Andrew Davis, while speaking at Content Marketing World, used the phrase “harnessing the power of participation creation” to describe leveraging someone else’s audience to bolster your own brand (thank you Arjun Basu of Sparksheet for your coverage of the event). Davis then used Tony Bennett, whose career was going down the drain, and his duet with the Muppets as an example. The Muppets, a very positive brand, lent some branding juice to Bennett by performing with him. That juice helped revive Bennett’s career.

This is the exact reason that advertisers seek well-known faces, such as athletes and movie stars, to star in commercials. When we see an entity that we trust/like/admire/emulate endorsing someone else, we have a tendency to extend that credibility.