Better together: How brands can use partnerships and collaborations to push boundaries

This is part of an article series for the Power List 2022, created in partnership with Twitter as part of their global #LeadersforGood initiative.

 

As the saying goes, it takes all sorts to make a world — and the same holds true in marketing. A good marketer knows their brand’s unique selling point inside-out, but a great one should understand where their brand could benefit from a well-chosen partner — whether a creator, platform, NGO, or fellow brand — in order to achieve bigger and better things together. Done well, partnerships and collaborations can not only expand your audience, but also allow you to change the game by shaking up the public perception of your brand and bringing more value and delight to your consumers.

 

When partners have open, honest conversations about what they bring to the table and their shared goals, they’re able to achieve more together than they would have done alone. As a platform centred around conversation, nobody knows that better than Campaign Asia-Pacific’s Power List partner, Twitter. 

 

Preetha Athrey, marketing director for APAC at Twitter, says, “Some of the most successful brand campaigns we’ve seen have been a result of partnerships or collaboration; whether it’s a partnership with another brand, agency, or key opinion leaders. Partnerships are core to our work at Twitter, internally and externally. Not only do partnerships bring a bigger impact, but they are also able to connect us closer to our customers.” 

 

We spoke with leading marketers from Spotify and DBS — both of whom are returning members on the 2022 Asia-Pacific Power List — to better understand how brands can successfully leverage partnerships, collaborations, and a good dose of ingenuity to surprise and delight audiences.

 

On Twitter itself, Athrey used the #TweetYourMagic campaign in Indonesia as an example of how partnering with beloved brands has helped the platform make a tangible difference in its users’ lives. “It was a campaign that turned the ‘Tweet your magic’ phenomenon into a multi-brand partnership to make Ramadan on Twitter a meaningful one amidst all the challenges [of the pandemic]. Not only did the campaign reach more audiences from different communities, but it also brought together well-known brands that are loved by many to inspire and empower others to do good.”

 

Similarly, Ngui espouses the benefits of using a partner’s particular skills and advantages to innovate. As part of DBS’ larger efforts to be a “different kind of bank” — one that, among other things, is more like a startup in its willingness to disrupt and adapt — the bank has recently partnered with five digital platforms in the region to offer integrated financial services to small-to-medium enterprises (SMEs).

 

For social entrepreneurship initiatives, DBS has partnered with tertiary institutions, while an ambitious sustainability initiative against food waste saw the bank team up with statutory bodies such as Singapore’s National Parks Board and National Environment Agency, as well as food delivery and restaurant reservation platforms, NGOs, and media networks.

 

“We live in a very connected world these days, so it’s important to get our content and message through collaborations with different types of partners,” said Ngui. “The right partners for the right purpose can make a huge difference, because we are very mindful of the fact that we can’t do it alone, and we need to collaborate to make a deeper and broader impact.”