chain. With her knitted wear, French designer Sonia Rykiel invented her own exceptional style, representing the Parisian chic in 1968 and still inspiring young women around the world.
  

Beginning 5th December 2009 Sonia Rykiel […]

Did you ever think of building a hotel on the Champs Elysees in Paris or buying a skyscraper next to the Times Square in New York? Today I just came across a new and exciting co-operation of Monopoly and GoogleMaps that makes this idea come true – unfortunately only on the internet.  
With “Monopoly City Streets” […]

I just stumbled upon an interesting co-operation of automotive brand smart and French luxury brand Hermès. Although it’s almost been a year since the two collaborated, I still find this approach remarkable enough for a quick post.
Both brands launched a newly interior designed version of the smart called “smart fortwo édition Toile H” in line […]

Encouraging consumers to reduce their CO2 emissions – this is the aim of FRoSTA’s campaign “green energy”. Starting in April this year, FRoSTA and its three collaboration partners OSRAM, LichtBlick and Siemens promote the campaign on selected FRoSTA product packages as well as on FRoSTA’s and OSRAM’s website.  
The sales promotion offers different incentives, provided […]

In a move to increase car sales in the US-market, eBay Motors and General Motors launched of a first-of-its-kind co-operation. The new co-operation approach enables consumers to ‘click and buy’ new cars online from participating California Chevrolet, Buick, GMC and Pontiac dealers on eBay. About 20.000 cars will be placed on individual GM brand websites […]

Yesterday, Burger King and German soccer club FC Bayern Munich announced their long-term co-operation. Today, new details about the co-operation were brought forward. Germany’s Burger King CEO Thomas Berger states:  
“We are trying to re-arrange the sesame grains on the Whopper buns in order to place the FC Bayern logo on our burgers.”  
Can this […]

As we all know, climate change and environmental debates are increasingly relevant issues in our society. When looking at the rising number of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) activities within this field, it is obvious that it has become a topic of high significance for businesses as well. This issue now also reflects in a new […]

In the second quarter of 2009 we could observe a slight drop regarding the number of newly established marketing co-operations, i.e. a six percent decrease compared to the first quarter of 2009. However, with a total of 290 signings the number of new co-operations remains on the high level that was reached during the past […]

Starbucks is giving away coupons for their newly launched Starbucks Ice Cream on Facebook - unfortunately only in the US. For a period of two weeks until July 19th 2009, users can load the Facebook application “Share a Pint of New Starbucks Ice Cream“ and give away one out of 800 coupons per hour to their […]

Just after yesterday’s world premiere of “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince”, Microsoft and Warner Bros. have announced a co-operation in order to promote the latest Harry Potter movie in UK. Both companies already co-operated two years ago for the release of the DVD “Harry Potter and the order of Phoenix”. At that time fans […]

adidas Originals and Lucasfilm Ltd. announced to launch an exclusive Star Wars collection for the spring/summer season 2010. As adidas designed a limited edition collection with Lucas Arts including Yoda and Darth Vader sneakers in 2007, the new collection will continue and extend the co-operation between adidas and Star Wars.  With this partnership adidas continues its international […]

In the frame of Sony’s new camera series with Exmor CMOS Image Sensor, Sony starts the “Twilight football” campaign. On September 22nd the night of the equinox, the longest sunset of the year, the campaign will give Sony’s new camera modell the chance to live up to the promises Sony has made.

“Twilight football” is a […]

“Morning Joe” is a successful US weekday talk show with more than 500,000 viewers in which the latest news are discussed. The main show master is Joe Scarborough, a real all-rounder, who has been engaged in a great variety of jobs and activities. Considering the rather serious subject matter of the show and its broadcasting […]

(Re-)Discovering the value of emotions
Monitoring the real estate market it seems to have become a trend to develop a brand for luxurious real estate in order to market it better. That way real estate agents hope to attain a competitive advantage, which in turn is hoped to result in a higher price.  

To set up a […]

An interesting and innovative media co-operation found its way into the newspaper stores on May 28th. The German telecommunication provider O2 and the political-cultural magazine Cicero co-operated for the June issue of the magazine. The title page of the magazine was covered with doodles, the kind of doodles most of us scribble on a piece […]

Here is a little news flake for you: H&M is going to co-operate with yet another designer. Jimmy Choo is going to create the new autumn/winter collection for the fashion chain. The work of the high-heel designer will not only include shoes and accessories like bags, but also women and men clothes. The collection will […]

The American basketball league NBA and the British football league, known as the English Premier League, are two different sports, popular in two different continents, and both looking or even competing for the same sport sponsorships and investors. However, instead of competing against each other the sport leagues decided to team up and profit from […]

Thanks to a new co-operation approach fashion now becomes a life coach. The Spanish fashion label Mango and the popular Brazilian author Paulo Coelho have recently entered a co-operation. Coelho is a famous contemporary author, who gained popularity with his philosophical and fairytale novels like “The Alchemist”.

Corresponding to the zeitgeist Coelho meets the demand […]

What happens to high-end fashion and haute couture during the economic crisis? As any other luxury industry, also popular designer labels such as Prada and Gucci do not remain unaffected. Until now well-known and high-class labels have satisfied the demand for lavish and extravagant (life)styles. However, the last year has seen the demand for luxury […]

Renault has recently entered an ingredient branding co-operation with the Dutch portable navigation system brand TomTom. Together they introduced an integrated navigation system for the new Clio, called “The Carminat TomTom”. It is currently available for costumers in Western Europe only. For an extra charge of 490 Euros it is one of the cheapest integrated […]

The agency for marketing and co-operations Noshokaty, Döring & Thun has published the results of their study conducted at mesh-box. The study is a remake of an earlier survey conducted in 2007 and provides latest insights regarding the development of marketing co-operations within the last two years.
In the light of the ever changing business […]

Since the importance of marketing co-operations has grown throughout the past few years, Prof. Dr. Sabine Kuester and Thomas Rilling from the University Mannheim are currently conducting a survey addressing this topic. The survey investigates how various factors influence managerial decision-making with regards to the formation of marketing co-operations. More precisely, the study examines how […]

1) How did mesh-box come about?
[Susanne Ewenstein]: As an agency specialising on marketing co-operations we received numerous enquiries with regards to the latest trends and best/worst practice examples. In order to meet this demand, we decided to establish mesh-box. But frankly speaking, the blog is also a great opportunity for us to show our expertise […]

The no.1 online encyclopaedia Wikipedia and the telecommunication service provider Orange recently announced their 3 year co-operation, which gets launched in four of Orange’s key markets - France, UK, Spain, and Poland.
The decisive factor for Wikipedia to agree to this co-operation is its values: To make information globally accessible at no cost. Since a growing […]

Marketing co-operations stay on the rise
Throughout the last 2½ years the number of marketing co-operations within Germany has increased multiplied significantly: In Q3 2006 approximately 70 co-operations were established compared to 310 in Q1 2009. The figures, based on the statistics gathered and analyzed by Noshokaty, Döring & Thun, show that the number of co-operations […]

Barely any company remains unaffected by the economic crisis. However, the way companies deal with the situation varies greatly. Some react passively, whereas others react proactively and implement measures to counter the consequences of the economic crisis.
MyHammer and Praktiker are two German companies that decided to adapt a proactive approach and tackle the situation via […]

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is one of the first NGOs that employs a proactive marketing co-operation approach by initiating a co-operation with the US media conglomerate Viacom. Through implementing marketing co-operation practices such as product and content placement the foundation puts business theory to practice, in a field that was previously not familiar […]

Co-operations of well-known brands with famous faces are very popular. Especially now, during an economic downturn, companies have the opportunity to strengthen certain image dimensions with a famous personality, to sharpen their profile against competitors and to win over A-level celebrities for less money. In fact, more than 40 percent of Germany’s Top 500 companies […]

Can co-branding strategies establish themselves as alternatives within brand management on the long-term? Which other cross-marketing-strategies besides co-branding are implemented? A Diploma thesis from the University of Applied Science in Dortmund answers these questions. The author Julia Kemper investigates in how far co-branding and other common cross-marketing strategies are important extensions to conventional brand strategies.
Title: […]

About two years ago Noshokaty, Döring & Thun published the results of a survey on marketing co-operations. The study showed that although potentials and increasing relevance of co-operations were being recognised, many companies did not apply a systematic approach for this topic.
In order to see how this attitude and implementation approach of German companies […]

Watching the news or reading the papers is not very enjoyable in times of major economic downturns. The three common stories we get are companies go bust, companies apply for bail out, and companies are cutting costs wherever possible.
Let’s look at cost cutting. Activities that are not directly related to sales are usually […]

The Idea is quite simple but nonetheless innovative. A month ago Nokia and Skype announced the beginning of a partnership, which would permit the use of VoIP-Software on a selected number of Nokia mobile phones. This sounds like a great deal for consumers. Users, who have Wi-Fi access, can call friends and relatives with their […]

It is said that marketing co-operations are an efficient and effective instrument for marketers. However, so far there was no standardised procedure to measure how well marketing co-operations really pay off. Petra Branz, student of the University of Applied Science in Offenburg, critically analyzed the truth about this assertion and developed an adequate measuring technique […]

Finding the right partner for a marketing co-operation is not always easy. But a range of partnering platforms have emerged during the last years that help identifying and getting in touch with potential partner companies.So for instance Marketmarket, a German online portal for B2B marketing & sales co-operations, and online platform Introniche. There are also […]

Marketing co-operations developed impressively in the last quarter of 2008. With 300 co-operations a new peak is reached in Germany, and clearly shows that partnerships are a welcome marketing instrument in the current economic crisis.

Source: On-going market screening by Noshokaty, Döring & Thun

     
My name: Michael Hartwig
My company: General Motors Europe
My position: Head of European Marketing Communications Opel/Vauxhall
Selected co-operations I worked on: None since I started the assignment at GM Europe. Different engagements in my previous jobs in the automotive industry and ecommerce.
Relevance of co-operations in our industry: In general, I believe that the right […]

After placing the Ford Ka in the latest James Bond movie “Quantum of Solace”, Ford is now breaking new ground in the field of advertisement. Ford aims to address the young target group with the new Ford Ka. As part of a 360°marketing campaign including TV, print, online, and mobile advertising measures, the company now […]

Happy New Year 2009! We hope it’s not too late for best wishes and kick of another exciting editorial year of marketing co-operations with Hunter, a long-established brand for traditional British Wellington boots, which is a good example for the successful implementation of an international co-operation.
 
In collaboration with the well-known charity organization WaterAid, Hunter […]

Dear mesh-box visitors and contributors, 
Another year went by so fast and the mesh-box team is about to go on Christmas holiday, but of course not without giving you a short sum up on what has happened in the field of marketing co-operations. Also, 2008 has been an important year for mesh-box and its team and […]

Are there special guidelines that companies have to follow for establishing a successful co-branding strategy? Are some types of co-operation strategies more fraught with risks than others? A Master’s Thesis from the University of Applied Science in Berlin was written about the relevance of guidelines for establishing brand alliances. Author Katharina Lang interviewed representatives […]

During my recent trip to the states I came across another iTunes & Starbucks marketing initiative while ordering a coffee. Starbucks offers its customers at its 7.000 coffee shops within the US iTunes vouchers called: “Pick of the week”. The voucher offers a free song/music video at the iTunes store. Each Tuesday, a specific song […]

An interesting master thesis was written about Brand Alliances at the University of Brussels/Belgium. Brand Alliances is a beast with many heads: cross-marketing, brand endorsement, co-branding, joint promotion. The paper (in two parts) by Sam Desimpel from IntroNiche sums up the different aspects of brand alliances, the advantages & disadvantages, the pitfalls and how to […]

Svenja Jander, participant of Germany’s “The next fashion talent”, will become the new face of the well-established sewing machine brand Pfaff. Together, they will present Svenja’s latest projects as well as tips about sewing and being creative in the category “Of and with Svenja Jander” on the Pfaff homepage. Additionally, Svenja will use the expensive […]

A new book is out that you might find interesting. It is about building a “cool” brand image through partnership marketing. The author Del Breckenfeld, Director of Entertainment at Fender Musical Instruments Corp., reveals how partnerships with cool products, celebrities, musicians or events can strengthen the image dimension “cool”. OK, this is not new, but […]

After resolving legal disputes regarding copyright issues, Google and Bertelsmann have established a partnership this week. It now allows Google to go forward with its Google Book Search project, which includes the provision of partial book previews online.
Google can now feed its virtual library with English publications of Bertelsmann daughter Random House, the world’s biggest book […]

Is co-branding the central and topical focus of brand management in a time of growing product and brand diversity, stimulus satiation of consumers and loss of clarity of brand profiles? A diploma thesis from the MCI in Innsbruck/Austria
Daniela Wieser of the Management Center Innsbruck (MCI) in Innsbruck/Austria has written a diploma thesis about co-branding. You […]

 
My name: Marco Sewald
My company: SEB Bank Deutschland
My position: Director, Head of Strategic Cooperation Management
Selected co-operations I worked on: Since I’m leading the Strategic Cooperation Management department at the SEB Bank, I am constantly dealing with co-operations. In the past years my department has set up marketing partnerships for instance with the […]

An interesting master thesis was written about Co-branding at the University of Lund/Sweden. The study was published by VDM Verlag and is available on Amazon. You find a summary of the thesis below. For further information, contact the study’s authors Antonia Kohlbrenner antonia.kohlbrenner (AT) googlemail.com or Natalia Dorozala n.dorozala (AT) googlemail.com.
Title: “Co-Branding […]

Last week, P&G announced a partnership with fashion store chain Ann Taylor Loft to launch their new detergent “Tide and Downy Total Care” line. The clothing stores hand out free samples and coupons to customers who buy machine washable clothes. At first, it looks like a typical sampling promotion, but Tide and Down teamed up […]

With over 220 new co-operations in the third quarter 2008, another co-operation peak is reached in Germany.

Source: On-going market screening by Noshokaty, Döring & Thun

Most co-operations come to an end at some point. There are different occasions and reasons why. The questions we like to address here are how partnerships should be terminated and what are the risks that need to be taken into consideration?
In some cases, marketing co-operations simply phase out unnoticeably in the course of time without […]

Fashion retail chains collaborate intensely with designers and celebrities to create additional product lines that increase store traffic and eventually generate sales. By now, co-branding and design collaborations have become an established marketing instrument within the retail fashion industry with great sales and brand differentiation potential.
In the fast-moving and highly competitive, global high street fashion […]

Google recently announced a multi-year advertising, research and technology partnership with NBC Universal in which Google acts as broker for TV advertising time on some NBCU cable channels like Sci Fi, Oxygen, MSNBC, CNBC, Sleuth and Chiller. Both companies agreed to work together to capture more data on TV ads and […]

Here’s an example of a Belgian marketing cooperation.
Fintro, a branch of Fortis bank, has partnered up with the Senseo coffee, branch of Philips.
The main idea is that your banker at Fortis invites you to come and discuss your investment
profile, not over a cup of coffee, but over a cup of Senseo premium coffee. That […]

Sony Computer Entertainment and the world’s largest Wi-Fi community FON in Japan launch a new service: Play Station Portable&FON (PSPxFON). Herewith all Japanese PSP owners are able to have free internet access to the official PSP internet homepage from FON’s Wi-Fi access points. More than 44.000 hot spots across the country and 2,200 FON livedoor […]

“The New York Times” recently reported that DVR producer TiVo and Amazon expand their partnership. From now on, TiVo users will be able to order products (such as books, CDs and DVDs) directly from Amazon with their TV remote controls. The new “Product Purchase” feature enables people to buy products related to ads placed during […]

We were recently asked for an overall guideline on marketing co-operations (see comment): Here is our response: Why marketing co-operations are an important marketing instrument. How to identify a suitable partner. How to establish a marketing partnership. What are important watch outs…
We hope you find this useful. Let us know what you think…
Why? There are […]

The German single platform neu.de co-operates with Coty Prestige regarding its limited edition perfume ck IN2U POP. Under the motto “Flirt free” IN2U POP customers receive a coupon for a one-month free membership at neu.de. In return, neu.de raffles the unisex perfume daily on the dating platform.
  
Taking a closer look at this partnership it seems […]

Michael Schumacher is the new Bacardi Limited Global Social Responsibility Ambassador. Under the motto “Champions drink responsibly” Bacardi and Schumacher launched a road safety campaign with the intention to globally spread the message that alcohol and driving don’t match. 
The corporate social responsibility campaign was launched in April 2008. The first phase of “Champions drink responsibly” […]

With about 175 new marketing co-operations per quarter in the last year, partnerships have finally become an integral marketing instrument in Germany.

Source: On-going market screening by Noshokaty, Döring & Thun

I’ve come across a co-operation example on introniche.com (original post on ryanspoon.com) that demonstrates perfectly how a joint promotional measure should not be set up. 
Here’s the story: Ryan Spoon ordered Myoplex Light (a diet product) on Amazon. When he opened his Amazon parcel he found not only the ordered diet product, but also a McDonald’s […]

Under the motto DRIVE & RUN, the magazine RUNNER’s WORLD and BMW have published a running guide for (young) professionals who do a lot job-related travelling within
Germany.
 

(This is an example of the booklet)
The DRIVE & RUN booklet informs about where to go running in thirteen German cities. Every running route has its own route description […]

Bugatti, the French automotive manufacturer launches a new exclusive version of the Bugatti Veyron 16.4 in co-operation with Hermès: The Bugatti Veyron 16.4 Fbg par Hermès, which will be available in autumn 2008.  
The special edition is named after the street Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré (Fbg) in
Paris, where the headquarters of Hermès are located. 
It is […]

Marketing cooperation can definitely benefit lager corporations, as the examples on Mesh-Box amply illustrate.
Cooperation provides value to small and medium companies with less marketing muscle however as well.
Here’s an easily implementable example of a cross-promotion between European two start-ups:

Myngle, an online marketplace to learn languages
the Compare Group, an online price-comparison operator

Both companies target […]

I just came across an article stating Paul Smith teams up with Manchester United. 
From now on the Londoner fashion designer is responsible for the formal appearance of the football team, the trainers and other Manchester United officials for the next three years. The first creation was presented in June at the final match of the […]

From June on, Electronic Arts offers “IKEA Home-Accessories” for the strategic life-simulation computer game Sims 2. With this add-on (sold for about 20 Dollars), Sims-players can furnish their virtual homes in Swedish design. They can choose from bedroom, living room and office furniture. But there is one major difference to the real world: Sims players do […]

The Allianz Group has recently extended its partnership with the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF). According to Joachim Faber, member of the board of management of Allianz SE, the main objective of this cooperation is to identify and quantify the direct and indirect effects of the climate change for the Allianz Group. Moreover this […]

The IT security expert Avira and the publisher Ubisoft have teamed up to create virus-free online PC games. The partnership kicks off with a discount promotion. Customers purchasing a German copy of the “Assassin’s Creed Director’s Cut Edition” get a 15% discount on the Avira Internet Security Suite at the Avira Online Shop.
“Games that […]

Time flies - it’s already a year since we introduced mesh-box. In these last 12 months more than 350 people visited mesh-box.com on average per day, to learn about developments in the area of co-operations and to find out about specific collaboration examples. From the feedback we received, we have learned that you find it […]

Coca-Cola Germany and the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) have launched a nation-wide student contest. The intention of the project “Mach ‘ne Welle” (“Make a wave”) is to raise students’ awareness concerning the protection and preservation of water and other valuable natural resources. This competition addresses students between the 7th and 10th grade. In […]

Last weekend at the cinema I came across another Iron Man trailer. Audi has also joined forces with Iron Man in order to market the new Audi R8. Motto of the marketing co-operation is “One Man. One Machine. One Mission.” and key visual is - of course - Iron Man standing right next to the […]

LG, Paramount Pictures and Marvel Entertainment have entered an eclectic marketing co-operation for the commercialisation of a new film adaptation of the comic “Iron Man”. The co-operation idea is to relate the technology of LG phones to a symbol of technology coming to life: Tony Stark alias Iron Man. With this co-operation approach LG aims […]

adidas and Samsung have recently launched the running training handset “miCoach” that takes on the Nike+ training system – a product line jointly developed, launched and marketed by Nike and Apple - as it features comparable functionalities like the Nike+iPod Sport kit.
The “miCoach” system is build around a Samsung/adidas branded mobile phone and […]

Today, the new campaign of MTV and The Body Shop called “Move your Lips” kicks off in Germany. So what’s behind this co-operation? Both companies have been involved in raising awareness for HIV/AIDS prevention for quite some time. MTV Networks International established its charitable foundation “Staying Alive” in 1995 and searched for partnering companies ever […]