The Age of Cross Brand Collaboration

Viral Access
4 min readMar 10, 2020

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For brands, synchronicity can be a beautiful thing.

Photo by Helen Chik on Pinterest

Shopping for a pair of shoes, an electronic device, or a cup of coffee? You may have noticed there are plenty of cross-promotions happening nowadays. There’s no denying. We are currently living in the age of collaborations.

Collaboration itself is nothing new. In business, the right brand collaboration can be a foolproof formula for success. Brand collaboration can be defined as a strategic alliance between two or more brands for curating a unique and specific product or service to carve a niche and attain a competitive advantage in the marketplace.

Regardless of how you feel about it, there’s something brilliant about co-branded products: It’s a creative way to marry two brands into one amazing experience. Today, cross brand collaborations exist across fashion, food and drink, homeware, travel and other industries.

Reasons for Brand Collaboration

The primary reason for collaboration obviously, is to open a new market and get in front of potential new customers. Collaboration will easily increase brand reach as they are talking to two sets of customers. It could also help to boost brand credibility.

Collaborations can also be used as an effective tool to show your existing customers that their voices are heard. It has a huge potential to increase brand value and makes your customers even more dedicated. The key is to go into the partnership to create something unique that you know for sure will be loved by your customers.

As we know, today’s market is so saturated that brands have to do something extraordinary to be noticed. Collaboration is one of them. Through collaborations, smaller brands can get access to a much bigger audience while larger brands get positioned as a champion for the next wave of customers.

Brands can also team up to increase awareness of a certain cause. After all, there’s still a commercial value behind collaborations for a charitable cause. For one, brands can gain positive exposure and boost confidence among their community. Second, it can be a great way to show that the said-brands are still relevant.

Finally, collaborations don’t necessarily have to be long-term deals. Short-term collaborations can still be an effective way to promote brand visibility and align a brand with the current trend.

Brand Collaboration Examples

There are a lot of great examples of brand collaborations out there, but here are some of our favorites.

Starbucks x Spotify

Starbucks and Spotify formed an innovative co-branding partnership to establish a music ecosystem. The main idea is for the companies to tap into each other’s audiences without sacrificing their brand values. With this collaboration, Spotify’s streaming will be integrated with Starbucks’ mobile loyalty program, which will enable Starbucks customers to curate playlists in their stores.

Key Takeaway: With how technology is evolving today, co-branding collaboration should actively embrace technology to improve upon user experience.

Taco Bell x Doritos

When Taco Bell went into a partnership with Frito-Lay, the company behind Doritos, they successfully created one of the most popular and widely recognized items in the fast food industry: Doritos Locos Tacos. Frito-Lay took Taco Bell’s taco recipe and gave its signature twist: a Doritos shell. Even more, they also market the product by wrapping the taco in a classic Doritos bag!

Key Takeaway: Innovative products don’t always have to be complicated. The key is to do your one big idea right, give time for experiments, and remember to sell the experience.

Alexander Wang x H&M

The discrepancy in pricing between these two brands is exactly why they decided to collaborate. To support their brand positioning as trendy and fashionable, H&M paired with the high-end fashion brand Alexander Wang to offer exclusive branded items for a limited time. In exchange, Alexander Wang can expose their brand to a new generation of potential consumers. That the collaboration was announced via Wang’s Instagram account and at Coachella festival also speaks volumes.

Key Takeaway: Though brand collaborations might already create a buzz on its own, publicity is still important. Social media remains one of the most effective tools to pitch to the online demographics.

GoPro x Red Bull

The collaboration between GoPro and Red Bull has successfully positioned their respective brands as popular lifestyle brands. The two brands have shared similar values and the partnership enhances them even more. GoPro equips athletes and adventurers from around the world with the tools to capture things like races, stunts, and action sports events, sponsored by Red Bull, on videos.

Key Takeaway: Breathtaking images and cutting edge cinematography are the hallmarks of every story. Interactive content still plays crucial roles even within brand collaborations.

Wrapping Up

When the right brands come together, great things happen.

In today’s dynamic markets and the ever-changing e-commerce industry, it is very important for the brands to survive and thrive in the market amidst the tough competition. As such, the idea of pairing up with a brand, even for a short while, can be effective to build business, boost awareness, and break into new markets.

Still, for a partnership to truly work, it has to be mutually beneficial for all players in the game. A perfect collaboration, after all is the combination of the right brand, a good idea, and a creative partner.

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Viral Access is an AI and data-driven social communication company — we help you tell your story through social media. We pair your brand with relevant micro and nano influencers that help you increase awareness, engagement and conversion. We have the systems and team in place to support large scale communications throughout Asia.

For business inquiries, contact us at: info@viralaccess.asia.

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Viral Access
Viral Access

Written by Viral Access

We’re an AI and data-driven digital marketing company who helps you tell your story through social media.

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