Partnership
Weird projects, especially in the realm of modern brand collaborations. Today’s fickle consumers—led by the most fickle of all, Gen Z—are rapidly shifting allegiances. To keep coming back, brands collaborate in unexpected ways and reap successes that are often surprising.
These unconventional marriages between seemingly disparate brands have been happening for a while. I think so Cheetos meets Forever 21 in 2019. (Wouldn’t that be a laundry day nightmare?) Or the super frenzy GoPro-Red Bull mash-up in 2016. Now, they’re starting to come fast and furious.
Today, we’re seeing plenty of out-of-the-box thinking on display when it comes to brand partnerships. Slurpee sneakers? Cool skateboarding aids? Free Chipotle grub for buying Elf? These partnerships are fun, versatile and perfectly suited to modern consumers. Nothing is off the table when it comes to modern co-branding efforts between companies. Partner companies don’t have to be alike in any way, just creative and willing. In fact, the more strikingly outlandish the group, the more likely it is to capture press reports and fame.
Creativity plays a big role, but you have to be strategic when it comes to brand partnerships. The last thing you want is for your carefully crafted collaboration to turn into a facepalm moment, a la the Kendall Jenner-Pepsi snafu that continues to surface.
To avoid mistakes on your way to a rewarding partnership, apply these principles:
1. Focus your brand partnership on authenticity and alignment.
For brand partnerships to hit the jackpot, both companies must stay true to their ethos. Consumers find it easy to smell authenticity. When they spot it, they will surely call it like they see it on social media. Success means showing your true colors to your existing fans—and those who will be introduced to you through your partnerships. Just because you work with a different type of business doesn’t mean you have to change the core of your brand. You and your team have worked long and hard to build your brand. protect it by insisting it is authentic.
Think BMW’s collaboration with Louis Vuitton; Both drive with a luxurious, premium appeal. Their collaboration allowed them to tap into this common ‘truth’. Louis Vuitton has created a line of luggage specially designed for a specific BMW model. Although the association was unusual, it did not have an unsettling effect because of the underlying authenticity of their messages. Instead, it seemed like a natural fit between two sophisticated companies used to targeting a very specific type of buyer.
2. Rethink the metrics you use to define a “win.”
No doubt you have a number of success metrics that your marketing team considers their key KPIs. Guess what? You’ll probably need to throw some (if not all) out the window to see if your new partnership works. In this case: Ralph Lauren’s meta dance with Fortnite. It’s impossible to say exactly how success is defined, but you can bet both parties watched the venture closely.
The trick is that all of these tried and true metrics of success may not be relevant, especially if you’re pioneering new territory. Let’s say you decide to try a brand partnership with a company outside of your normal field—although you share the same target audience base, you’re not even close to being in the same industry. Accordingly, you may not be able to measure your partnership with sales figures alone. Instead, look at your audience reach, social brand awareness, or customer engagement ratings.
That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t pay attention to metrics like ROI. It should. You are in your partnership for a reason, after all, and part of the reason is probably profitability. Just be sure that you don’t treat your brand partnerships like you would conventional marketing campaigns. These big partnerships are something a little different, which means you need to collect the right data to measure them accurately.
3. Stay on top of trendy collaborations.
Let’s be honest: It’s not easy to keep up with all the partnerships on the market. However, you have to stay in touch with what’s going on somehow. You could delegate this to your team or do it yourself. you might even want to do some social listening (using advanced software, of course) to make sure the future of brand partnerships doesn’t pass you by.
As you monitor trends in collaborative efforts, leverage them to push your team’s thinking. And don’t just focus on brand partnerships in the retail, beauty, fashion and food spaces. Brett Sirianni, the chief digital officer at Inspira Marketing Grouphe suggests also focusing on the “core” sectors like healthcare, insurance and technology.
“Brand partnerships are still possible in every industry. Most recently, a brand partnership was announced between NASA and Prada for NASA’s Artemis III mission to the moon in 2025,” notes Sirianni. “While the everyday consumer won’t wear these luxury engineering suits, it’s making headlines – and brand recognition is skyrocketing.”
If you’re not staying ahead of the curve, you could be overtaken by a competitor who is. At a time when 71% of consumers have positive feelings about brand partnerships, you can’t afford to be left behind. So take some deep dives. You regularly review brand partnerships that work as well as those that are unmitigated failures. You will learn a lot and prepare your company for its next (or first) partnership.
It may seem a little strange to step out of your industry to join hands with a different brand. That’s because it is. But there’s never been a better time to take a calculated plunge into the world of weird, wonderful and worthwhile collaborations. Modern audiences are hungry for it.
