Virtual Run Fundraising Platforms

Ryan Trahan has completely changed how YouTube partnerships should actually work. His "50 States in 50 Days" series is super fun and entertaining, but what I find most interesting is how brands are getting involved. Here's some quick context: Ryan and his wife Haley are road-tripping across all 50 states, staying in different Airbnbs every day while raising money for St. Jude Children's Hospital. The series has over 100 million views (so far). And while the series could have easily been sponsored, Ryan decided to keep the series unbranded to maintain creative control. Instead of traditional brand integrations, he created story-driven opportunities for brands to get involved through donations. The results have been incredible: Airbnb donated $250K and sent a private chef to one of Ryan's stays, showcasing their experiences feature, which they've been eager to promote. Bob Evans Restaurants donated $50K and triggered the "Wheel of Doom" which created a challenge for Ryan to visit one of their restaurants. This quick thinking got them a ton of exposure for a fraction of what a traditional Ryan Trahan sponsorship would have cost them. Dollar Shave Club's donation triggered a Wheel of Doom penalty where Ryan couldn’t shave his beard. Here's the thing that makes this work that we can all learn from... Instead of brands interrupting the content, they became part of the story in ways that actually enhanced it. The lessons for creators: How can you create creative openings in your videos for brands to get involved? Rather than thinking about brands as interruptive to your content, what parts of your videos could brands actually make more fun to watch by participating? The lessons for brands: How nimble is your marketing team? Can you get involved in real-time opportunities like Ryan's and be a part of viral moments? Or would it take months just to get approval? Brand agility is going to matter more and more in a world of streaming & real time participation. This is how brand partnerships should feel on YouTube...integrated into the story, not interrupting it. (Also, I have to mention that it's honestly a shame that a creator like Ryan feels he can't work with brands on a series like this without sacrificing authenticity. This says a lot about the macro pressures that brands put on creators to adjust their creative. But I'll leave that rant for another day.) #creatoreconomy #youtube #marketing

*What Brands Can Learn from Dharna Durga's Unique Brand Integrations* 🎯 If you've seen Dharna Durga's content, you know how effortlessly she blends brand collaborations into her storytelling. Here's why her approach works — and why brands should take notes: 1/ Fresh, Viral, and Value-Driven Content Dharna brings fresh perspectives that audiences love. Her content delivers value first, making it naturally shareable and enjoyable — the perfect formula for virality. 2/ Content Comes First, Brand Follows She integrates the brand into her content — not the other way around. This subtle but crucial difference makes her brand mentions feel organic, adding to the storyline instead of disrupting it. Audiences appreciate this authentic flow. 3/ Creators Know Their Audiences Best Great creators understand their followers — what they love, what they skip, and what truly resonates. Brands that trust creators with creative freedom gain better visibility, reach, and engagement. It's a win-win. 4/ Celebrity-Level Impact through Genuine Integrations On Dharna's branded reels, even celebrities have commented on how seamlessly the brands fit into her content. Some even say, "You should do more of these!" — proof that authentic, story-driven collabs enhance brand presence and attract high-level engagement and credibility. What This Means for Brands: Stop forcing salesy ads that audiences skip or scroll past. Audiences today are smart — they can spot inauthentic content a mile away. Instead, let creators do what they do best: build engaging, relatable stories that naturally integrate your brand into their narrative. Time to rethink your influencer marketing strategy?✌️

What to say when you announce a sponsorship, so people actually pay attention. This ain’t the run of the mill press release. You’re building the story that your partners, execs, and media will build from. For context: I co-write messaging with sponsors and service providers across sport. From the first post to the follow-up that actually drives momentum. Here’s the 13-part checklist I use with sponsors to make sure that happens: 1/ Headline POV Lead with perspective. Not the deal. → “Why [Brand] is backing [Athlete/Team]” → “This is what [Series] got right about the future” 2/ Opening line that earns attention Start with a stat, insight, or belief. Not a logo. Not a thank-you paragraph. 3/ Logo placement with purpose Use it once, early, and tie it to meaning, not just exposure. 4/ Strategic pull-quote from exec No boilerplate. No fluff. One line from the CEO/CMO/CTO that frames the why of the deal. 5/ Athlete or team reference Tie their style, performance, or history to your brand’s values. This is where sports meet story. 6/ Photo or visual asset Use race-day imagery, behind-the-scenes shots, or real team integration, not stock images. (More to be said on this) 7/ Internal link to company POV or press release Bridge to the deeper story. Let them explore the details, but don’t shove it in the feed. 8/ Quote or POV from second voice Let the CTO or Head of Innovation speak to tech. Let a customer reference the impact. Add depth through voice layering. 9/ Race-week timing Don’t post in the void. Align to the race calendar, qualifying hype, or post-podium conversations. 10/ Pre-baked reshare language Give execs and partner teams a 1-line summary to repost with intent. No “We’re thrilled...” reshares. (Please) 11/ Hashtags with purpose (or none at all) Avoid the hashtag soup. Use one or two that shape narrative, not reach. 12/ Tagged collaborators (if useful) If you tag the team/athlete, it should add context or bring new eyeballs. Never tag out of obligation. 13/ Soft CTA that drives alignment End with clarity: → “What’s something you want to see more of in sponsorships?” → “We’re just getting started. More from this journey soon.” Final note: You’re writing a reference point that sales, PR, and investors will return to all season. Don’t publish and vanish. Publish and position. Photo by Darren Heath.

Summer used to be for slowdowns. Now? It’s for pop-ups, collabs, and brand crossovers that move fast and hit hard. This season, we’re watching a sharp acceleration of cross-category summer collaborations, not just to sell, but to signal. A few standouts: ☀️ Dôen x Gap The floaty, nostalgic luxury label partners with a mass American staple and the result? Sold out in a day. A second drop just launched, extending to menswear and baby for the first time. It’s not just cute, it’s smart: aspiration meets access. 🌿 Mytheresa x Flamingo Estate The high-end fashion platform teams up with a sensory wellness brand hosting lush summer pop-ups from The Hamptons to Ibiza. It’s experience-first, commerce-secondand it’s working. Meanwhile, we’re seeing strategic brand activations pop up in: — Saint Tropez — Mykonos — Ibiza — And a wave of niche concept stores coming to NYC and LA So why does this matter (especially to the leadership and hiring space)? Because these crossovers require a whole new type of operator: - Leaders who can blend culture with commerce - Marketers who think like curators, not just campaigners - General Managers who can partner across categories and markets - And storytellers who can stretch a brand without snapping it These aren’t traditional partnerships.They’re summer strategies for relevance, discovery, and emotional elasticity. And as consumer expectations shift toward experience + identity, these moves will only accelerate. As someone who spends her days helping global consumer brands find the right leaders to steward collaborations like these, I always ask: → Is your leadership team built to manage this kind of cultural + commercial fusion? → Do they speak both “heritage” and “hype”? → Can they stretch your brand without snapping it? If not, let’s talk. This isn’t the old school “co-branding” playbook. This is brand building for the experience economy. And it’s changing fast. #FMCG #SummerPopUps #ConsumerGoods #Marketing #BrandStrategy #DÔENxGAP #LeadershipTrends #GlobalRetail

🍦💄Laneige x Baskin Robbins... So good, you’ll want a scoop When the #1 lip treatment brand in the U.S. meets an iconic ice cream empire, you don’t just get skincare, you get a multi-sensory marketing moment. Sounds like a TikTok trend waiting to happen? It already is. But here’s why marketers should be paying serious attention: This collab is not random, it’s ridiculously smart. Two iconic brands from totally different industries, beauty and food, join forces to tap into nostalgia, identity marketing, and summer lifestyle content in one strategic move. Let’s talk impact: The ROI? Off the charts. - Sold out in under 24 hours during early access - Launch timed perfectly around National Ice Cream Day - Exclusive to Sephora = built-in urgency + retail muscle - Reinforces Laneige’s title as the #1 U.S. lip brand 3 years running Sydney Sweeney isn’t just a face, she’s the story. This is emotional brand ambassadorship done right. Her genuine love for Rainbow Sherbet turned into a product inspired by her favorite childhood flavor. That’s not just co-branding. That’s co-creation, and it sells. Add to that LANEIGE’s first-ever marble formula, a swirl of Orange, Raspberry, and Pineapple scents, and you have a product that doesn’t just work, it delights. Marketing takeaway? Cross-industry collabs aren’t gimmicks anymore. They’re strategic tools for growth, when done with emotional insight, influencer alignment, and built-in storytelling. If you could launch a dream collab across any two industries… Who would you pair, and why? #LaneigeXBaskinRobbins #SydneySweeney #BrandStrategy #InfluencerMarketing #EmotionalBranding #ProductInnovation #CrossIndustryCollab #BeautyMarketing #StoryDrivenCampaigns #SkincareLaunch #NostalgiaMarketing #TikTokTrends #CreatorMarketing #MarketingPerspective #LinkedInCreators

Everyone talks about collabs, but nobody could show which ones actually build real brand momentum. 
Until now. This year made one thing obvious. The collaborations that truly cut through were not the loud ones. They were intentional, culturally grounded, and built to mean something. And the data backs it up. If sneaker consumers feel a brand is “for people like me,” they’re 3.5x times more likely to consider it. The Bimma x Tracksuit : 2025 Collab of the Year Report is the definitive guide to brand building through collaboration. To build it, we created the COLLAB Index, a data-driven scoring system that measures collaborations through two lenses. 1. Consumer Reality
Tracksuit surveyed a nationally representative sample and qualified just over 2,000 sneaker consumers. 2. Cultural Reality
Structured grading from the Collab Cousins, my global network of creators, journalists, strategists, and operators. If you are a CMO, founder, strategist, or creator trying to build relevance instead of hype, this report was built for you. Inside, you will find: * The full Top 10 list across Nike, adidas, Jordan, Converse, BAPE, and New Balance * The COLLAB Framework: Chemistry, Originality, Legacy, Leadership, Audience Engagement, and Brand Energy * Marketer Cheatsheets with actionable takeaways on engineering scarcity, unlocking niche fandom, and modernizing heritage brands Let’s raise the standard for what brand collaborations can be. Hit the link for the report! Bimmawilliams.com #collab #collaborations #brandmarketing #brand #collaboftheyear

You spotted the cultural moment. You briefed it. You got approval. And by then, a faster brand was already living inside it. This is how the next era of partnerships begins, not with bigger budgets, but with deeper integration. Coach didn't win Gen Z by slapping its logo on a TikTok.  It gave YouTube creators actual creative ownership and measurable growth followed. Netflix and AB InBev aren't just co-promoting. They built a multi-year global deal with limited packaging, live events, and retail integrations that activate across every market simultaneously. American Express isn't buying F1 ad inventory. It's giving cardholders access to paddock experiences, dining, and moments money can't otherwise buy. Notice what these have in common? None of them are sponsorships. They're embeddings. ✦ Here's the difference most brand leaders miss: A sponsorship puts your name next to something people already care about. An embedding makes your brand part of why they care. One is a media buy. The other is a cultural asset. In 2026, collaboration fatigue is real. Younger consumers, especially Gen Z, have seen enough collab drops and co-branded cans to smell a transaction from a mile away. What they respond to: brands that show up with something to give, not just something to sell. → Longer creator relationships, not one-off campaigns. → Co-created products with genuine creative tension. → Access, not ads. The brands still treating cultural partnerships as awareness plays are going to keep wondering why the impressions don't convert. The ones winning right now asked a harder question first: "What does this partner's audience actually need and can we genuinely provide it?" That question changes everything downstream. The product. The timeline. The metrics you use to declare success. The counterintuitive part: the most effective embeddings are often more accessible than brand teams expect. The value comes from alignment and creative depth m, not budget size. If you're heading into H2 planning conversations about partnerships, that's the question worth stress-testing before you sign anything. #brandpartnerships #CPG #Marketing

Did you know? Sponsorship isn't the only way to work with businesses. Not every brand is ready to sponsor your club. But that doesn’t mean you can’t work together. So many rights holders are stuck on one idea: “Please sponsor us.” But sponsorship is just one way. There are smarter, faster, and sometimes more impactful ways to start building brand partnerships. START WITH THE BASICS, BUT DO THEM WELL: ✔️ Sell activation space at events. ✔️ Offer access to your players for content or appearances. ✔️ Sell space on your social media, newsletter, or website. Or physical branding at events and match days. ✔️ Use trade exchanges to get gear, food, or transport in return for exposure or another benefit. ✔️ Give brands the chance to access your database or contribute to community initiatives. But wait! There's more! ⭐️ Sell money-can't-buy experiences. Being part of a tunnel walk-out, halftime huddle or lunch with the coach can be valuable, even at a small club with passionate fans. That gives the right brand a chance to run competitions or create customer experiences. ⭐️ Create an “Audience Testing Lab.” Your fans are a real audience. To someone. Let brands test products, run surveys, or hand out samples. Community gets freebies. Brand gets insights. You get paid. ⭐️ Host a brand takeover. Let a brand run a week of your Instagram or TikTok. They can spotlight players, fans, or culture, or tell branded stories. ⭐️ Drop collabs. Partner with a local designer or food brand. No sponsor needed, and it can offer both hype AND cash flow. ⭐️ Co-create a content series. “Behind the Boots.” “Moms of the Team.” “5 Players, 5 Hustles.” Bring a brand in early and grow the story together. This works well for holidays and themed moments like Father’s Day, Youth Month, Christmas, Savings Week, etc. ⭐️ Offer leadership or life skills talks. Your coaches or senior players could speak to brand teams about resilience, purpose, or performance. ⭐️ Make your events lifestyle moments. Pop-up nail bars. Braai zones. Coffee corners. Food trucks. Turn matchday into market day and let small businesses pay to be part of the vibe. ⭐️ Be a brand’s “real-world test case.” Let startups trial wellness apps, sports drinks, or tech with your team in exchange for tools, insights, and visibility. ⭐️ Launch a mentorship programme. Ask a brand to mentor or upskill a player, board member or coach. This builds real relationships and gives you valuable skills. So... You don’t need to wait until you have a sponsor before you start behaving like a business partner. And puh-lease don’t just chase the same five big corporates everyone else is emailing! These entry-level partnerships let new brands test your relevance, engage your audience, and get a feel for what it’s like to work with you without a big commitment. Let me know what you think and if you’ve got fresh ideas to add! #SponsorshipStrategy #SponsorshipMarketing #SportsBusiness #Partnership #BrandActivation

I once got a Big 3 automotive brand to increase their spend 10x. Back when I was at Discovery, we had acquired a digital asset called HowStuffWorks. It was deep editorial content, built for search, with real authority in areas like science, automotive, and engineering. The brand was trying to figure out how to launch a new truck. Rather than just pitch the same old media spend, we looked at how people actually shop for trucks and realized something important: By the time someone walks into a dealership, they’ve already made most of their decision. The real influence happens before in articles, videos, and forums - when they’re researching what towing capacity is, or how torque works, or how turbochargers function. So we decided to try flipping the model. We partnered directly with the brand's team to identify everything a truck shopper might research. Then we built organic content around those topics that a buyer might be trying to understand before they purchase: Towing, Engines, Safety systems, Drivetrains. The brand didn’t force themselves into the story. They instead surrounded content where it would be natural for them to be present. It was a deep collaboration between their marketing team and our editorial creators. Any time we'd see spikes in data (how to pick the right towing capacity for example), we’d spin up new content in real time to meet it. Not ad copy, high-quality education focused content. It worked. What started as a couple hundred thousand dollar content buy grew into a seven figure/year relationship. Because we helped earn their authority in the conversation, their customers were already having. What's the takeaway? Successful brand partnerships with content creators have these characteristics: ◼️ Brand shares the buyer's journey so the creator best understands where and how to message ◼️ Brand works to be organically part of the messaging vs forcing a message ◼️ Real-time data is shared so that the content can be optimized in near real time ◼️ Teams are integrated for quarters at a time to ensure knowledge sharing and rapid iterations

We turned down a Fortune 500 Super Bowl partnership. Right after Taylor Swift wore our product and we hit over 7 figures in sales in 48 hours. Most people would’ve thought that was insane to turn down. After the Taylor Swift moment, the inbound collaboration requests multiplied overnight. Fortune 500 companies. Musicians designing merch. Sports teams wanting custom products. Major beauty brands. Top retailers at SEPHORA and Target calling. The flashiest opportunity: a Fortune 500 food company wanted to partner for Super Bowl. High-profile. Massive reach. Tempting… I got on the intro call. Within minutes, I knew what they wanted wouldn't align with our brand. It wouldn't land with our customers. We said no. 𝗛𝗲𝗿𝗲'𝘀 𝘄𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗺𝗼𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝘁𝗮𝘂𝗴𝗵𝘁 𝗺𝗲 𝗮𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝗯𝗿𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘀𝗲𝗹𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲𝗻𝗲𝘀𝘀: 𝟭. When scrappy becomes strategic Early on, we pivoted for every opportunity. Someone needed something from us, and our whole team would drop everything to make it happen. Exciting opportunities kept us busy, but they also pulled us away from our core goals. We had to ask: what does the world want from Fazit versus what do we want to build? The answer changed our entire approach. 𝟮. The ROI test We implemented one simple filter: output over input. Every partnership request now gets evaluated on actual return, not just flashiness. Musicians reaching out about merch? Sports teams wanting collaborations? We run them through the same criteria: - Does this align with our brand story? - Will our product actually serve their community? - Can we execute this without compromising our roadmap? - Is this a long-term partnership or a two-month trend play for the other brand? 𝟯. Why selectiveness protects value When you're moving fast and creating new product categories, partnerships can either amplify your position or dilute it. The brands and retailers we work with now believed in our vision before the viral moments happened. They understood where we were going. They got on board with future innovation, not just what was trending that week. That mutual belief creates partnerships where both sides are carrying the weight. 𝟰. The small team advantage With a lean team, we physically cannot say yes to everything. Our constraint became our filter. When major retailers and beauty brands started reaching out post-Elf collaboration, we had to get ruthless about where our designers spend their time. Every project needs to move us forward, not just move us in circles. 𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗜'𝘃𝗲 𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗻𝗲𝗱: Protective isn't the same as closed off. We still seek out partnerships that push the brand forward. We still reach out to brands and influencers who would be authentic fits, but we're interviewing them as much as they're interviewing us. Partnerships are 50-50, even when you're the smaller brand at the table. The most valuable brand asset you have is your story and your positioning. Not everyone gets to be part of it.