The Top Five Things I've Learned About Collabs

There’s a lot to say about the little ‘x’ that sits between brands ‘y’ and ‘z.’ 

In the last 6 months, I’ve written about 150 brand collaborations. As a necessary side-effect, I’ve learned nearly everything there is to know about them, including what makes them work, what makes them fail, and how they’re evolving in the digital age.

Reviewing new collaborations on a daily basis has taught me that what separates a winner from a dud is a brand’s ability to see beyond its own perspective and assess the impact on the larger audience. That audience includes customers, the press, and writers like me.

So, if you’re reading our blog because you want to pull off a winning collab, you’ve come to the right place. Here are the five most interesting things I’ve learned about brand collaborations, as someone who reviews them ad nauseum. 

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1. Collabs are uniquely revealing 

You can learn a lot about a brand by observing the collabs they co-create. From partner, to marketing channels, to style of execution, every choice a brand makes provides insight into its values, motives, and marketing adeptness.

Brands can use collabs an opportunity to show customers what they wish they could tell them outright. Lets say a bedding brand wants customers to know they care about the environment, but they don’t have the resources to adopt sustainable operations. Instead of talking about their efforts to reduce office waste, they could partner with a sustainable clothing brand and bring a line of eco-friendly sleepwear to market. 

Collabs also reveal motives that brands may not intend for customers to perceive. For instance, if a lesser-known sneaker brand suddenly comes out with an NFT, you might assume that they’re devising a plan to make their mark in the metaverse. Or they’re followers with major FOMO. 

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2. Collabs are uniquely rewarding

Collabs deliver benefits that a brand can’t achieve on its own. In no other circumstance can a brand inherit both physical resources like design, production, and distribution capabilities, as well as conceptual resources like values, reputation, and authority. 

But it goes beyond sharing resources. Collaborations generate a unique kind of excitement that draws attention away from the fact that they sell something, and that makes them essential. 

In the digital age, conventional marketing is no longer effective. Brand collaborations are creative and, when done well, they evoke a positive emotion that allows customers to connect with brands on another level. 

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3. Collabs reflect what’s happening in the world

Collaborations capitalize on trends. From the mass integration of vegan meat in the fast food industry to the rise of luxury athleticwear, collabs indicate what people care about and provide insight into the future. 

As more people adopt a plant-based diet, it won’t be long before every fast food chain offers a vegan alternative, and failing to do so will be considered uncool. Likewise, because the pandemic created demand for activewear, fashion brands that lack athletic functionality will be left behind. 

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4. Collabs affect what’s happening in the world

Brands have power because they have the resources to change the way things are done. Collaborations are an opportunity for brands to use their powers for good and make positive changes to the industries they occupy. 

For example, Patagonia Provisions and Dogfish Head took a leap toward a more sustainable brewing industry by making a beer from regenerative grains. Patagonia Provisions needed Dogfish Head’s distribution assets, and DogFish Head needed Patagonia’s loyal customer base to make Kernza Pils the most popular sustainable beer on the market.

Because collaborations are contagious, other brands are following suit. Country Crock recently partnered with a Kansas distillery to make whiskey out of soil-saving cover crops. In 10 years, there may be a sustainable substitute for every alcoholic beverage you can imagine. 

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5. Real collabs are sparks of energy

When you set up Google alerts for “collab,” you can start to tell the difference between a real collab and a copy-paste situation. Following collab Alerts for 6 months taught me that the stakes for collaborations are getting higher as customers demand a personalized digital shopping experience. 

You can’t just slap another brand’s logo on your product and call it a collaboration. Customers find that boring, as do writers. I’ve come to learn that if I come across an article with a simple title like “brand x partnered with brand y,” its probably not worth my time reading. 

Real collaborations generate sparks of energy between the brands and their customers. They provoke emotions that motivate actions—purchases, articles, retweets, and double-takes. 

So do us all a favor and give that little x an energetic charge. Create something that makes customers excited to buy and writers excited to write.   Reach out at scott@covalentco.com.