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The Impact of Brand Partnerships: Lessons From Co-Branding Success Stories

Tired of the same old marketing tactics? Ready to take your brand to the next level? Invest in brand partnerships. Contrary to popular belief, brand partnerships aren’t just for the corporate giants. Even small businesses can reap the rewards of a well-executed collaboration with another brand.

Think beyond the obvious benefits of expanded reach. Co-branded campaigns can build trust, open new markets, and even redefine your brand.

brand partnerships

Intrigued? Let’s dive into some of the most successful brand partnerships in recent history. From global giants to smaller players, we’ve curated a list of standout partnerships across industries. These examples highlight just how expansive and transformative a well-executed collaboration can be.

So, without further ado, let’s get cracking. 

Popular Brand Partnerships & What to Learn From Them 

LEGO x Nike: high-profile brands with shared values 

Nike and Lego both have a strong global presence and massive audiences of their own. The brands might be from different industries but they both find common ground in the fact that they have always championed creativity, imagination, and active lifestyles. 

Building on these shared values, these iconic brands laid the foundation by working with the United Nations to announce June 11 as the International Day of Play. 

Additionally, this multi-year partnership reportedly also comes with diverse co-branded products and experiences from the brands. 

KIMP Tip: The LEGO x Nike partnership highlights the power of shared values in brand partnerships. Co-branded campaigns built on shared values feel more authentic and resonate well with the target audience. Therefore, when shortlisting your options for co-branding campaigns, identify brands not just with similar target audiences but also those that stand for similar ideologies. 

Fanta x Beetlejuice Beetlejuice: leveraging fandom 
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The recent collaboration between Fanta and Beetlejuice Beetlejuice highlights the many dimensions of brand partnerships. For the Beetlejuice franchise, this partnership provides a way to create buzz close to the release of the new sequel. Therefore, it demonstrates new strides in movie marketing. And from Fanta’s perspective, this co-branding campaign is an example of leveraging fandom to get closer to the audience. 

In short, this collaboration shows a typical win-win situation that’s expected from any co-branding campaign. 

As a part of this partnership, Fanta announced an online sweepstakes rewarding customers with tickets to the new movie. This depicts the effective use of digital channels to maximize engagement and create positive brand associations. 

Additionally, Fanta deployed teaser advertising to create anticipation for the campaign. Teasers like the one here are particularly effective when tapping into fandom to reinforce customer relationships. 

KIMP Tip: To highlight the collaboration Fanta created a limited edition flavor with customized packaging. This new packaging also features the new Fanta logo. Exciting brand partnerships and buzzworthy campaigns like this one can help reinforce a brand’s identity after a rebranding campaign. 

To read more about Fanta’s rebranding head over to our blog on the new Fanta logo. 

Coca-Cola x Marvel: tapping into new tech like AR 

Coca-Cola’s recent partnership with the Marvel franchise shows the need for creating immersive experiences to stand out in the crowd. 

The previous example we discussed was also a beverage company vs. a movie franchise and this one is too. In fact there are several such collaborations you might be aware of. That fact alone highlights how competitive the space can be and why innovation is the key to cutting through the noise. 

To tackle this, Coca-Cola created a campaign with limited edition collectibles in the form of customized packaging. But these are not traditional cans – each featured a unique Marvel character. Upon scanning these characters on the can, fans could unlock unique AR experiences. 

This provided fans with a unique way to engage with their favorite character and also aided in boosting sales by creating something worth collecting and cherishing. 

KIMP Tip: Brand partnerships are common in marketing. Hence, utilize cutting-edge technologies like AR to offer unique and engaging experiences that differentiate your brand. 

Honda x Twitch Rivals: focusing on niche communities 

Community building is no easy feat for brands but an essential step. Honda’s recent collaboration with Twitch Rivals highlights how co-branding campaigns can aid community building. 

By partnering with the renowned online gaming tournament Twitch Rivals, Honda aims to strengthen its connection with the gaming communities and also with the Gen Z audience. As a part of this campaign, Honda also announced that users in the community will have a chance to propose customizations in the upcoming Honda Civic hybrid model during TwitchCon 2024 in San Diego. 

From sneak peeks to personalized experiences, the campaign promises many surprises for the gaming community. 

KIMP Tip: Honda’s collaboration with Twitch Rivals is proof that brand partnerships are valuable tools in creating excitement for a new product ahead of its launch. Leverage experiential campaigns like the one that Honda has planned for TwitchCon 2024 in order to make the users in the community feel like an insider. 

Hyatt x Peleton: curating unique rewards for customer loyalty 

A unique less explored path in brand partnerships is leveraging such collaborations to reward loyalty. By doing this, both brands involved can strengthen their customer retention efforts. The Hyatt x Peleton partnership is the perfect example. 

The partnership focused on promoting guest wellness during travel. It was designed to enhance the guest experience by providing access to Peloton equipment and classes, allowing travelers to maintain their fitness routines while on the go. That indicates a clearly defined target audience – fitness-conscious travelers. 

Moreover, the structure of this campaign shows how brand partnerships can effectively be used to incentivize brand interactions thus retaining customers. 

KIMP Tip:  Identify and cater to the evolving needs of your target audience. In this case, the campaign highlights a growing trend in the hospitality industry, where hotels are increasingly catering to health-conscious travelers. Identifying such unique trends helps create campaigns that convert.

Roblox x Verizon x The Metropolitan Museum of Art: defining a clear purpose & target audience 

The multi-brand partnership from The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Verizon and Roblox had one clear goal – educating the audience in the most engaging manner. 

To achieve this, they created an app called Replica that allows users to scan artwork at the museum. The scanned art can then be saved and accessed as digital collectibles within the Roblox platform. 

The overall idea was to engage users and transform the way they interact with art and technology. This clear definition of the goal led to the success of the campaign and resulted in plenty of social media mentions for the brands. It also garnered a lot of user-generated content benefiting all the brands involved. 

KIMP Tip: The Replica app highlights the use of reciprocity in marketing. Creating value for your customers is one of the most effective ways to boost conversion and engagement through brand partnerships. 

New York Times Cooking x Instacart: enhancing customer convenience 

The New York Times Cooking and Instacart brand partnership is about delivering customer convenience. 

Imagine this – you are hunting for recipes. The ideas for the recipes are in one location and the ingredients are in another. Wouldn’t it make your job so much simpler if you could directly add to your cart all those ingredients you see in the recipe?  That’s precisely the kind of convenience that this brand partnership brings. 

Arrangements like these highlight that the best way to make an impact on your customers is to listen to their problems and provide them with solutions. Small efforts in the form of simple brand collaborations like this one can show customers that you listen to them and are ready to go the distance to simplify their work. 

KIMP Tip: How do you come up with ideas like this one? Social listening can be your much-needed secret ingredient. It helps you gauge your customers’ interests, their questions and thus provide them with a personalized answer, a solution. 

For more insights on this, check out our blog on social listening. 

GHOST x General Mills: venturing into new markets 

GHOST is a popular sports nutrition brand. Naturally, their target audience is the fitness-focused crowd out there. So, how do they expand their reach and reach new audiences? Enter brand partnership, with a consumer-focused brand targeting diverse audience demographics, like General Mills. 

As a part of this partnership, GHOST introduced a new range of protein-enriched breakfast cereals. Breakfast and post-workout protein boost in one go? Why not! That’s another instance of brands working together to enhance customer convenience. 

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KIMP Tip: To introduce the product to their existing audience and build anticipation, GHOST collaborated with influencers for the promotion of their new cereal range. This underscores the effectiveness of influencer collaborations in amplifying the benefits of co-branding campaigns. 

Similarly, come up with a more expansive multi-channel, multi-pronged approach to boost your brand partnership.  

Roku and iSpot: venturing into new possibilities 

Most brand partnerships are about conventional benefits like expanding reach, experimenting with new markets, or even about community and engagement. However, these benefits are only the tip of the iceberg. 

For instance, a recent partnership between Roku and iSpot, two very popular names in the TV streaming segment, shows that the possibilities are truly endless with brand partnerships. Instead of the traditional benefits, the brands here chose to share data for improved ad measurement. 

The combination of Roku’s audience scale and iSpot’s next-generation Unified Measurement solution results in a revolutionary strategy for advertisers to measure and optimize their campaigns across both streaming and traditional TV platforms.

Given the surge in CTV (connected TV) trends and with more brands investing in CTV advertising, iSpot and Roku have indeed made a brilliant move to make advertising more efficient through this collaboration. 

KIMP Tip: Brand partnerships are all about brands working together and growing together. So, instead of choosing cliched approaches like partnering with a brand and introducing a single product or commercial, come up with creative ways in which both the brands involved can benefit in the long run. 

A Few Quick Tips on Brand Partnerships

Having discussed some of the well-known brands and their co-branding campaigns of recent times, let’s quickly take a look at a few key strategies to learn from these examples. 

  • Look for shared values: The best kinds of brand partnerships occur between brands that share not just target audiences but also brand values. 
  • Align objectives: Ensure that the brand you choose has the same goals for the partnership. Aligning objectives helps create a cohesive and authentic campaign, which resonates more deeply with the target audience.
  • Identify a mutually beneficial arrangement: Whether it’s through shared resources, expanded reach, or improved brand equity, ensure that the partnership creates value for both the brands involved and their customers as well. 
  • Preserve brand identities: Ensure that the marketing graphics created to promote the brand partnership for diverse print and digital channels preserve the brand identities of both brands. Logos, colors, brand fonts – identify the sweet spot where they can come together so as to strike the right chord with the respective target audiences. 

Tackle the Promotional Graphics For You Co-Branding Campaigns With KIMP 

In short, the opportunities are plenty and there is ample room for creativity. Amidst this, if you wish to stand out and make the most of your brand partnerships, you need diverse kinds of promotional graphics. This is where an unlimited design service like KIMP comes in. 

Ready to experience the impact of an unlimited design service? Register now for KIMP’s 7-day free trial! 

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Posted On

12 Sep, 2024

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