Brand partnership: Psonar & New Look
Pay-as-you-go music streaming service Psonar secured a major promotional boost yesterday. Up to a million readers are enjoying their new brand partnership with high street clothing retailer New Look.
As a leading fashion brand and retailer with over 500 locations around the UK, New Look are possibly a perfect match for a brand partnership with tech startup Psonar.
The fashion and music sectors appeal to largely similar demographics. Psonar in particular was keen to work with New Look as it is a streaming service designed for younger music lovers.
Making the deal possible was Psonar’s pay-as-you-go model. It makes it simple to give away pre-paid playlists through print publications. Readers simply enter a promo code into the Psonar app (either at sign-up or afterwards) and the music instantly appears in their ‘Playlists’ section. No money or card details are required, and there is no obligation. Readers simply press play and enjoy!
Every month New Look produce New Look magazine, with both print and online versions, to introduce new trends and products to their customers. This magazine has massive reach. Over a million copies are printed and distributed through all New Look stores in the UK.
This promotion was an especially attractive one for Psonar because of the format. Typical readers offers are listed in a single place, normally towards the back of a publication. The New Look magazine instead distributed information about Psonar and the offer from the first page to the last. The offer, Psonar’s logo, and the URL of a landing page were covered in eight different places throughout the magazine. Psonar was the only brand partner for this issue, so the Psonar reader offer was a major component of the publication, not just an afterthought on the inside back cover.
The focus of this month’s issue was the upcoming summer season. New Look asked Psonar to compile a playlist of twenty tracks that would sum up summer festivals for their readers. Psonar’s music experts got to work, making sure the tunes New Look customers enjoyed were as current as possible. This wasn’t a particularly easy task. The playlist had to be compiled months in advance, and it’s impossible to guarantee when any particular song will eventually be released. Scheduled release dates are always subject to change. Including a track not yet released on the playlist risked a song not being playable when the magazine came out. Careful negotiations with the various music labels was required. Thankfully, Psonar’s knowledge of the music industry is extensive.
When both sides make an extra effort to get a promotion right it is the sign of a good brand partnership. There are always demands from each side that require negotiation. A successful brand partnership leaves both sides happy with the results, and both sides eager to keep the brand partnership going.
This isn’t the only readers offer we have in the pipeline for Psonar at Imp Communications. Our biggest promotion of any type is set to run of next month in a national tabloid. Stay tuned for more details!