What is cross promotion?
Cross promotion is a trade of audiences. Two brands with overlapping customers and non-competing products agree to put each other in front of their people: a co-branded campaign, a product bundle, a guest appearance in each other's content, a shared event, a mention in each other's newsletters. Each brand lends the other its credibility and its reach, and nobody writes a media check. The classic shape is a product and a place to buy it, or two products that belong in the same life.
It is older than advertising. The cereal box with the movie on it, the sneaker and the athlete, the coffee in the bookstore are all cross promotion. What has changed is that every brand now has its own channels, so there is always something to trade.
Why it matters
Why cross promotion matters
Reach is expensive and trust is slow, and cross promotion buys both at a discount. A brand reaching a partner's audience arrives already vouched for, because the partner chose to be seen with it. It also solves a problem paid media cannot: getting in front of people who have opted out of advertising but not out of the brands they already love.
Done well it also tells a story about the brand. Who you choose to stand next to says what you are.
In practice
How cross promotion works in practice
- 01
It starts with the partner, and the partner has to make sense: the same customer, a different product, a comparable standard of quality. Then the exchange is defined. What does each side give (channels, content, product, access) and what does each side get, with a simple agreement covering who approves what, how each brand's identity appears and how long it runs.
- 02
Then the work is made so it looks like it belongs to both. The strongest cross promotions have a shared creative idea rather than two logos on a poster: a film both brands would be proud to run, a product that could only come from the pair. Results are tracked on both sides, usually through dedicated links, codes or landing pages, so the next deal is made on evidence.
At RIOT
Cross promotion at RIOT
The Nutrafol x Sephora product films are cross promotion in its cleanest form: a hair wellness brand and the beauty retailer that carries it, telling one story that serves both. The films had to feel at home on either brand's channels, which is the test every cross promotion should pass before it ships.
Watch out
What people get wrong about cross promotion
Partnering for reach alone. A brand that cross promotes with anyone who has a big audience dilutes the only thing it was trading: its meaning. The other mistake is making it lopsided. If one brand gets all the exposure and the other gets a logo in the corner, the second one will not do it again, and the audience will notice the imbalance before the brands do.
