Jingle Trends • co-branding event

strategic planning • co-branding • event design • event management • creative direction

Creating a co-branding event involving a University, a fashion start-up and an optical retailer

In 2019 I designed and managed “Jingle Trends – 12 tales between craftsmanship and technology”, a Christmas event involving a co-branding between the private university IED-Istituto Europeo di Design with its Master’s in Brand Management, and two fashion brands: Asymétrie, a tailored clothing start-up; and Milleocchiali 4.0, the house-brand of the namesake’s optician chain.

Realising Jingle Trends was incredibly fun: there was so much creativity, the team was fantastic, the brands were enthusiastic and very cooperative.

I ideated the cross-branding event concept and, working with the Master’s students, we created and delivered the unique Christmas event hosted at Milleocchiali Luxury store in the heart of Rome. The focal point of the event was 12 combinations of blouses and glasses we had carefully selected to express distinct moods, which we then transformed into 12 micro-tales. During the event, the glasses and blouses were presented as works of art while two theatre actors read their corresponding stories. We enriched engagement with the public by presenting the micro-tales through postcards and online podcasts, ensuring a broader reach and lasting impact.

Jingle Trends was a resounding success, with more than 300 attendees on the first day of the exhibition with over 100 present during the core performance. The event resulted in both an increase in enquiries from prospective students regarding the IED Master’s in Brand Management and a rise in sales for the two promoted fashion brands.

N.B. To honour my non-disclosure agreement, I have omitted and hidden confidential information in this case study. All information in this case study is my own and does not necessarily reflect the views of IED, Milleocchiali or Asymétrie.

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Project duration

8 months

Business goal

cross-branding event

Industry

Event • Education • Fashion

Brief Analysis Event concept Event name & trademark Event strategy Event programme Deliverables Results & Impact

Brief

At that time I held the roles of programme designer, academic coordinator and senior lecturer for the IED Master’s in Brand Management, as well as working as a strategic consultant with both Asymétrie and Milleocchiali.

IED university aimed to show its commitment to working closely with businesses and providing excellent professional training in its Master’s course in Brand Management. They wanted to achieve this in a super-creative yet pragmatic manner.

Asymétrie wanted to promote its handmade winter collection and launch its spring collection. As a start-up it was hoping to create a brand boost, but without a physical touchpoint this was a challenge.

Milleocchiali was launching its Milleocchiali 4.0 line, an innovative, artisanal Made in Italy eyewear collection produced using a machine patented by the company: their goal was to communicate their unique product line. With a network of stores at their disposal, they had various venues to implement their strategy.

I had been involved simultaneously in the research and development of strategies by all three brands to achieve these objectives and, after careful consideration and preliminary analysis, I realised that – despite the diverse industries – the 3 brands had a significant target audience in common, and their business goals were complementary. This realisation prompted me to explore the potential connections and the possibility of co-branding.

Jingle Trends - Milleocchiali Asymétrie

Analysis

The main question behind this project was: what do these 3 brands have in common?

The discovery stage was all about answering this question using a variety of analytical tools, such as:

Stakeholders and user interviews [iterate]
Brand analysis for all 3 businesses and the specific products on which they wanted to focus
Stakeholder and targets analysis for each of them, including virtual ethnography research on the Milleocchiali Luxury store neighbourhoods in order to define the potential attendee base for the event
Event trends analysis

The analysis findings strongly influenced all subsequent phases, beginning with the creation of the event concept

Co-branding event concept

Guided by the analysis results, I conceived the Jingle Trends event concept, taking into consideration the following assumptions:

all 3 brands – IED, and in particular its Master’s in Brand Management, Asymétry and Milleocchiali 4.0 – focus on creativity, design, innovation, and Made in Italy
they share a substantial portion of their target audience
2 of the brands have access to free venues where an event could be organised
Christmas events are always welcome and well-attended, this is in part because of the festive atmosphere, in part due to a widespread desire to be involved in “something truly special”

So the idea was to organise a Christmas event at the chicest Milleocchiali store. The event would serve as one of the student project tasks featured in the IED Master’s Brand Management programme, showcasing the private university’s ability to establish ties between business and education, as well as emphasising its distinctive approach to teaching design and creative thinking while acquiring practical skills.

Asymétrie and Milleocchiali 4.0 products would be elevated to the status of “artworks” and exhibited as “contemporary art” pieces.
The event would integrate the storytelling of all three brands into its core phase and the unique characteristics of their products would be communicated in an engaging and entertaining manner.

Working with my Master’s students I organised and managed all aspects of the event and defined the missing details.
In particular we selected 12 Asymétrie blouses, matching every blouse with a pair of Milleocchiali 4.0 eyewear and we wrote an original short story for each pairing in order to narrate their characteristics in an appealing narrative, connecting them to captivating characters and engaging emotions.

Jingle Trends_Geometrie Gemelle_Notting Hill-True Blue

Event name & trademark

With Vincenzo Bernabei and our Master’s in Brand Management students, we created the brand name for the event. The brainstorming phase was prolific, but the idea that was unanimously acclaimed as the best was “Jingle Trends – 12 tales between craftsmanship and technology” because it synthesised everything we needed to communicate:

Christmas – the reference to the occasion for which the event was created was made unmistakable by the association with “Jingle Bells”, one of the most well-known Christmas carols

Fashion – in Italy the use of the English word “trend” is most often related to the fashion industry

Storytelling – thanks to the explicit suggestion that 12 tales would be shared during the event

Handmade and innovation – using the term “craftsmanship” and “technology” in the event subtitle, we wanted to stress that all the brands included in the co-branding were providing a tailored brand experience, each focused on mastering know-how as well as innovating design and processes

Duality – “between” reflected the duality of the exhibition: in fact, Milleocchiali and Asymétrie were introduced as protagonists of the event while the IED Master’s in Brand Management was presented as the organiser of the entire operation.

The chosen trademark focus on the brand name values and on mixing traditional and contemporary visual elements linked to Christmas.

Co-branding event strategy

Together with the IED Master’s students, we created the strategic plan for the event using a combination of divergent and convergent creative thinking techniques. As a result, we refined the event concept and presented to the co-branding companies the following:

a summary of all the analysis findings
the co-branding strategy description
the definition of event brand values
a strongly data-driven event concept and the main features of the event design
the brand name description and logo proposals
the event programme
the main features of the event communication and PR strategy

After all the co-branding actors approved those key points, I led the IED Master’s in Brand Management students in organising the Jingle Trends event.

Co-branding event programme

“Jingle Trends – 12 tales between craftsmanship and technology” was held on the first Friday of December, the day the Christmas season officially begins in Italy. The chosen venue was Milleocchiali Luxury store in the heart of Rome: the part of the city centre which is always full of people and tourists, especially during holidays.

People could visit the exhibition all day long, but the core event was set to happen at 6pm, aperitivo time.
While glasses of wine by Casale del Giglio [an event technical partner] were served accompanied by some nibbles, and after a brief institutional presentation of IED Master’s in Brand Management as organiser, two actors from the Barnum Theatre Company [an event technical partner] alternated their amazing voices in reading the 12 original micro-tales written to highlight Asymétrie and Milleocchiali 4.0 features and to deeply engage with the audience.

The Jingle Trends “art” exhibition remained open to visitors for one month.
Postcards and podcasts of the tales were available in all the Milleocchiali stores and online until the end of the Christmas season.

Deliverables

Event strategic plan report
Ongoing strategic consulting and creative direction
Event brand name and trademark
Event visual brand identity and set up
Marketing materials [photoshoots included], including 12 postcards, one for every micro-tale
Micro-tale podcasts
Event communication and PR strategy
Event organisation and management

CREDITS

“Jingle Trends – 12 tales between craftsmanship and technology” wouldn’t have been the same without the excellent support of the IED Master’s in Brand Management students AY 2018-19.

A special mention goes to:

Mariantonietta Garibaldi for the invaluable organisational support
Viola Carboni for the astonishing photos and postcards
Giulia Tempesti for the cool pairing and the exhibition set up
Eleonora Cordella and Benedicta Pretorino for the creative writing and the podcasts management
Federico Pizzi for the event logo and poster

Many thanks to IED, Asimétrie and Milleocchiali for believing in the idea from the beginning

Geometrie gemelle from MasterBrandManagement

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Results & Impact

Being simultaneously the programme designer, academic coordinator and senior lecturer of the IED Master’s in Brand Management, and the strategic consultant for Asymétrie and Milleocchiali, I created a co-branding event that could achieve the specific goals of each company.

“Jingle Trends – 12 tales between craftsmanship and technology” was a Christmas event I ideated and delivered with the support of IED Master’s students: a great success in terms of attendance and creativity.

Guided by the analysis findings, I led the team in creating a glamorous exhibition deeply focused on brand storytelling. The experience was unique: creating astonishing marketing materials based on 12 original micro tales, then enjoyed live [while tasting Casale del Giglio wines] and transformed into engaging podcasts thanks to the collaboration with the Barnum Theatre Company.

The Jingle Trends exhibition was visited by 300+ people during its first day only, and we counted 100+ attendees during the aperitivo and reading performance that was the core part of the event.

As a result of the Jingle Trends event, IED university had a very creative and pragmatic way of showing its commitment to working closely with businesses and providing excellent professional training with its Master’s programme. The event alone brought 40+ prospective students to the Master’s course in Brand Management.

Thanks to the co-branding event, Asymétrie obtained a temporary corner in a very central luxury store for 2 months – Christmas holiday included. This resulted in increased sales and associated the brand with an important local chain and with positive concepts, such exclusiveness, trendiness, innovation and art.

For Milleocchiali the co-branding event meant an strengthened awareness of its Milleocchiali 4.0 line, and the allure of the product line boomed as well as their sales.

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