partnerships

What Marketers Can Learn From Yes Way Rosé’s V-Day Partnership with Small Biz Williamsburg Pizza

Williamsburg Pizza’s recent partnership with Yes Way Rosé offers about a million hidden lessons for small business partnership marketing. 
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Francis Scialabba

· less than 3 min read

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“A partnership’s a partnership, no matter how small.”—Dr. Seuss, probably.

Williamsburg Pizza’s recent partnership with Prestige Beverage Group wine brand Yes Way Rosé offers about a million hidden lessons for small business partnership marketing.

  • The major vino vendor and Brooklyn-based pizza shop are teaming up to bring New Yorkers a V-Day from home kit this year.
  • The kit—which includes an exclusive heart-shaped pizza, a bottle of Yes Way Rosé Bubbles, and a limited-edition wine tote in Yes Way Rosé’s signature pink hue—is only available on February 14.

So—how’d a niche pizza parlor ink a partnership with a significant lifestyle brand? Marketing Brew chatted with Yes Way Rosé founders Erica Blumenthal and Nikki Huganir to find out. Responses have been edited for brevity.

How the partnership came about

YWR:Ashwin Deshmukh from Williamsburg Pizza reached out to us several years ago as a fan of the brand! We became friends and have done various collaborations. For the Valentine's Day partnership, we proposed the idea to him.”

The lesson: Creating genuine relationships with bigger brands can’t hurt—and it could lead to future opportunities down the road.

What’s in it for the bigger brand

YWR: “We are a nationally distributed French wine brand, but have always done smaller partnerships with local businesses in addition to those on a national scale. Our roots are in New York, and pizza is our favorite food pairing for rosé, so this is a match made in heaven. It's proved to be a good decision to do it in a manageable way, and we love doing our part in supporting local businesses.”

The lesson: Partnering with smaller brands can provide a CSR angle to companies with wider reach, especially if the brands have a lot in common already.

On strategy

YWR: “We’ll be amplifying awareness of this special offering through pre-influencer and celebrity seeding to help with promotion. From a national perspective, we will also be cross-promoting on our social platforms in order to encourage consumers at home to sip Yes Way for Valentine’s Day, or even pair with their favorite local pizza.”

The lesson: Access to influencers and a national network are just a few perks of partnering with a larger brand for a small biz.

Get marketing news you'll actually want to read

Marketing Brew informs marketing pros of the latest on brand strategy, social media, and ad tech via our weekday newsletter, virtual events, marketing conferences, and digital guides.