‘We help well known brands do what they do best‘ is a common theme when it comes to corporate advertising. The objective is to associate Brand X (usually a smaller or lesser known brand) to with Brand Y (a large, well known brand of repute) and hope that there is a positive rub-off on the former.
A campaign running in the latest issue of HBR for Xerox caught my attention. Released first in 2010, the campaign ‘explores how Xerox helps iconic brands with business process and document management, freeing them to focus on what matters most – their real business’. Xerox, a well-known brand was associated with photocopying first and then with ‘document management’. I guess conveying that they are also about IT Outsourcing, Customer Care and so on warranted an association with other brands.
Images: Via
What I liked was the juxtaposition of well-known characters from iconic brand companies and dramatizing the mundane business processes they could be doing, at the cost of their real job. The campaign involves a website and a TV campaign too; but the print ads were the stand outs for me.
2 Comments
Thank you for your post, I enjoyed reading it.
The Xerox example brought to mind Ogilvy's iconic "[brand] runs on SAP" campaign. Although the latter was much more minimalist in its approach, the premise of "we help well-known brands do what they do best" still very much applies, and I think with strong effect.
I wrote a post on my blog a while back on the related topic of co-marketing, the notion of two brands coming together for a mutually beneficial purpose. I invite you to read it at the link below.
Keep up to good work on the blog and the twitter stream!
Martin
http://adboardingpass.com/2011/08/03/sometimes-jo…
Martin, thanks for the comment:) I am a big fan to Adboardingpass too. You're right the symbiotic equation works for several categories & brands – most common in Express Delivery (FedEx,DHL, UPS etc.) and other services.