Cake Gate & How to Find Good Brand Partnerships

My unsolicited thoughts on Cake Gate…

Having worked in house and externally for venues and brands, this is a tale as old as time. Most creatives and products are regularly offered “exposure” as a form of payment when working with “well-known” celebrities and influencers. And that’s not always a bad deal, but here’s the thing.

It’s got to be a fair (and considered!) value exchange.

Partnerships and sponsorships can be really lucrative when building awareness and reaching new customers. It’s common sense. However, there’s a few reasons I think this has caused such a stir.

Cost of living & hospo crisis

You can’t talk to anyone running a small business, particularly in hospitality, without hearing how hard it is at the moment. It’s getting more and more difficult to turn a profit on food and drink, and raising prices is risky in a time where your customers are feeling the pinch too. That makes freebies more of an ask - in the case of 3 Little Birds, the freebies are not just costly to make but time intensive too. The true cost of those products includes so many overheads that have gone up, with a higher minimum wage, and some businesses seeing 300% increases in energy bills.

Clout over results

The outreach email here is a huge portion of the problem in my opinion. Yes, it disclosed the follower count of their client, the stars that would be in attendance and potential coverage. But the vibe feels to me like “they’re famous and you should be grateful”, instead of talking about a great match with similar audiences. If you’re asking for something for free, you should tout the benefits better - for example, this celebrity’s following is 50% north-west England, previous brands that we’ve worked with have seen an uptake in website views of X%.

Freebies for rich people

I think this is what’s rubbed so many people up the wrong way. If the guests and celebrity are as high-profile as you say they are, do they not have the money to buy their own cakes?

Loyalty & authenticity

Imagine how different this would feel if 3 Little Birds knew that this celeb had bought from them before? If they’d posted on their social media after an authentic visit or purchase, I think it would be a different scenario. The best advocates are real ones and the outreach email would feel far more genuine.

So how should you choose the right partnerships?

Aligned brands

Check that they’re a good match. For 3 Little Birds, deliveries are only in the North West. So that would be something I’d look for in a partner - can they influence the people who can actually buy from me? And can they influence the people who will want to buy from me? Think about your target customer and whether the partner can help you reach more of them.

Return on investment

This is really tricky to measure in a partnership, but you want to be sure that in exchange for any marketing spend - which is what a partnership is, effectively - you’re going to get value back. With a partnership, you’re looking for long-term increase in sales following an immediate or timely increase in awareness. In my experience, I don’t reckon 3 Little Birds would have achieved that just because the celeb had 700k followers and was going to get OK! Mag coverage. Everything else needs to add up too!

Seek proof

If 3 Little Birds had wanted to pursue this, I’d have gone back to the PR to ask for previous examples. If they can’t or aren’t willing to share stats from previous brand partnerships, and more info about the celeb’s reach and audience, I’d steer clear. They really are just looking for a freebie.

And now…

What 3 Little Birds did had far more impact than any celeb party would’ve had. They gained approx 12k followers and got coverage in every major newspaper. They’ve had to put out statements talking about their delivery radius (which they’ve used to encourage people from around the country to visit their local bakery! 🫶). Authenticity wins in any partnership, and often an unexpected bit of PR is going to achieve far more than any of your strategic marketing activity!