External partnerships are a crucial part of brand building and growth. But fail to look beyond audience and brand synergies when inspecting a partner’s potential and you risk unexpected consumer and market backlash, NT Tourism executive GM of marketing, Tony Quarmby, says.

A willingness to move away from doing business the way you’re used to, along with passionate commitment across leadership, are vital for brands looking to striking successful external partnerships, Uber’s head of marketing says.

Want to find partnerships that can build your brand strategically and commercially? Then try making a movie of your customer’s day-day-life to identify patterns of behaviour and touchpoints and you might just find some hefty clues.

​You are much more likely to deliver on your brand purpose by doing and saying something in partnership with another than doing something in isolation, says RB Health marketing director, Henry Turgoose.

One of the clear trends to emerge during 2020 was brands striking external partnerships. And if Deloitte’s recent Marketing Trends 2021 report is to go by, such partnership aspirations remain firmly in the spotlight this year as a way to drive growth, meet changing customer needs, lift cultural credentials and drive innovation.

​One of the interesting things to come out of this year’s unprecedented market conditions was a rethink around external partnerships and collaborations by local and global brands. Here, we highlight a few of the more unusual, unlikely pairings we saw during 2020 and why they were explored by the brands engaging in them.

Sponsorships and partnerships are evolving to inspire brand loyalty and advocacy.

Bringing in external help may seem overwhelming, but a branding expert can provide a lot of insight that you may not be able to provide from an internal perspective.

An inside look at the rapidly growing brand-partnership review site for influencers.

Founders need a compelling product story to win a marquee customer—and then turn that initial partnership into marketing gold. As a startup founder, landing your first big customer can feel like a chicken-and-the-egg scenario: big brands want to see case studies to prove the value of your product before they sign a contract, but you need brand name customers to feature as case studies. Once you ink your first deal and make that organization successful, however, that prospect can serve as validation for future customers of what your product can do. Read Full Story