The Secret Marketer mulls multibrand campaigns

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You can understand why large corporates are obsessed with bringing together their brands for consumer-facing activity. With only so much budget to go round, why not pool together resources and see if greater synergies can be achieved via a multibrand template?

Better still, the sales team can focus on executing fewer, bigger, better or whatever the latest internal operating mantra might be.

It all makes perfect sense from an internal brand planning point of view, but does such an approach make any sense whatsoever to the poor consumer?

When the biggest of them all, Procter & Gamble, took the multibrand path earlier this year, the company claimed: “The world is changing and people want to know who is behind the brand.”

P&G added that purchasing intent can increase 20% as a result of consumers making a greater connection with the mothership.

We can debate whether this is an underlying consumer truth or simply a case of corporate arrogance of the highest order. Either way, I suspect the ROI and executional impact is a great deal better when budgets are pooled.

I suspect the ROI and executional impact is a great deal better when budgets are pooled

On a related note, I have come across a more creative multibrand campaign from Walkers and Pepsi, which have joined forces for a Fire and Ice promotion that involves Jalapeno Fire Doritos sold alongside Pepsi Max Citrus Freeze.

Crisps are consumed with soft drinks 58% of the time, but they are only purchased together in 13% of cases. Fire and Ice is designed to put that right. “Retailers are already doing meal deals and connecting products, but we’re integrating flavour matching with huge through-the-line support to drive penetration in a normally quiet period,” reads the trade release.

This is an admirable campaign and if it helps both of these brands secure off-shelf display and salesforce excitement it will have succeeded in achieving more than just internal corporate collaboration brownie points.

To further whet consumers’ appetites, PepsiCo/Britvic is running a prize draw to win a trip to Las Vegas or Iceland. Those fortunate enough to win either holiday will no doubt be able to enjoy a bumper gondola end-clearance promotion as the back end of the limited edition promotional stock melts its way through the system.

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Caroline Harris, head of insight at Costa

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