Last week the title of the new Bond film, Spectre, was announced and much to our delight a new Aston Martin sidekick was also unveiled for Daniel Craig.

The James Bond franchise and Aston Martin is one of the longest running and most successful product placement partnerships in marketing history. Beginning with the car that would become synonymous with Bond and Aston, the DB5 in 1964’s Goldfinger, 50 years later the DB10 was announced as 007’s new ride.

The Warwickshire based manufacturer is currently in the process of creating a replacement for its ageing DB9. And although the DB10 revealed at Pinewood last week is a unique design for the new film, it’s created excitement and intrigue, as well as masses of PR coverage for a company who has recently lost its sparkle.

The combined PR and marketing efforts meant that news of the movie and car was spread across a huge variety of media from automotive press, film and entertainment. The latter would rarely, if at all, mention the story of a new Aston Martin and so the brand name was showcased to as wide an audience as possible.

But can the PR success from the Bond announcement be replicated with smaller companies? By putting significant thought into any partnerships that your strike up with other businesses will mean that you can fully benefit from each other’s expertise and reach. Are the potential partners relevant? Is your target audience similar? What news stories have you both got to share?

By doing the ground work and striking up a marketing relationship with a relevant business could mean partnership that lasts for decades.