What Makes a Successful Brand Collaboration?

In the early 2000s, I had this lingering thought that some of our clients could collaborate somehow. Maybe it was a promotion, a co-branded ad campaign or something we hadn’t thought of yet. I got no internal support for it, so I never formally pitched it. Nobody was really doing those things at the time. Too complicated, for lack of a better explanation. And most brands don’t like to be first. Risky.  

Here we are today, and collaborations have become an accepted marketing practice. They’re not exactly mainstream, but there have been enough of them that we aren’t surprised when two brands decide to work together. Sometimes the collaboration itself might seem odd, but we assume somebody thought it through,and there’s a reason these two brands belong together.  

Dunkin and Febreze is a good example. At first, coffee and air fresheners don’t seem to have much in common. But Dunkin has popular coffee and bakery flavors that people already know and have an emotional connection with. Febreze can take that connection somewhere Dunkin can’t. That’s where a collaboration starts to get interesting. It’s not about putting two logos together. It’s about what one partner has that the other one doesn’t.  

There are plenty of examples. Taco Bell and Doritos created Doritos Locos Tacos. GoPro and Red Bull have worked together. Apple and Nike collaborated. The products and companies are all different, but the basic idea is the same. There has to be a reason for both brands to be there, and each needs to bring something worthwhile to the other.  

So, what makes a good brand collaboration? Do the audiences have some overlap, or at least the potential for it? Are the values similar enough that you want the association between the two brands? Is there a mutual benefit, or is one brand getting a lot more than the other? And maybe most importantly, what does each partner bring to the table that the other one can’t just go buy? Those are much better questions than simply asking which other brand would look good next to yours.  

I think there are a lot of opportunities for marketers to think this way. Not every collaboration needs to result in a new product, and not every partnership needs to be between two huge national brands. The opportunity is to look at what your brand has, what it doesn’t have and who might have that missing piece. Then you have to figure out what you can offer them in return. 

Twenty-something years ago, the idea seemed too complicated and risky to pursue. Today, consumers understand collaborations, and some of the best ones still feel a little unexpected. The opportunity is finding a partner that brings something to your brand that you couldn’t create, reach or buy on your own.