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With budgets tightening across the business world, marketing is often under pressure to do more with less. But what if a brand could pay for part of a campaign without paying entirely in cash?<\/p>\n
That is the thinking behind Havas\u2019 brand-to-brand partnership model, which encourages companies to look at what they already have, from products and excess stock to media space, audiences and brand credibility, and use those assets as a form of currency.<\/p>\n
David Pickles, EVP of Loyalty and Partnerships at Havas Market UK, has spent decades working in brand partnerships and says the idea is becoming increasingly relevant as marketing teams face tighter budgets.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe only sensible way for every brand to materially benefit is to collaborate, is to start to trade,\u201d he says. \u201cTo get back to old-fashioned barter. And I don\u2019t mean media barter, I mean swapping shoes for pens.\u201d<\/p>\n
Turning excess stock into marketing gold<\/h3>\n
The proposition is not simply about brands swapping advertising space. Pickles says it can also provide a way for companies to deal with practical business problems, including excess inventory.<\/p>\n
One example involved a major chocolate manufacturer with five container lorries of luxury chocolate that was approaching its use-by date. Rather than sending it for disposal, Havas helped arrange for boxes to be given to teachers at the end of term.<\/p>\n
The arrangement saved the manufacturer about \u00a3150,000 in costs associated with reprocessing the chocolate, according to Pickles, while also helping it with its sustainability objectives.<\/p>\n
There was another commercial benefit. The organisation distributing the chocolate subsequently became a customer of the manufacturer.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s the kind of thing that you can do,\u201d Pickles says. \u201cIt can be about clearing excess inventory. It can be about driving sampling agendas. It\u2019s super creative.\u201d<\/p>\n
The same thinking has been applied to other products. Pickles recalls deals involving surplus bottled water being supplied to airlines and events, including a long-running arrangement with Festival Republic, now part of Live Nation.<\/p>\n In one case, surplus water became part of an event sponsorship and generated unexpected publicity, including a magazine feature involving Lily Allen. The model can also be used when products cannot easily be sold through normal retail channels. Pickles says Havas has worked with products carrying unclear or smudged date stamps which could not be sold to consumers, but could still be used as service items on planes or trains where the correct date could be verified.<\/p>\n \u201cThe stock doesn\u2019t have to be binned,\u201d he says. \u201cIt can actually be reused.\u201d<\/p>\n The same principle applies to marketing assets. Pickles points to retail media as an example, arguing that brands increasingly have valuable assets beyond their traditional advertising budgets.<\/p>\n \u201cEvery brand is a nascent retail media network,\u201d he says, pointing to on-pack opportunities, distribution, reach and the audiences brands can access.<\/p>\n Havas says its team speaks to close to 1,000 brands a month in the UK and operates across around 35 markets. The role is to find where the needs and assets of two businesses can match. A recent example is the partnership between Werther\u2019s Original and English Heritage. Pickles says the team considered around 40 to 50 potential partners before settling on English Heritage, with both sides bringing something valuable to the arrangement.<\/p>\n The wider Havas proposition has been built around brand collaborations for years, with Pickles pointing to work with PepsiCo as an example. Past campaigns have included crisps using flavours associated with brands such as Nando\u2019s and PizzaExpress, while a Walkers promotion involving Lastminute.com generated 11.7 per cent sales growth, according to Pickles. The numbers, however, are not always the point.<\/p>\n The biggest misunderstanding, Pickles says, is that value-in-kind partnerships are simply a way of getting something for free.<\/p>\n \u201cSome organisations think that it\u2019s about getting stuff for free but not giving anything in return,\u201d he says. \u201cThis is about reciprocal mutual benefit value exchange rather than a free lunch.\u201d<\/p>\n Havas uses what Pickles calls a \u201cbalance of exchange\u201d process to assess what each side is bringing to the partnership. The values do not always have to match financially. A smaller brand, for example, might value access to a much larger audience, while a major brand might value the credibility or cultural relevance of partnering with a specialist business.<\/p>\n Cash can still be involved. In some cases, a smaller partner may need financial support, while larger campaigns may require insurance or other arrangements to manage the value being exchanged.<\/p>\n \u201cCash is just one of the assets,\u201d Pickles says. \u201cIt\u2019s not the principal asset in any kind of value-in-kind exchange.\u201d<\/p>\n There are still barriers. Sales teams can worry that giving products away will reduce future sales, while legal and marketing teams can become involved too late. For Pickles, the solution is early collaboration across the business.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s when things are siloed,\u201d he says. \u201cThat\u2019s where you\u2019ll probably have problems.\u201d<\/p>\n Pickles admits, the model also has its failures. The exec recalls one campaign where creative intended for a Christmas advent calendar ended up on the wrong month\u2019s packaging, meaning the campaign appeared in January. But the bigger lesson is that these partnerships cannot be treated as a shortcut.<\/p>\n \u201cSome people come to us too late and think it\u2019s a magic wand,\u201d Pickles says. \u201cPeople make promises that they don\u2019t or can\u2019t keep.\u201d<\/p>\n For brands under pressure to stretch budgets, the attraction is clear. The challenge is working out what they have that another business actually values, and making sure the exchange works for both sides. As Pickles puts it: \u201cIt\u2019s literally just laterally and rationally thinking through what is the problem and how can we solve it with somebody else\u2019s stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.retailgazette.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Slanted-and-Column-template-Yasmeen-86-e1789650983728-300x133.png\")
\u2018It is not a free lunch\u2019<\/h3>\n