When things happen to me in threes, I take notice. I recently had three different experiences where my perception of a brand was lifted. (Evidently being a brand expert does not make me immune to the “mind control” brands employ.) All three experiences were with car brands and they all used the “halo effect” to sway my impressionable mind.

The Halo Effect
This brand building strategy is accomplished by aligning your brand (a) with a very shiny person, place, event or other brand (b). The luminosity of brand (b) is so great that it (b) casts a favorable glow onto your brand (a). It’s a clever way to elevate the perception of your brand through association. Think of not-so-smooth Turtle hanging out with heartthrob Vince in HBO’s Entourage and you get the idea.

Leverage The Best of Your Community
My first halo effect experience was at a party that Dave Brown of Holiday Matinee invited me to. Dave and Zack Nielsen of Sezio have an enviable project of spending Ford’s money to promote the Ford Fiesta. Ford gave them a car, cash, creative tools, and instructions to simply talk about the Fiesta. One of Dave and Zack’s brilliant solutions was to tap into their own creative community and throw a party at a cool location (Bar Basic) with great music and people. The event included a few hipster retailers creating pop-up stores within the party. I never would have paid a second look to the Ford Fiesta but as I was leaving the party, I glanced at the strategically parked car thinking to myself, “that’s a pretty cool little ride.” I felt punk’d, but in a good way.

Associate Your Brand with Impeccable Quality
Full Disclosure: I own a Honda Element which was mostly a practical decision based on the functionality of being able to insert my dog, surfboard and wife’s Prius into the back of the car. Even after buying the car, I wasn’t a Honda fan until after being introduced to a series of short documentary films called Dream The Impossible available here. The film’s universal themes in Failure: The Secret to Success and Racing Against Time move me on an emotional level. I also appreciate that while the films were commissioned by Honda, they are not about cars. Using quality imagery, music and story telling, the films are so beautifully executed that they radically shifted my perception of Honda.

Make Fun of Yourself
Many years ago I decided that it was just too much work to be cool. If your brand, or category, is notoriously uncool, a great strategy is to make fun of yourself. This will differentiate you from your competitors that take themselves way too seriously. Humor is always cool. And if you can pull it off like Toyota’s campaign for the Sienna mini-van (previously uncool), then you’ve scored. The hilarious ads and mock hip-hop music video Rollin’ in my Swagger Wagon left me thinking that maybe I should get some kids and a Sienna, err Swagger Wagon. Never thought I’d say that.

I know what your thinking. The car industry has gazillion dollar marketing budgets to shape hearts and minds. Yes they do, but you don’t have to. Take the strategies from above and execute it guerilla style (i.e. on the cheap).

So, how can you use the “halo effect” to cast a favorable glow onto your brand? Consider teaming up with another brand that may be extra-shiny. Doing work for shiny brands can be beneficial. I still have people think that we are responsible for launching Red Bull in the USA because we designed some simple graphics for their first in-store promotion. Getting shiny people to interact with work you’ve done is also effective. If they’ll provide some sort of endorsement, then even better. If there is a way to place your work in a shiny environment, do so. An artist friend of mine Susan Wickstrand Roche has some of her artwork in the hit TV show Modern Family. In short, constantly be searching for opportunties to promote your brand so you don’t have to always do the heavy lifting.