These days, it seems like anything a consumer could want is already on the market. Ultra-specific life-hack gadgets. Restaurants that exclusively serve fermented foods. Boutique brands where all products are made out of recycled materials. Whatever it is you’re looking for, you can probably find it.
But what happens when we get bored with our options? When even the highly specialized and curated brands start to feel boring, how do businesses keep customers excited?
In the early days of brand collaborations, pairings like an artist and a fashion line or a luxury brand with a mass market retailer made perfect sense. Entirely new customer bases emerged when designer brands made affordable collections. Celebrity partnerships allowed fan bases to not only support their idols but also have a tangible piece of their persona.
If you’re lucky, a brand collaboration might be exactly what you never knew you needed.
ELIANA AEMRO SELAISSIE: My favorite collab, at least that I’ve seen so far, is Saie Beauty, the makeup brand, they partnered with this matcha company called Rocky’s Matcha, and they made this little kits with matcha whisks, a little container of matcha, and a matcha sift. And then additional makeup products from Saie. And that’s a combination of two of my favorite things ever: makeup and matcha.
JOAO MARTINS: I feel like a collab that was really iconic was those Converse x Comme des Garcons shoes that had the little heart on the side. And it was iconic. Everyone had them, everyone wanted them. I wanted them myself, too.
That was sophomore Eliana Aemro Selaisse, followed by sophomore Joao Martins. They agreed that a good brand collaboration can successfully merge different demographics.
MARTINS: I feel like a good collab, or at least if I had a company and was like, “Who should we collab with?” it would be like trying to bring two consumer groups, like two different types of consumers, together to buy the same product. So like, if you could get lip gloss lovers and WWE fans together to buy the same thing, I feel like that would be great because how else are you going to be able to get these people in the same room to buy the same thing?
AEMRO SELAISSIE: I feel like it was also very fitting for the demographic of Saie Beauty makeup users who also happen to be matcha drinkers, like myself.
But novelty has a shelf life. And today, brands that don’t adapt to the constant consumer expectations of getting something more, something new, can quickly be outpaced by those that do. Plus, the threshold for virality has changed. In a world saturated by content and choices, it takes a lot to capture our attention, let alone turn a profit off of it.
But brand collaborations have been doing just that. The perfect collab must be sensible enough that buyers loyal to both brands will embrace the joint product. But the secret to generating buzz and standing out in a crowded market? Absurdity.
There was the Van Gogh Museum’s line of Pokémon-themed souvenirs. Hismile’s Kentucky Fried Chicken flavored toothpaste. High-heeled Crocs by Balenciaga. Unlikely brand allies capture the attention, and wallets, of ever-expectant consumers.
But, if a crossover is more puzzling than fascinating, it might not have the same success. Think, Ralph Lauren and Fortnite. Or Forever 21 and the snack bar brand Atkins.
AEMRO SELAISSIE: I don’t understand collaborations that don’t make sense for the demographic you’re trying to sell to.
Whether people are trying it as a joke or earnestly buying something from their favorite brand, absurd collaborations work. An unlikely alliance between brands catches the attention of customers who never imagined such a crossover could occur.
But after discovering so many bizarre partnerships that I could hardly imagine being pitched, let alone being followed through on, I had one question: can a brand collab even be unlikely anymore?
To put my theory to the test here is a list of some real, some fake, brand collabs. Try and guess which are which.
Tinder and Just Dance, Ikea and The Sims, Duolingo and Uber, E.l.f Cosmetics and NASA, KidzBop and Red Bull, Hot Pockets and Patagonia, Drunk Elephant and Dunkin Donuts
If you thought any of those were real, you might be proof that we aren’t surprised by much these days, with increasingly wild marketing campaigns. The good news? Your dream collaboration may not be so unlikely after all.
MARTINS: Ok, so I don’t know what the Dubai chocolate brand is, like the original one, but whoever they are, they should collab with Chili’s and make a Dubai chocolate lava cake.
For WNUR News, I’m Georgia Kerrigan
