The greatest business plan since Blockbuster took over video rentals, Netflix has come to dominate the home movie market. Adding to their ever growing offerings of direct-to-home dvds and a huge selection of instant-view titles, Netflix has now started its takeover of mobile movies. Netflix just announced that they are building on the success of the iPad version of their service and creating a free App for the iPhone.
This is a great example of cross-branding that should end in success for both parties. The key to that success is that both companies have excellent brands of their own: Netflix is already dominating their market, and iPhone is the clear leader in the smart phone division (and definitely the favorite cool technology of the last several years).
It got me thinking about other cross-branding examples. Here’s a couple – send in a comment with more of your own…
Ben & Jerry’s Americone Dream: The Colbert Report spun off from the hugely successful Daily Show in 2005, and just 2 years later Steven Colbert landed his own flavor of Ben & Jerry’s.
HTC Dream aka the T-Mobile G1 aka the Google Phone: This was one of the first smart phone competitors to the iPhone, and was also the first phone to use the Android operating system. With the G1, HTC put themselves firmly into the smart phone market, capitalizing on their connection with Google to sell this phone.
V-Dubs Rock: In an attempt to push the urban chic of the VW brand, in 2006 the car manufacturer teamed up with guitar maker First Act. Each buyer of a new Rabbit, GTI, new Beetle or Jetta model received a custom First Act GarageMaster guitar, that featured the VW logo and a seat belt as a strap. The guitar could be plugged into the car’s audio system to use the vehicle as a mobile amplifier.
Spongebob Barbie – What maniacal genius came up with this marketing monstrosity? I don’t think I need to say anymore about this one.
Lego Star Wars – Lego has been the king of cross-branding, but they really have the easiest product to do this with. But I would argue that the Lego Star Wars crossover has perhaps covered the most ground. Not only do they have a line of Star Wars toy sets to build – going way back – but they have also capitalized with a series of movies and a video game. And the video game version of the Lego brand is a whole new crossover, spawning great titles like Lego Batman and Lego Indiana Jones.
Your story about cross-branding makes me think about how we're really bombarded with ads these days. And you don't even have to leave your house to be overwhelmed: in your fridge, on your computer, labels, labels, labels everywhere.
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