Two Heads Are Better Than One

It is not that difficult to set up brilliant goals and missions then lay on a beach, sipping cocktail, dreaming of a bright future and thinking what a great destination you have and why nobody is coming to visit. Unfortunately, this is not a single case and this could be the end of a story. This proves once again that coming up with the objectives and developing an actual strategy has never been an easy task. However, it's not that difficult as it might seem from the first sight. As we are being taught straight away when engaging in some new venture, "if you don't know how to do something- watch! if it's unclear- ask! and if it's still too complicated- than find the people who do it and follow them!" What is more valuable is that if these people find your idea attractive enough then there could be a profitable partnership on a horizon. As it is said "Two Heads Are Better Than One!"

Marketing partnerships are very important to a destination as they bring some valuable advantages. Depending on a goal, which an organization perceive, strategic partnerships could be developed in order to: 

• share skills, experience, creativity
• broaden a scope of available customer data and market insight
• obtain availability of new ways to reach the target market
• spread your promotional message further
• save money by dividing the costs and technology
• redesign destination image 
• create and strengthen the brand

A short video about Partnership Marketing in Virginia illustrates how partnership of small businesses and local destination management organization (DMO) works. These marketing partners are supply-side and include major tourism attractions such as farms, hotels, restaurants, etc. Partnership marketing is a good experience not only for destination regions but also for single cities. New York city marketing video bellow provides a further insight into how integrated city marketing company  affects consumers and businesses alike. New York City DMO brings content providers, pop culture and celebrities together to create a distinctive and targeted promotional campaign. Working around Spiderman movie release, placing street performances together with OASIS music band from the UK and engaging 30 celebrities in "Just ask the locals" campaign are some of the tactics used for city promotion.

Also there are some partnerships, where both destination management organization and large companies are targeting the same market so they decide to benefit from each others reputation and brand name. Like it happened with Visit Australia and British Airways Partnership, "Australia has everything, except you". Here is a story-line of a small girl who lives in Australia and misses her grandparents from UK. As the Visit Friends and Relatives market from the UK is currently growing in Australia, this campaign is likely to be a big success. It should also be pointed out the way the add is made without showing any of the airline features, only at the very end. Nowadays this advertising style appears more and more often and not only in travel and tourism but throughout a large variety of products.

And here is one more example of how airlines engage into marketing activities together with destination management organization. The new ways of marketing suggest creating the most outstanding and out of ordinary content as you possibly can to engage with the audience which becomes more and more refined each day. Engagement facilitation through prize draws, competitions, quizzes etc. is one of the most effective tools. The video shows the effective partnership between Virgin Australia and Visit Australia, by establishing a competition where the most successful candidate gets a job which everybody dreams of! 

However, destination marketing partners don't necessarily have to be both from tourism sector. If the target markets are similar there is an opportunity for joint PR, this could be done on a paid-for basis or by some agreement where both parties can benefit. Here is an example of Tourism Queensland Partnership with Golf professional Adam Scott. This strategy was used as Adam was actually raised in Queensland and now is a famous golfer. Promotional campaign features a competition, where the winner can get a chance to play golf with Adam and also a chance to travel in Australia. the target audience would be golfers from USA invited to come and explore golf opportunities in Australia.

In order for partnership to succeed and blossom it is absolutely necessary to be very clear about goals and objectives of both sides. Working close together on marketing communications, target markets, words, images, key messages is very important. So that everybody has good understanding on what is going to happen after the campaign is launched and nobody is disappointed of the results.

Another interesting thing  is sponsorship, an activity where the sponsoring side offers funds or other benefits to an organization or event and as a result getting a chance to be featured and associated with that organization or event, which eventually is going to bring commercial gains.
This short video Tourism New Zealand Taxi Sponsorship. illustrates how New Zealand's DMO decided to sponsor taxi cars in Australian cities by creating a campaign which resulted in familiarizing tourists with  New Zealand's product offerings as well as benefiting tourists in Australia with a free taxi rides. Sponsorship is much better than just simple advertising as it creates experiences associated with particular events that will help not only to increase sales but also help to create a relationship between organization and customers.

At the same time there could be such sponsorship, where the commercial benefit of sponsored organization is much more obvious than any other non-commercial benefits. Please have a look at the official website with more information on Azerbaijan Land of Fire sponsorship campaign which was launched by sponsoring  Football club "Atletico de Madrid" in order to promote the destination.   However, it was officially stated in press release that the campaign has a potential to strengthen the relationship between Spain and Azerbaijan.