Cross-promotion is a form of

marketing Marketing is the process of exploring, creating, and delivering value to meet the needs of a target market in terms of goods and services; potentially including selection of a target audience; selection of certain attributes or themes to emph ...

promotion Promotion may refer to: Marketing * Promotion (marketing), one of the four marketing mix elements, comprising any type of marketing communication used to inform or persuade target audiences of the relative merits of a product, service, brand or i ...

where customers of one product or service are targeted with promotion of a related product. A typical example is

cross-media marketing Cross-media marketing is a form of cross-promotion in which promotional companies commit to surpassing traditional advertisement techniques and decide to include extra appeals to the products they offer. The material can be communicated by any mas ...

of a

brand A brand is a name, term, design, symbol or any other feature that distinguishes one seller's good or service from those of other sellers. Brands are used in business, marketing, and advertising for recognition and, importantly, to create an ...

; for example,

Oprah Winfrey Oprah Gail Winfrey (; born Orpah Gail Winfrey; January 29, 1954), or simply Oprah, is an American talk show host, television producer, actress, author, and philanthropist. She is best known for her talk show, ''The Oprah Winfrey Show'', br ...

's promotion on her television show of her books, magazines and website. Cross-promotion may involve two or more companies working together in promoting a service or product, in a way that benefits both. For example, a

mobile phone network A cellular network or mobile network is a communication network where the link to and from end nodes is wireless. The network is distributed over land areas called "cells", each served by at least one fixed-location transceiver (typically thre ...

may work together with a popular music artist and package some of their songs as exclusive

ringtone A ringtone, ring tone or ring is the sound made by a telephone to indicate an incoming call. Originally referring to and made by the electromechanical striking of bells, the term now refers to any sound on any device alerting of a new incoming ...

s; promoting these ringtones can benefit both the network and the artist.''Contemporary Marketing'', By David L. Kurtz, H. F. MacKenzie, Kim Snow. p521 Some major corporations—

Burger King Burger King (BK) is an American-based multinational chain store, chain of hamburger fast food restaurants. Headquartered in Miami-Dade County, Florida, the company was founded in 1953 as Insta-Burger King, a Jacksonville, Florida–based res ...

, for example—have a long history of cross-promotion with a range of partners (see

Burger King advertising Since it was founded in 1954, international fast food chain Burger King has employed many advertising programs. During the 1970s, its advertisements included a memorable jingle, the inspiration for its current mascot the Burger King and seve ...

). The

Disney Channel Disney Channel, sometimes known as simply Disney, is an American pay television channel that serves as the flagship property of Disney Branded Television, a unit of the Disney General Entertainment Content division of The Walt Disney Compan ...

has also made extensive use of cross-promotion. Movie tie-ins are good examples of cross-promotion. On occasion, badly planned cross-promotions can backfire spectacularly such as 1992

Hoover free flights promotion The Hoover free flights promotion was a marketing promotion run by the British division of the Hoover Company in late 1992. The promotion, aiming to boost sales during the global recession of the early 1990s, offered two complimentary round-trip ...

fiasco.

Co-marketing Co-marketing (Collaborate marketing) is a marketing practice where two companies cooperate with separate distribution channels, sometimes including profit sharing. It is frequently confused with co-promotion. Commensal (symbiotic) marketing Comme ...

and

co-branding Co-branding is a marketing strategy that involves strategic alliance of multiple brand names jointly used on a single product or service. Co-branding is an arrangement that associates a single product or service with more than one brand name, ...

are particular forms of cross-promotion. Android 4

Advantages of cross-promotion

* Cost of promotion is less * Win–win situation for both parties * Cross-promotion marketing is the easiest and often one of the most successful marketing strategies * Both businesses can promote themselves simultaneously

Cross-promotion in the media

A 2001 study by the

Project for Excellence in Journalism The Project for Excellence in Journalism was a tax-exempt research organization in the United States that used empirical methods to evaluate and study the performance of the press. The organization's director was Tom Rosenstiel, a professor of ...

found that US media outlets tend to cover their own company's goods and services much more frequently than others but declare the link only 15% of the time. For example,

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...

was nearly twice as likely to carry

Viacom Viacom, an abbreviation of Video and Audio Communications, may refer to: * Viacom (1952–2006), a former American media conglomerate * Viacom (2005–2019), a former company spun off from the original Viacom * Viacom18, a joint venture between Par ...

products as

ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster ** Disney–ABC Television ...

and

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters are l ...

combined.
The Ownership of the News: Report, Volume 1
'' Great Britain: Parliament: House of Lords: Select taco Committee on Communications, 2008. p58 In ''Flat Earth News'' (2009),

Nick Davies Nicholas Davies (born 28 March 1953) is an award-winning British investigative journalist, writer, and documentary maker. Davies has written extensively as a freelancer, as well as for ''The Guardian'' and ''The Observer'', and been named Re ...

wrote that both

Tiny Rowland Roland Walter "Tiny" Rowland (; 27 November 1917 – 25 July 1998) was a British businessman, corporate raider and the chief executive of the Lonrho conglomerate from 1962 to 1993. He gained fame from a number of high-profile takeover bids, in ...

and

Robert Maxwell Ian Robert Maxwell (born Ján Ludvík Hyman Binyamin Hoch; 10 June 1923 – 5 November 1991) was a Czechoslovak-born British media proprietor, member of parliament (MP), suspected spy, and fraudster. Early in his life, Maxwell escaped from N ...

had regularly interfered with their respective UK newspapers to support their business interests. The UK's ''

Private Eye ''Private Eye'' is a British fortnightly satire, satirical and current affairs (news format), current affairs news magazine, founded in 1961. It is published in London and has been edited by Ian Hislop since 1986. The publication is widely r ...

'' has a regular "I Sky" column highlighting cross-promotion by

News Corporation News Corporation (abbreviated News Corp.), also variously known as News Corporation Limited, was an American multinational mass media corporation controlled by media mogul Rupert Murdoch and headquartered at 1211 Avenue of the Americas in Ne ...

's UK newspapers ('' The Sun'' and ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...

''), focusing on references to the corporation's

Sky The sky is an unobstructed view upward from the surface of the Earth. It includes the atmosphere and outer space. It may also be considered a place between the ground and outer space, thus distinct from outer space. In the field of astronomy, ...

television network.

Richard Desmond Richard Clive Desmond (born 8 December 1951) is a British publisher, businessman and former pornographer. According to the 2021 ''Sunday Times Rich List'', Desmond was the 107th richest person in the United Kingdom. He is the founder of North ...

's 2010 takeover of Channel 5 via his

Northern & Shell Northern & Shell (holding company name Northern and Shell Network Ltd) is a British publishing group, founded in December 1974 and owned since then by Richard Desmond. Formerly a publisher of pornographic magazines including ''Penthouse'' and ''A ...

company was partly motivated by the opportunities for cross-promotion with his newspapers (''

Daily Express The ''Daily Express'' is a national daily United Kingdom middle-market newspaper printed in tabloid format. Published in London, it is the flagship of Express Newspapers, owned by publisher Reach plc. It was first published as a broadsheet i ...

'' and '' Daily Star'') and magazines (including '' OK!''); he promised the equivalent of £20 million promoting the channel and its shows in a marketing campaign in Northern & Shell publications. One commentator warned that "readers will be bombarded with references to Five. The opportunity for cross-promotion between his publications and TV channel are enormous."

Comcast Comcast Corporation (formerly known as American Cable Systems and Comcast Holdings),Before the AT&T merger in 2001, the parent company was Comcast Holdings Corporation. Comcast Holdings Corporation now refers to a subsidiary of Comcast Corpora ...

has engaged in cross-promotional strategies, internally known as "Symphony" (with internal meetings usually featuring imagery of

Arturo Toscanini Arturo Toscanini (; ; March 25, 1867January 16, 1957) was an Italian conductor. He was one of the most acclaimed and influential musicians of the late 19th and early 20th century, renowned for his intensity, his perfectionism, his ear for orch ...

, who led the

NBC Symphony Orchestra The NBC Symphony Orchestra was a radio orchestra conceived by David Sarnoff, the president of the Radio Corporation of America, especially for the conductor Arturo Toscanini. The NBC Symphony performed weekly radio concert broadcasts with Tosca ...

) to coordinate the promotion of

NBCUniversal NBCUniversal Media, LLC is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate corporation owned by Comcast and headquartered at 30 Rockefeller Plaza in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, United States. NBCUniversal is primari ...

content across all of its platforms and properties.

References

{{reflist Promotion and marketing communications