Brand collaborations that we love - and that make business sense

We live in a world driven by an ever-growing number of brands. The good ones are built around communities of consumers who share values, beliefs and interests. Competition for consumers’ attention intensifies by the day, making brand collaborations a core component of innovative differentiation strategies globally. 

“As part of our consumer insights studies, we invite corporations to pay attention to their target audiences’ brand preferences,” says Jonathan Magee, Lead partner of Focus™, Spectra’s consumer insights practice. “Consumers feel the love of “their” brands when these brands get together and collide two seemingly separate worlds for their delight.”

When well delivered, the dominance of one brand over the other disappears to set the stage for a seamless product or service experience:

• GoPro + Red Bull
• McDonald’s + Coca-cola
• Apple + Nike
• DJI + Hasselblad
• Lego + Star Wars / Marvel / Jurassic Park

We have picked seven unexpected, refreshing and pertinent brand collaborations that make amazing business sense from a sales and brand equity perspective, and that we absolutely love. What is your favourite one?

• Harry Potter + Pandora 

J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter needs no introduction – it’s valued at over US$15 billion. Pandora, the world’s largest jewellery brand (by volume) has has seen setbacks in key markets. In a bid to reinvigorate the brand, Pandora recently announced the launch of Pandora’s Harry Potter capsule collection - 12 charms inspired by the favourite witches and wizards, which will keep consumers closer to the fantastic world of Harry Potter. 

• Haribo + Dop

For over a century, Haribo has brought flavours to children all over the world from its home base in Germany, from the colourful gummy and jelly candies to banana cream and strawberry-flavoured marshmallows. In 2014, Haribo and Dop joined forces to create the Childhood Douceurs Collection - nine amazing scents in soap to keep our little ankle-biters smelling clean.

• Kellogg’s + Crayola

In a joint promotion launched by the two brands, Kellogg’s Coco Pops – its most popular cereal – is going Black & White to encourage customers to colour and win. The promotion featured an Augmented Reality (AR) component that enabled consumers to bring the characters of their coloured-in boxes to life. A big applause for Kinetic Sydney, the agency behind the creative. 

• Accor + AirFrance-KLM

Announced during the summer, Accor Group and Air-France-KLM’s collaboration on the Points + Miles joint programme grabbed our attention for many good reasons. Accor has undertaken a number of major initiatives to graduate the group’s brand from a hotel brand to a true lifestyle brand. The expansion of the strategic partnership with Air France-KLM in cross-pollinating all tiers of both loyalty programmes delivers unprecedented value for the airline, the hotel group and the customers.

“The next generation of loyalty programmes embrace the fact that consumers move away from exclusive loyalty. So now loyalty programmes have to work harder on making their loyalty currency fully convertible to free customers, rather than tie their hands in allowing them to burn their hard-earned points. This is what this partnership has achieved so well,” says Maria Arango, Lead Partner of Tribute™, Spectra’s loyalty programme design and management practice.

Ikea 

(Full disclaimer. Spectra is proud to count Ikea as a dear client)

A brand that has transcended cultures and socio-demographics. And partnerships have contributed to their success: 

• Ikea + Sonos

Music streaming has simplified access to millions of songs, but we may not all have the taste for or can afford pricy speakers that are also be design statements. Ikea and Sonos joined hands to co-create SYMFONISK, a blend of HiFi audio equipments and slick looking pieces of furniture and most importantly, which, IKEA style, are also appealing from a price standpoint. Imagine table lamps at US$99 and bookshelf speakers at US$179. The collection just launched in August 2019. 

• Ikea + Lego

If you are a parent, you surely have stepped on a lego brick and remember the pain. But is that more painful than the struggle to corral all those pieces in order to keep the peace at home? BYGGLEK is Ikea’s and Lego joint initiative to create solutions that stimulate play for both adults and children around the home. Beyond just products, this is an ongoing partnership to share knowledge and jointly experiment new solutions with a noble goal in mind in this busy world: Better connecting children and parents through play.

• Ikea + Adidas

What is the biggest excuse to skip a work out? Time. Working with Adidas since the summer 2018, Ikea is taking that excuse away soon, looking at ways to make it easier to exercise at home. The aim of this collaboration is to observe the connections between living spaces and sports in order to help create healthy habits around exercise, sleep and food. The two brands are going trough a research phase, analysing the way consumers can incorporate wellness into their homes. We will have to patiently wait until the first products make their way from the lab to the stores in a year or two.

*****

Best managed as an art than a science, brand collaborations are a risky undertaking. Lego learnt it the hard way in 2011, when the partnership between the toy giant and Shell, the oil and gas company was challenged by Greenpeace as part of the “Save the artic” campaign. Some would say the Lego/Shell partnership was doomed from the start, but Shell probably walked out of it as the main winner.

But, brand collaborations can also be a gratifying undertaking, resulting in rewards amounting to millions dollars in incremental sales and brand equity value. Often, the ability to mastering brand compatibility, and sometimes sector compatibility plays a critical role on the path to success.