With movie-goers, crossovers are a huge deal. Look at the success of The Avengers. Sure, the comic book fans knew it was coming, but The Avengers was still one of the first movies ever to involve such a heavy crossover of characters from several movie franchises.

As of late, some businesses are wondering if similar crossover action would work out in advertising.

It’s nothing new, really.  In 2010, Xerox created several print and media ads that featured prominent figures from other brands. These figures included mascots such as Target’s cute white dog to Mr. Clean. The ads were successful for Xerox, as it showed their ability to help large businesses. In the case of Target, their ads centered on Xerox’s ability to customize Target’s direct mail program; for Mr. Clean, the ad revealed how Xerox had digitized all of Proctor and Gamble’s documents.

Very recently, another crossover had occurred, but in a different sort of tone. Some of you may have seen a Geico commercial featuring the Pillsbury Doughboy. The Doughboy is involved in Geico’s recent humorous campaign (others have featured bodybuilders and Dracula). IN the ad, he is seen walking through airport security; Geico’s two guitar-playing troubadours say that those switching to Geico are “Happier than the Pillsbury Doughboy on his way to a baking convention.”

In both of these examples, the addition of another brand in the ads is powerful because the other brand’s presence exists solely to convey the strengths of the brand the ad is promoting. Surely there were advantages to the secondary brand as well, which brings about the question of whether or not such brief partnerships are truly effective or are simply a fun temporary gag.

The truth of the matter is that in small businesses, cross promotions such as this is a great way to get new exposure to markets you may otherwise not be able to penetrate. Given that, the next time you find yourself hitting a creative wall when trying to come up with new ad campaigns, ask yourself how cross promotions with other small businesses in your region could help.

The added networks with business owners and consumers alike can be a great way to bolster new growth for your business.