The building blocks of a great campaign

Steve Grout was outraged that the famous Lego brand, that he grew up with and bought for his children, was being promoted just 'millimetres' away from the infamous page 3 images of topless women in The Sun newspaper as part of a Sun-Lego promotional partnership.

So, he created a great photo opp with a topless lego figure (pictured), used media relations, created an online petition directed at Lego, collected 12,000 signatures through social media - and Lego have just announced they are ending the partnership (apparently a 'natural' end but the timing seems interesting).

This is part of a campaign that is gathering momentum and which is likely to end in removal of this so called 'British Institution' from page 3 of the newspaper.

Steve Grout is just a dad - an ordinary citizen outraged at the continued use of topless models in the Sun, and he found a way to leverage change through public lobbying of Lego, one of the Sun's key partners.

Meanwhile Lego perhaps realised the impact of their partner's brand on their own in a relationship similar to the sponsorship relationship and Image Transfer Potential: as page 3 of The Sun goes down Lego would hardly want to bask in the dying rays.

Sponsorship reaches for the skies

As Felix Baumgartner teetered in the doorway of a balloon capsule 24 miles above the earth, a planet of people peered back up, hearts in mouths - and many with fingers on keyboards.

The footage segued between Felix in his Red Bull branded suit, and 'mission control' with Red Bull branded background, all watched through around 8 million concurrent streams on YouTube. As he landed, Red Bull published a photo of 'Fearless Felix' on his knees via Facebook, which was shared 29,000 times within 40 minutes, with 216,000 'likes' and over 10,000 comments. Meanwhile Red Bull solicited questions via both Facebook and Twitter, promising to ask three from followers in Felix's first press conference after landing.

Every 'like', comment, and shared link, every moment of news coverage and every photo in every magazine sears Red Bull into our minds, but remember they have spent millions of dollars sponsoring this jump. So, in terms of ROI...who knows? Forbes estimates that for every dollar spent Red Bull have received perhaps $20 worth of coverage, but in terms of credibility and brand image the impact is immeasurable.

In the popular psyche 'Fearless Felix' stands for bravery, pushing the boundaries and not a little bit of madness - qualities Red Bull happily associate with their brand, while Red Bull increasingly stand for extreme sport, drive and, much like Felix, a touch of madness. A match made in heaven - or at least the edge of space...