Million-Dollar Matchmaking, Finding the Ideal Partner for your Brand

Monday 20 March 2017
Maurice Hamilton, Global CEO at The SMC Group

By Maurice Hamilton, Global CEO at The SMC Group
I personally think that match.com has a far easier job than me at matchmaking. Not because they have huge investments in the technical tools that make their business work, but because fundamentally everyone that uses their services has the same objective - finding a match.
What makes my business so hard? Well for a start not everyone has the same objective. The brand and celebrities’ original thoughts very rarely align, leading to a string of compromises that sometimes negatively effects the relationship.
In an ideal world, brands and their agencies would consult with companies like mine from the very beginning. Utilizing our experience and expertise to help craft their campaign, using realistic and impactful engagement touch points.
How do we make things better? I think it starts with education. The majority of our clients understand and value the wealth of insight we bring to the table.
Knowing who does what and why, is an important part of assessing any potential match. For example, if the success of your campaign relies heavily on PR, it’s essential that whomever you engage is enthusiastic about this aspect of the relationship. Our job would be to review their PR history, and advise our clients on how active and effective they’ve previously been in this area.
In addition, brand tick-boxes such as the activation territories, timelines, and fees, can all weigh heavily on the initial discussion between the parties. We’ve seen previous cases were everything has aligned, aside from the production dates needed to get the campaign shot.
Most of the time we’re presented with a set of brand deliverables, detailing exactly what’s needed and when; the majority of deliverables arrive with the request of no compromises. This very rarely happens, unless you’ve understood from the very beginning what the potential partner needs to make the relationship work, and even then, most people tend to move the goal posts.
Below are a few of the questions every brand or agency should ask, before getting into any potential celebrity or influencer relationship:
How will the success of this relationship be measured?
How sustainable is the initiative we’re planning on activating?
Do we have clear and realistic objectives?
What are the things we are not willing to compromise on?
Do I have the expertise needed to create and manage a celebrity relationship?

Over the weekend, I caught a program called ‘The Millionaire Matchmaker’. In some regard the wealthy singles were somewhat similar to our brands and agencies. Confident in regard to their position, passionate about their wants and needs and practical, most of the time, about the journey they needed to make to achieve their goals.
Providing that the necessary steps are followed, matchmaking should be a relatively smooth and pain-free process. I strongly believe that there’s someone for everyone, as long as you’re willing to punch within your weight. The most important thing to remember is you should know what works best for you. Anything that doesn't feel natural typically isn't a good fit, and there’s no point in settling for something you know will not bring you both short and long term benefits.
If you’re unfamiliar with the SMC Group, we’re a global rights procurement agency that specializes in creating unique relationships between brands and talent. Operating in over 15 international territories, we are the world’s largest celebrity and influencer procurement agency. With a rich history in both PR and Marketing, our experts are in place to ensure that measurable efficiencies are delivered across the board.

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