At this moment when collab has become such a tired term to describe any type of partnership, I can say that I feel very willing to rescue the origins of the word and even to give new meaning to this nomenclature within the principles of cobranding.
One plus one, in our view, is always greater than two, as I say in the title of the book I launched in 2018. This is an account that we, at Cross Networking, have been doing for just over 15 years, since this company was born. It all started when we seized the fashion industry’s interest in the coveted invitation t-shirts for Sapuca’s Box N1. Our pleasure is to bring together companies, people and brands, always trying to understand who joins who and why.
Nowadays, collab is used as a synonym for mere one-off activations. But, for us, it is not enough to promote a casual meeting. We want the match you have day after and beyond that. Our purpose is to add value and importance to everyone involved in the business. And, preferably, remain in the consumer’s emotional memory.
That’s why no step is taken at Cross without us knowing the objectives of each brand, be it a company, a personality or even an independent professional. If you want to join someone in a new business, it is essential that you understand who you are, what image you want to sell and where you want to go.
Our ability to develop strategic partnerships for the business of each one, building a culture of integration of forces. Our aim is to accelerate results capable of generating growth for companies and their professionals. Without this prior assessment, you won’t go anywhere. A poorly designed partnership can even have a negative effect and put the assets of the players on the field at risk.
A expertise understanding brands and finding the right connections for them has been the result of careful processes in our spreadsheet, always based on detailed studies and the 5 Cs that govern what we call Crossability:
- Trust
- Creativity
- Collaborate
- Community
- Mutual growth
More than ever, achieving great performance in the current market context requires us to know how to divide and multiply. It is urgent to exchange EGOcentrism for ECOcentrism. What is at stake is the collective good as an essential premise for achieving individual good. The saying that no one does anything alone has never been so visceral.
In this context, it is necessary to understand what story will be told from a given partnership, with clarity about what will be offered from it and what is the difference to be added as a whole and for each side. This is why empathy is so necessary in combinations that result in the best cobrandings. Far from collapsing into cheap demagoguery, the planning that results in business most profitable and long-lived invariably directs social or environmental gains where vulnerability wreaks havoc.
Cross Social, an arm of Cross Networking, takes care of exactly that: replicating the partnerships it promotes in actions for those who need it most. Our motto The solution to your problem is in someone else. It is important to see cooperation where there is apparently competition, and Cross is very proud to serve as a beacon to illuminate such opportunities.
A true partnership as a business strategy is one that generates social and economic value, stimulates intelligence and affection. In a world of increasingly ephemeral relationships, creating bonds, after all, is extremely valuable capital, and that is our business.
Those who have not yet understood that brands that matter are brands that DO matter, with an eye not only on their profits, but on the collective good, will be left behind.
* This text does not necessarily reflect the opinion of Adnews
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