Good relationships are based on communication and trust. In online advertising, they're also based on something else: synergy. It isn't easy to build a campaign in which everything between the publisher and the advertising brand aligns. Site user profile and target audience, page content and ad content, and ad unit and engagement goals aren't often perfectly in sync. But when they are, you know it.
Such was the case with a recent campaign devised by two masters of the written word, Dictionary.com and Barnes & Noble. In this co-branded social media effort devised to promote the Barnes & Noble Nook e-reader, publisher and advertiser joined cerebral forces to come up with an angle that would be equally appealing to Barnes & Noble customers as to Dictonary.com users. Together the brands asked the question: "What's the most memorable word you've learned from a novel?"

Most avid readers would thrill to this kind of challenge, but it takes more than an enticing concept to make a successful campaign. To create something relevant and memorable, brands must play up existing synergies through as many angles and channels as they can. With this approach they can make it almost impossible for audiences to miss the message, and even more unlikely that they'll forget it.
Together, Dictionary.com and Barnes & Noble found three techniques for achieving this with their campaign. Consider how they might work for yours.

When the synergies between two companies are right, a campaign can go far. When brands can find unique ways to leverage those synchronicities, however, the results can leave you at a loss for words.
Convergence Analytics: Digital Measurement in Transition
This joint report by ClickZ and Efectyv Marketing seeks to identify how the evolution of digital analytics affects and challenges practitioners, vendors, and investors. Download it today!
Tessa Wegert is an interactive media strategist with Enlighten, one of the first full-service digital marketing strategy and services agencies, serving such brands as Bioré, Bratz, Food Network, illy, Hunter Douglas, Jergens, and Olympic Paints and Stains. An industry veteran, Tessa has worked in online media buying and planning, marketing, and online copywriting since 1999. She is an active freelance writer specializing in interactive marketing who has contributed to U.S. and Canadian publications, including "USA Weekend Magazine," "Marketing Magazine," "The Globe and Mail," and "The Montreal Gazette." She is frequently quoted as an industry expert and speaks regularly at industry conferences and events.
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