Campaign Crash Course: Tips for effective brand collabs

Welcome back to Campaign Asia-Pacific's Crash Course learning series, in which you will learn valuable lessons and practical business tips on trending and essential topics from industry experts in just five minutes. Think of it as a mini mini MBA, if you will.

Lessons will cover the breadth of the marcomms industry, including technology, creative, media, strategy, leadership, diversity and inclusion and more. We'll start off by introducing you to larger topics and delve deeper into specific elements in the future. This series is designed to be useful to C-suite executives as well as those just starting out in their careers.

The 15th lesson in the Crash Course series delves into how to create more effective brand partnerships. Not every brand can do it all themselves. Most can benefit by teaming up with a partner that provides a new target audience, new cultural credibility, development expertise or brand equity to the table. 

While it's easy to get carried away with all the potential a new partnership can offer, it's critical to be clear ahead of time on exactly what you intend to get out of the partnership and how your partner can provide it. 

In this lesson you will learn:

• Why partnering with other brands can elevate your game
• Questions to ask when choosing a partner
• Why some brand collabs work better than others
• What you may need to contribute in the process
• How brand moments can become movements.

Your teacher

Michael Patent is the founder and president of Culture Group, a pan-Asian sports, entertainment and brand marketing agency based in Singapore and Shanghai. The agency guides brands in shaping culture through innovative brand strategies and creative partnerships to reach Asia's growing aspirational classes of young consumers.

Prior to founding Culture Group in 2016, Patent served in a variety of capacities with AEG Global Partnerships in New York and Shanghai. With more than a decade of experience as a senior sports and entertainment executive, Michael is passionate about helping clients seize commercial opportunities and successfully engage new customers and fans in Asian entertainment and content ecosystems.

The quiz

After you watch the above video, test your knowledge of setting up brand collabs with this nifty quiz:

Campaign Crash Course is an ongoing series with new courses to be released on Fridays. We are always looking for feedback and ideas. Have a suggestion or want to take part? Complete our feedback form or email our editors.