Ever had a ride on someone’s shoulders? It may have been a few years back, but you may remember that you certainly get a better view in a crowd. That’s the thinking behind crowd campaigns, where companies can give each other a bit of a leg-up.

The beauty of it is that small businesses can get the exposure of bigger-spending brands. Pooling their resources means that not only do they use each other’s funds to get create an impactful message, but they also use each other’s channels to get the message out.

Here’s an example. Shooting a promotional film would be too expensive for many small brands, but sharing the film with a few other companies brings the cost right down. And those other companies would all be equally keen to gain exposure for the film, so you can piggy-back the broadcast, distribution or social-sharing of the material too.

The trick is to find areas of common interest, where companies complement each other rather than compete. Thinking about the consumer, there are certain purchases that go together.  Valentines cards and chocolates. Sun cream and suitcases. Invitations and balloons. Specialists can briefly come together to offer a one-stop solution, at least as far as the marketing goes.

It’s not just limited to small businesses either. You’ll often find big brands giving each other a mutually beneficial hand. They may have bigger budgets to play with, but they have bigger competition too.

As well as considering whether another product or service complements yours, it is also important to give a thought to compatible brand values. You want to find brands which project a similar image or reflect similar aspirations to yours.

The price points between brands in a crowd-campaign may in fact be wildly different. To take one of the examples given above, a designer sun cream costs far less than a designer suitcase, but both would by purchased by an affluent holidaymaker. If the brand values and consumer profile match, then the price difference needn’t be a problem.

What you do need, however, is  a compelling campaign idea to tie all the brands in the crowd together. There is no one-size-fits-all here, but the participating companies need to be clear about what they are hoping to achieve throughout the process. Yellowfinch specialises in idea generation, crowd campaign planning and implementation, helping brands to lift each other up for greater exposure.