To the point: The Trojan horse
We get requests for media partnerships all the time. Partnership always sounds good. But what do they mean?
In the inquiries, management and marketing terms are blithely thrown around. The whole litany is prayed down: Win-win situation, efficiency increase, synergy gain, positive image transfer, communication optimization, target group-appropriate environment, etc. etc.
The simple word partnership can have many meanings. In addition to the media partnership mentioned above, there is a partnership for peace, which comes from NATO. There are town twinning arrangements, recognizable by the signs prominently displayed at the entrance to towns in our neighboring countries, indicating, for example, that the Goethe and university town of Ilmenau is twinned with Tirgu Mures in Romania and Blue Ash in the USA. Interesting to know. Registered partnerships have been known for some years and to remain politically correct, there are also same-sex partnerships.
Let's ask Wikipedia what a partnership is. It says "A partnership is a sexual and social community between two people at the same time" and continues "In a narrower sense, partnership also refers to the commitment that two people who meet on an equal footing enter into in a sexual relationship designed to last". If we leave the sexual component on the side, then we come closer to the matter. It's about things like "companionship", "permanence", and "equality of eye level".
What does this mean when applied to a media partnership? Such a partnership can be very useful. Many cultural and sporting events, for example, would not be possible if the public or private media did not support them by drawing attention to them and reporting on them.
But it's a different story for a trade magazine. If we leave all the marketing gobbledygook on the side for a moment, very many inquiries are about just one thing: A commercial company wants to save costs. They want to have ad space available, but pay nothing for it. The partner then generously gets a logo presence on the invitation and one at the event. Why does the word rip-off come to mind? Or the regulars' table joke: Partnership means that the partner creates?
Pierre C. Meier, Editor-in-Chief pc.meier@werbewoche.ch
