Scenario: Your client is a large retailer, Cooper's Pharmacopia. Among their customer group, they are very well known and established. They have done a good job of consistently branding themselves. Both their logo and tagline achieve high marks on recall research. They are the market leader.


They have also "owned" a signature event for the past five years. It has its own name and logo identity, with equally high recognition. It is one of the premiere events for their industry. Neither the name or logo of the event sound or look like Cooper's Pharmacopia. But most attendees would be very clear that they sponsor the event.
They just got a new marketing director. Your new client. He would like you to take the event logo (it's round) and merge it into the company's logo by replacing one of the o's in Cooper's Pharmacopia with the event logo. That would become the new event logo.
Question: From a strategic point of view (not if the round logo looks good as an o) what is your response?
Should you take an established "sub brand" and blend it with the corporate brand? Or, should the parent company and the sub branded event each retain their own identity?
Which strategy strengthens both the company and the event's brand?