Topic: Partnership Marketing with Papa Johns

I recently received a fan page suggestion for Papa Johns from an apartment community, which I thought was a great idea, but not one I've seen all that much. And I wondered if the community had made an agreement with Papa Johns to promote each other. So I reached out to the manager at the community to find out more. Here's what she said:

Yes you are right! Our Papa Johns is right down the street from us and having a "student" property it works well! We get to have our flyers on their boxes, and have their mascot Larry Slice stop by and say hi (in costume)! And of course discounts on pizza for our resident functions. The students love it, we are directly across from Memorial Stadium (KU) so on game day its a blast to have Larry Slice walk from Papa Johns down to us in costume...causes quite the commotion. We really don't have an "agreement" but I do as much as I can for them. I have suggested their fan page, handed out their flyer to the 150+ residents that we have, and put pictures of Larry Slice all over our facebook. They are a great group of people and the owner Bruce is the best. He really gets the cross marketing pay off.

Thanks for the recognition,

Meshell Worley
Marketing Manager
Berkeley Flats Apartments

Thank you, Meshell, for letting me share this story!

We've always known that cooperative marketing is a great way to spread your message. Social media cooperative marketing--like Berkeley Flats has done--makes it easier than ever. The smart marketer will make sure to carefully craft a monthly message (maybe even a coupon) for their marketing partners to post on their own fan pages in return. The key is staying on top of it--not just doing it once and then forgetting about it. Good stuff!

Yes Brent, social media really allows these partnerships to flourish. Some apartment communities have discussed asking local business and restaurants to fan their Facebook page and then post offers for their residents. Does anyone have examples of this working?

I really like this line of thinking. Any time you can find an inexpensive (or free!) way to provide additional convenience or other benefits to your residents, and promote a local business at the same time, it's a win-win-win. As a manager, it's great to show your creativity in enhancing the resident experience, and I personally think it's even more appreciated than gifts (where some residents may get the feeling you're trying to buy their loyalty).

As long as it's done in a classy way, I'm a big fan of partnering with local businesses.

-Zach