Brand collaborations have been growing in popularity as a powerful marketing tool for businesses looking to generate hype and expand their customer base, but brand managers often rely on costly and time-consuming surveys and screenings to identify potential matchups. A recent study by a Penn State researcher and collaborators proposes a new method: an artificial intelligence (AI)-powered framework that can uncover promising brand collaborations by leveraging the social media chatter of consumers.
Combining traditional brand characteristics with information gleaned from social media posts that co-mention brands together, the proposed model could provide brand managers with a suite of potential collaboration opportunities tailored to their specific businesses, according to the researchers, who published their framework in the journal Information Systems Research.
In a survey of brand managers, brand pairs identified as favorable by the framework had nearly a 90% chance of receiving a higher selection rate than those the model eliminated as unlikely pairings, the researchers wrote. In addition, the framework categorizes its recommendations and provides practical guidance on the best way to pursue a collaboration, giving companies clearer insights into which brand alliances they should prioritize.
"Finding brand collaborations is a needle-in-the-haystack problem," said co-author Keran Zhao, assistant professor of supply chain and information systems at Penn State's Smeal College of Business. "Brand A might consider brands B, C and D as options, but they will never comprehend the whole brand network. The advantage of this framework is that it provides a systematic evaluation of hundreds of brands, as well as a detailed explanation about the how and why behind an opportunity."
The proposed framework is described by the researchers as a four-step system built around two key concepts: signal fusion - the ability to synthesize disparate bits of information into a cohesive insight - and actionability. The first phase focuses on the former, combining real-world brand info with co-mentions on social media to create a comprehensive network of brand connections that can identify promising potential partnerships.
