What Makes Good Brand Collaboration Marketing?

Brand collaborations are a highly effective way of raising awareness of your business, tapping into areas of the market you might not have reached before, and building positive relationships with other brands in your industry.

You can tailor brand collaborations to suit the size and scale of your business and run something as simple as an Instagram giveaway, or as complex and stimulating as a hashtag conversation for your customers to get involved in your online community!

It’s important to remember that brand collaborations are just as effective offline as they are online. Keep reading to find out what makes for good brand collaboration marketing:

Mutually Beneficial Brand Collaboration

A brand collaboration brings businesses together, often in unique and harmonious ways. Any company looking into collaborations should consider what they get out of it, what they can offer their partner and also what this brings to their customers.

Brand collaboration should have a clear goal in mind. Knowing what you want to achieve and the value you can bring to another company is the route to successful, mutually beneficial brand collaborations. For example, an eco-friendly business could lend a positive social reputation to a retailer with a fantastic social following. Alternatively, a gift experience business could supply a prize giveaway with a business with fantastic brand loyalty; customers get rewarded and the gift experience business is introduced to new potential customers.

That’s not to say that thinking outside the box with your collaboration or mixing the scales of the businesses aren’t effective:

Disaronno & Versace

Disaronno and major fashion house, Versace, teamed up to create a limited-edition bottle in the recognisable Versace print. The bright colours and recognisable design were such an instant success that the partners also decided to promote a gift set. The campaign was designed to promote Versace’s new range of homeware, which works well with Disaronno being an alcoholic treat that many already have stashed in their kitchens. On the other hand, Disaronno benefits from being partnered with such an iconic and luxurious brand, seeing a boost in sales. The designs were so attractive, they could be used to compliment interiors and made an ideal gift. Initially you might think these two are an unlikely partnership, but both brands benefitted massively!

Barclays And Local Councils

Another unlikely partnership, Barclays Bank PLC joined forces and invests with local authorities throughout the UK. In this collaboration, Barclays created co-working and modern ‘hot desking’ spaces across the country, creating encouraging and supportive spaces for freelancers, SMEs and creative, new innovations. The bank can use this collaboration to promote their membership schemes whilst improving their social reputation, as they provided the bulk of the capital for the project – and local authorities are able to make the most of this investment to stimulate growth in their digital industries.

Limited Edition Branding

Recapture consumer attention and encourage customers to visit you in store or online with a tantalising and effective brand collaboration marketing strategy. Temporarily changing your social icons, website homepage and of course, your branded printed bags can capture the attention of your existing customers or followers that might have let your brand slip to the back of their minds.

Limited edition branding is a great opportunity to shake up your existing merchandise. Brands as big as H&M, the most popular clothing brand in Europe, have capitalised on brand collaboration marketing.

Their collaboration with Moschino provided H&M with the opportunity to upgrade their bags.  They opted for the more deluxe, printed laminated bags with long ribbon handles. The design is super simple but also really bold and emphasises their collaboration with the ‘H&MOSCHINO” text. Opting for luxury or more durable printed bags are a great way to celebrate your brand collaboration in style! It’s also a strategic option for the long run, as your customers can reuse your printed bags, raising awareness for your brand!

Both businesses in the collaboration can benefit from an increase in profits if the brand collaboration marketing is well promoted and eye catching. Obviously, brands with similar products and messaging are likely to share a large portion of their existing customer base, but if SMEs partner with bigger corporate businesses, or you get thinking outside the box, strategic collaborations will introduce new customers to both businesses. As a result, strategic brand collaboration will spike your sales!

Collaborate On Incentives and Giveaways

A brand partnership or temporary collaboration is often as simple as a giveaway. The brand collaboration marketing for this kind of partnership can be super simple and super beneficial, especially for smaller brands looking to raise their online profiles and reach more customers.

A giveaway or competition between collaborators is a great way to work together, as prize content is extremely popular and generates a lot of consumer engagement. Both businesses can implement email marketing strategies to directly target their audience and perhaps remind their mailing list of the timeframe to take part in the competition. The two businesses can split the costs of the giveaway, but you should both bear in the mind that there will be expectations for the giveaway. For a successful and engaging brand collaboration marketing that produces a positive ROI, you should ensure your prize is worthwhile to your target audience. Remember, relevancy is key!

Other things to consider for this kind of brand collaboration marketing are the optimal time to run a giveaway (approximately 25-60 days) and the audience you are trying to reach. This graph indicates the age groups most likely to enter an online competition. Ensure this information feeds into your long term marketing strategy and that you are going to reach your target audience.

To implement your own brand collaboration marketing strategy, get in touch with the team here at The Printed Bag Shop. As industry experts, we can advise you on luxury or alternative merchandise options and create limited edition printed bags. Alternatively, our team can design merchandise that perfectly represents both collaborators!