Commentary December 27, 2024
Promo Lessons From the Weirdest Brand Collaborations of 2024
They might be the strangest thing you’ve seen all year – but these companies are doing something right with their co-branding.
Key Takeaways
• Authentic Connections Drive Success: Finding a genuine link between brands, like Liquid Death and e.l.f. Cosmetics’ CORPSE PAINT partnership, can lead to highly successful collaborations that resonate with overlapping audience segments.
• Unconventional Pairings Can Boost Sales: Unexpected collaborations, such as Heinz and Absolut Vodka, can capture consumer interest and significantly boost sales, demonstrating the power of aligning products with brand identities.
• Broad Partnerships Expand Reach: Crocs’ extensive and varied collaborations show that partnering with a wide range of brands can enhance a brand’s reputation and appeal to a broader audience.
Ever wanted pickle-flavored toothpaste? Footwear that smells like fried chicken? Lip balm tasting like your favorite salad dressing?
Brands have been making those – ahem – interesting dreams come true for consumers this year, thanks to an increasingly strange lineup of product collaborations making headlines in 2024.
Jenna Drenten, a marketing professor at Loyola University Chicago, told the BBC that such partnerships are a result of our “unhinged, chronically online marketing era.”
Social media has presented brands with an opportunity to engage with consumers in a more informal, often irreverent way – like when Dunkin’ Donuts’ Instagram was overtaken by chaotic, raunchy posts from Spidey (a spider donut) during October. Because content needs to grab consumers’ attention to go viral, brand collaborations that are a little more … out there have become an increasingly effective approach to combat consumer boredom, says Bolu Akindoyin, chief operations officer at Miai, a firm that specializes in matching companies together for partnerships.
“When brands come together to collaborate, it’s a really fun and entertaining way to engage audiences,” he told me in an interview. “And a really credible way, as well, because it’s authentic.”
The key? Finding a link between the two brands that makes sense and allows both parties to gather value from the partnership, Akindoyin says.
I’ve seen many a headline over the last several months that had me raising my eyebrows at what results from those “links,” whether it’s strange flavor combinations or unique packaging. Here’s my take on a few of the weirdest product collaborations I’ve seen this year.
The Collab: Liquid Death x e.l.f. Cosmetics
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Back in March, e.l.f. Cosmetics released a limited-edition coffin-shaped makeup kit in collaboration with the canned water company – and merch marketing genius – Liquid Death. The Corpse Paint collection was inspired by the black metal music genre, known for its heavy-handed black-and-white makeup looks – and a direct match for Liquid Death’s branding.
Weirdness Factor: 1/5
Promo Takeaway: Liquid Death and e.l.f. proved the power of finding an authentic link between two brands to fuel a successful collab; CORPSE PAINT sold out in less than an hour upon launch. “No one knows more about makeup than the black metal community,” said Andy Pearson, vice president of creative at Liquid Death, in a statement announcing the partnership. In this case, it was all about finding the segment of their audiences that overlapped and building a campaign around that intersection – and, in the process, likely drawing attention from other audiences thanks to the media exposure.
The Collab: Heinz x Absolut Vodka
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Condiment king Heinz partnered with Absolut Vodka over the summer to add to Heinz’s collection of pasta sauces with a vodka tomato sauce made with the good stuff. They first launched the sauce in the U.K. market last year but brought it back in 2024 thanks to extensive demand from fans.
Weirdness Factor: 2/5
Promo Takeaway: At first glance, these two brands don’t seem like they’d have anything in common. But this collab is another lesson in finding common ground – in this case, identifying the product where their brands intersect. And since everyone loves a good pasta alla vodka, it worked. The sauce itself sold out, and sales for the rest of Heinz’s line of pasta sauces spiked 50% in the period after the promotion, helped along by more than 500 million social media impressions across 30 countries, according to the BBC. It’s a lesson that matching a company to a promo product that aligns with their brand identity can have a big payoff in terms of sales – and fans coming back for more.
The Collab: Crocs x ... Everyone
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Crocs have experienced an overwhelming growth in popularity over the last five years as the brand transformed into something beyond just a plastic shoe – and that has included collaborations out the wazoo. Wicked movie Crocs, designer Crocs, Crocs for dogs, Crocs to attract your dog because they smell like fried chicken (thanks, KFC), and this year’s most oddball moment: Crocs to hold your Pringles can.
Weirdness Factor: 3/5
Promo Takeaway: The KFC Crocs may have taken things a step too far into weirdness territory – that partnership included Crocs charms shaped like drumsticks and smelling like Colonel Sanders dumped a KFC meal on your feet. But you have to give the brand credit for its reach this year. By extending its partnerships to everyone from designer labels to your favorite snack foods, Crocs makes the case that they’re for everyone — and that’s a good reputation for any brand to have.
The Collab – Grillo’s Pickles x Boka
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Grillo’s Pickles has quickly grown a reputation as a cult favorite and a partnership pro – from pickle margaritas to their National Pickle Day celebration: a pickle toothpaste created in partnership with oral care brand Boka. It’s not just because I don’t like pickles that I’m skeptical of how that would do cleaning my teeth, but Grillo’s branding VP called it “quite refreshing.”
Weirdness Factor: 4/5
Promo Takeaway: It’s not just the big brands that can get in on brand collaborations – just like it’s not just the big brands that can make an impact with a well-timed promo campaign. National Pickle Day was the perfect occasion for a niche brand like Grillo’s to celebrate with a niche partnership – they also collaborated with PopUp Bagels for a pickle schmear – and there’s plenty of equally specific holidays to go around. Maybe a mattress company should celebrate International Pillow Fight Day in April, or your local pizza spot should honor National Cheese Pizza Day in September.
The Collab: Burt’s Bees x Hidden Valley Ranch
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Cult-followed natural skincare brand Burt’s Bees kicked off 2024 with a wildly unexpected and more than slightly chaotic collaboration with Hidden Valley Ranch. The resulting four-pack of lip balms features “Hidden Valley Ranch,” “Crunch Celery,” “Fresh Carrot” and “Buffalo Sauce” flavors, perfect for anyone who doesn’t want the flavor of chicken wings to be exclusive to, you know, just eating chicken wings.
Weirdness Factor: 4/5
Promo Takeaway: This collab actually started two years prior, with a Hidden Valley Ranch flavored lip balm … as a social media April Fools’ joke. But fans were rabid for a real chance to get their hands on the unconventional skincare, and the actual product launch in January sold out in less than a day. Just goes to show that when you take two brands that have an extremely dedicated fan base – have you never witnessed a ranch vs. blue cheese debate? – there will be people out there eager to get their hands on it, even if (or especially if) it’s a little unconventional.
BONUS: The Collab That Wasn’t – Kit Kat x Heinz
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This one tops the weirdness charts for me. Ketchup-flavored chocolate? No, thank you.
Apparently, it was also too much for the brands themselves, since this collab was exclusively on social media. A shared post and product mock-up teased a “kitkat’chup” flavor of the chocolate bar, but as far as I know, the brand didn’t commit chocolate sacrilege and actually manufacture anything.
Weirdness Factor: 5/5
Promo Takeaway: The collab idea didn’t come from nowhere. In the days leading up to the joint post, influencers went viral on TikTok for slathering their KitKat bars with ketchup in some bizarre flavor trend. It makes perfect sense for the most well-known ketchup brand to participate, and what better way to do it than straight to the source? This works for single-brand promo campaigns, too; when Chipotle customers were stealing stacks of napkins from the fast-casual chain to keep in their cars, the company released branded car napkin holders to play into the trend.