Martha Stewart as Brand Collaborator #TBT

I just finished watching the documentary about the iconic Martha Stewart titled “Martha.” I have such a range of emotions having followed her as an industry professional, having worked with her team a couple of times, having met her and seen her work and her work ethic first hand, and honestly having admired her bench-setting standards in design, marketing, and aesthetics.

I’m a fan but I am well aware of her reputation.

If you have not yet seen the documentary, I encourage you to watch it. Here’s the trailer …

I’m going to comment separately on Martha herself and on the lessons learned from her life and life’s approach, so stay tuned for that.

Today, I’d like to focus on her many brand collaborations. Because as prolific as Martha has been with her own solo creations, she’s also created a constant stream of brand collaborations, partnerships, and been a brand spokesperson through the years from way back when in the beginning years to right now.

Right from the beginning: part of her early success was the breakthrough of the K-Mart partnership … we bought a Christmas tree one year and an entire buffet of ornaments!

Now more recently there was last year’s collaboration with Pfizer to fight Covid-19! Martha has range!

Martha has always had the ability to make fun of herself … something that for me is a very important trait in a brand. You’ll see in the documentary that this was a big turning point in her turnaround when she was invited to roast Justin Bieber for Comedy Central.

And here she is making fun of herself for Fiverr …

At that same Comedy Central roast, she connected with Snoop Dogg and they have gone on to form an incredible partnership with their own television show and a number of brand partnerships. They even did some hosting duties at the Paris Olympics this past summer that really pushed ratings for NBC.

Here’s the pair for Bic lighters …

Prolific. Creative. Masterful. Comedic. Successful many times over from start to top to bottom to top again.

Impressive and inspiring. Incredible marketing work that sets a standard for us all. As I said, we’ll talk about the other lessons learned in a separate post but the work through the years is incomparable, which I so appreciate

What’s your experience? JIM

P.S. Here’s one of my favs from back in the day. When Martha took expired credit card and relined a swimming pool! LOL and back again!