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WATER COOLER
Better Together
Tired of fighting the competition? Embrace ‘coopetition’
The promotional products
community is a densely
populated one, and
sometimes it can feel like
you’re being squeezed by
the competition. But what
if, instead of fighting over
dollars and clients, you
could come together to
make more opportunities
for everyone involved?
Robert Keane has seen
and felt the same stresses
in the printing industry,
so to stay relevant and
continue creating revenue,
the CEO and president of
Cimpress, parent company
of Vistaprint, has chosen to
embrace ‘coopetition.’ What
does coopetition look like?
Think about Amazon and
Netflix. The product-selling
powerhouse supports Netflix
with IT infrastructure, even
as the two compete in the
on-demand video space.
Keane’s printing company
found itself needing to
differentiate and compete in
the digital space; as a result,
Vistaprint was born. Since
then, Cimpress has grown
its supply-chain partnerships
for back-end operations,
while Vistaprint partners with
brick-and-mortar businesses
to resell its products.
In the case of promotional
products companies,
coopetition might be as
basic as recommending
a competitor to a client
when you can’t fulfill a
particular request for product
or decoration, with the
understanding that your
competitor will do the same
for you, all in an effort to keep
customers coming back to the
industry for years to come.
AD-ITIVES
Family
Friendly
Football
Advocacy group launches
fundraiser to replace
beer company as
British club’s sponsor
Football (or soccer, for us Americans)
means big money for sponsors, whose
names are plastered on jerseys for fans
to see and hopefully remember when
choosing which airline to fly, or gasoline
to buy, or—in the case of Everton FC,
a football club based in Liverpool,
England—which beer to drink.
Thailand-based Chang beer has
been a longtime sponsor of Everton,
which is the only remaining professional
club in the English Premier League to
have an alcohol distributor for its jersey
sponsor. But because Everton FC is
loved and followed by fans of all ages,
many feel this team deserves a more
family-friendly sponsor.
International advocacy group
BigAlcohol.Exposed launched an online
fundraising campaign in May to help
a tiny family-run barber shop, Sean &
Sean’s Barber Club, outbid Chang beer.
The online effort raised just over $2,100
through an indiegogo campaign (not
the $23 million it would have needed
to purchase the sponsorship), but
awareness of the dangers of marketing
alcohol to youth has echoed around the
globe, from a Facebook page to a Twitter
campaign to a full-page article in a Sri
Lankan newspaper.
by
Jen Alexander
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SEPTEMBER 2016
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THINK