Milk and cookies are a well-recognized pair, but Coke and cookies?
Marketers are embracing the power of mismatched pairs—or at least unlikely pairings—when forming joint promotional ventures. In recent months, we have seen a raft of unexpected brand collaborations. Coca-Cola Co. launched a promotion jointly with Oreo that included Coke-flavored cookies and Oreo-themed sodas. Liquid Death partnered with the makeup brand ELF to launch a makeup kit inspired by the flavored water’s Goth brand positioning. Dunkin’ partnered with the cleaning brand Scrub Daddy for a Father’s Day campaign that included donut-shaped sponges. And the upcoming “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” movie sequel has planned activations with Coca-Cola’s Fanta brand sodas and Roblox among others.
“It’s really about surprising and delighting, making the ordinary extraordinary again,” said Ashley Rudder, chief creator officer, Deustch NY. Brands like Coca-Cola and Oreo have established their positions over a long time, and sometimes an out-of-the-box pairing helps to refresh the status quo, Rudder said. The Oreo/Coke partnership “is honestly a master class in expanding cultural touchpoints.”
To embrace these off-kilter pairings, marketers often need to rethink their approach. Brand collaborations aren’t just about amplifying the media buy or breaking through the ad clutter. They can revitalize creativity and show off the brand in new ways, opening new verticals and new audiences it hadn’t reached before.
An unexpected collaboration offers brands an opportunity to show their core values in new ways and find new audiences. For Stags’ Leap Winery, it meant joining the circus—literally. The vintner collaborated with Cirque du Soleil in a sponsorship of the company’s touring show across 10 markets, including multimedia branding and operating wine lounges in several cities. It plans to introduce other in-market events as the tour travels the country, because “it’s a time to celebrate when Cirque du Soleil comes to town,” said Megan O’Connor, senior brand director.
“We wanted to team up with a partner that could bring the Stags’ Leap Winery story to life in a new way,” she said. Cirque du Soleil offered an opportunity to bring to life the ethos of adventure around the wine brand. “In the most literal sense, Cirque du Soleil embodies the core message of Stags’ Leap, ‘Take the Leap.’”
“A win in the attention economy”
For brands of all sizes, these offbeat partnerships offer free media opportunities—as the odd coupling is covered in the media—and amplify paid messages. At a time when media is so fragmented, just getting attention in the first place is a challenge, said Pedr Howard, SVP of creative excellence at Ipsos. “Brands need a hook—and that’s where engaging content, lately unexpected brand collaborations, come into play. By getting the consumer to look, even in surprise, it’s a win in the attention economy.”
Marketers today are challenged to produce large amounts of content in many channels and push creative boundaries in order to get noticed, said Marcel Hollerbach, chief innovation officer at ecommerce platform Productsup. Bold statements that trigger reactions go a long way in generating engagement and content, especially in social media, he noted: “I mean, it’s hard not to comment on the thought of a Coke-flavored Oreo.”
At the root, an offbeat pairing has to come about in some organic fashion, whether it’s familiarity between marketing teams, or a previously undiscovered affinity brought to light by mining consumer data. A beaded purse and other fashion items hardly sound like organic offshoots of a pasta sauce brand, but a sauce-inspired purse sold out as part of a joint effort between the Italian food brand Monte’s Fine Foods and the fashion brand Staud. Monte’s went on to put a sauce fountain and a display of its products in Bloomingdale’s flagship store as part of a Fashion Week salute to Italian fashion.
“The relationships may be in the alignment of the brand values or the legacy of the brand itself,” said P.J. Monte, CEO and founder of Monte’s. In the case of Staud, Monte said a longtime friendship with Staud founder Sarah Saudinger was a factor, but also the brand synergies between Staud opening two stores in East Hampton in the same summer that Monte’s was opening a restaurant in nearby Montauk and launching a new pasta line. While Staud launched the sauce-inspired tomato bag, Monte’s created a special pasta for Staud shops and they sponsored an event at the restaurant.
“It goes back to the barometer of: One, am I sacrificing the core values of my brand? And two, do I have an organic relationship with that person—the founder of the brand—or that brand? And lastly, do I see some sort of synergies with our company?” said Monte.
Brand collaborations do ultimately carry some risks. It is important that they make sense and be true to both brands. If they’re not thought through and executed well, but merely seek shock value, they can ultimately diminish the brand, warned Ipsos’ Howard.
“When brands go too left field, what they can end up doing sometimes is setting themselves up for a short-term life cycle. If it can’t tie back to the bigger ideas of the brand, it becomes more of a gimmick than collaboration,” he said. “If a collaboration… is not done with purpose and with the consumer base in mind, brands can mistakenly dismiss part of their customer base.”
A thoughtful strategy can mitigate that danger, said Rudder. “It has to land on an insight,” said Deutsch’s Rudder. “Stunts and splashy things are fantastic. While buzz and media coverage are certainly valuable, the true power of these collaborations lies in an authentic connection. You have to have that,” she said. But she added a warning: “It can’t be just about making a splash. “The consumer is far too advanced now.”
How to build unexpected collaborations
Besides a good fit, a successful pairing needs depth and breath. Some unexpected brand extensions in the past, such as KFC sunscreen and Tropicana toothpaste, were one-off campaigns, but these recent brand collaborations are true partnerships, with both brands working together.
“The real success of buzzy brand collabs is what comes after the initial public reaction,” said Hollerbach of Productsup. “An established connection with consumers is great, but it’s up to the brand to nurture that relationship.”
For example, when Unilever recently partnered with Samsung to run a promotion that leveraged Unilever’s laundry brands and Samsung’s washing machines it included a research and development component. The partnership included a more traditional detergent gift-with-purchase, but also included Uniilever sharing laundry liquids data, to help Samsung build a stronger database and a more convenient experience for consumers, as well as making the laundry cycle more efficient and sustainable.
“Cleaning, fabric care and washing machines are inextricably linked when it comes to people’s laundry experience, yet to date, washing machines and laundry products have been developed in isolation,” said Tati Lindenberg, VP of Marketing at Unilever’s Dirt Is Good brand. “This partnership is the natural next step in how we continue to innovate and evolve to create the smartest way to do laundry in the future.”
Building an odd couple is, ironically, a lot of work, marketers say. Finding unexpected partnerships starts with mining data and listening to the consumer base. Rudder noted social media content can provide clues, and deep data dives can unearth consumers already making pairings on their own, or owning the brands in new ways.
“You have to do this type of cultural moment, deep platform research work, because there’s no better way to learn about a brand than to type your brand name into TikTok,” said Rudder. Looking at online engagement may turn up native, organic conversations about a brand that could point the way to these off-kilter pairings, said Rudder, but it also requires deep data work to validate those found insights.
“That’s usually a good first spark of: ‘There might be something there. Let’s go further.’ It might lead to a dead end, but you have to do all of that work,” she said. “It is quite a bit of research to get there. Magic happens when you do.”
