Winning with CPG Brand Collaborations
We've seen some unique co-branding collaborations recently — from Kellanova's Pringles and Crocs teaming up on a footwear collection, to L’Oreal's Essie partnering with prebiotic soda brand Poppi on nail designs. Still, the full potential of CPG co-branding opportunities remains untapped, according to Jessica Shapiro, CMO of LiveRamp.
We recently chatted with Shapiro to get her thoughts on notable brand collaborations, how to find the right partner, challenges in the space and what the future of co-branding looks like.
P2PI: What are some great CPG brand partnerships you've seen?
Shapiro: Many are familiar with standout examples like Taco Bell and Doritos, or GoPro and Red Bull, where CPGs and other brands forged natural partnerships around a deep understanding of their customers’ lifestyles.
But it’s the unexpected collaborations that are my favorites. For example, Pringles and Crocs unveiled a partnership earlier this year featuring co-branded shoes and charms. Whether a consumer was poolside wearing their “Sour Cream & Onion” Pringles x Crocs slides, or flaunting their favorite snack around town with branded Jibbitz charms, it was sure to stand out.
In the cosmetics space, Maybelline showed innovative thinking by launching a “virtual makeup bag” featured in Microsoft Teams, where users can “wear” different digital makeup looks on their next Teams call. It’s such an unexpected, but interesting way for brands to collaborate. Users get to look their best, Maybelline gets in front of new consumers, and Microsoft Teams strengthens its loyalty with users by offering a new, thoughtful product feature.
P2PI: Have you seen any interesting marketing activations of co-marketing in-store or elsewhere?
Shapiro: “Barbenheimer” wasn’t the only cinematic crossover we saw last year. Barbie’s parent company, Mattel, also joined forces with fellow toy maker Hasbro to create co-branded games promoting the releases of the "Barbie" movie and "Transformers: Rise of the Beasts." Special editions of some of their most popular games were featured, from Barbie-themed Monopoly to Transformers-branded Hot Wheels and UNO cards.
In this partnership, two brands that could have been perceived as competitors instead found a way to combine their rich, first-party insights to build buzz around their films and breathe new life into their top-selling products.
Barbie especially enjoyed a victory lap of standout marketing campaigns last summer, many of which showcased the power of collaborating with partners across different categories in creative ways. Teaming up with Airbnb to build a replica Dreamhouse, debuting a clothing line in Zara, and launching a limited-edition pink flavor at Pinkberry each had a unique way of combining the power of brand with data to hit home runs for both companies.
P2PI: Why are you adamant that the full potential of CPG co-branding opportunities remains untapped?
Shapiro: There are two significant reasons I'm confident there’s a huge untapped opportunity for CPG co-branding. First of all, it breaks through. It allows brands to be seen with an unexpected twist by new audiences. Second, there is a meaningful financial upside for CPGs to unlock powerful new business opportunities.
For CPGs who are not rich in first-party data by nature, being able to access unique second and third-party data sources, close the loop on measurement, and advance campaign analytics is critical to success. Mondelez International and General Mills are two innovative CPGs leaning into such partnerships to unlock powerful new business opportunities that benefit both companies.
Mondelez cracker brand Triscuit achieved a 16% lift in incremental sales by collaborating with Albertsons and Pinterest in a data clean room to safely unlock granular measurement. General Mills has made big bets by increasing its team of data scientists 40x over the last six years, leveraging its growing expertise in analytics to collaborate with data and optimize activities with external partners. These partnerships have been able to push some General Mills products to the top of their category and reach more than 16 million consumers on direct-to-consumer websites.
These examples show how CPGs can unlock true innovation through data and insights. The use cases are still evolving, and the number of examples will continue to grow.
P2PI: How can CPG brands find the right partner?
Shapiro: Before thinking about which company you want to work with, think about what data would be most valuable to you. As we like to tell our customers:
“Imagine what new insights could transform your business, and then work with external or internal partners to get them.”
Even if they don’t have a wealth of first-party data, CPGs are rich in specific insights. They have information about consumers that other brands don’t. Leveraging those insights to articulate the unique value of your data to potential collaborators is a great place to start.
Brands can also seek out a company with a large network and form a partnership with the specific goal of tapping into their ecosystem. As an example, at LiveRamp, we have developed a partner ecosystem of 900 platforms, publishers, agencies, and brands globally that allows customers to access a tremendous amount of information. In many ways, we act as a “matchmaker” between companies with robust amounts of first-party data and those without, forging endemic and non-endemic partnerships that uncover customer insights each would otherwise never have had access to.
P2PI: How are innovations in data and technology enabling and furthering CPG partnerships?
Shapiro: Historically, the two biggest hurdles for CPGs have been access to data and insight into conversions. With the bulk of purchases taking place in a retailer’s store, CPG brands don’t have visibility to valuable transaction and intent data and closed-loop reporting. Thankfully, new privacy-enhancing technologies have broken this barrier by allowing companies to more easily and safely collaborate their data together for mutual benefit.
Collaboration tools like media networks and clean rooms have exploded in popularity in recent years because they enable secure data collaboration. This provides more access to customer insights, deepens holistic measurement across channels, and advances the analytics that make it possible to prove ROI.
The reality is, there’s more consumer data available to CPGs than ever before. With technology that makes it safe to connect that data across the enterprise and between ecosystem partners, CPGs can forge new partnerships that uncover an immense amount of customer intelligence to help grow their business.
P2PI: What does the future of co-branding look like and how can CPG organizations ensure they get the most out of their collaborations?
Shapiro: We will continue to see technology push the boundaries of what co-branding can look like and achieve. AI will be used to analyze consumer data and create highly personalized co-branded products and experiences, while uncovering real-time customer feedback and sentiment analysts to fine-tune co-branded initiatives. The rise of “retail-tainment” and “phygital” will also inspire hybrid in-store engagements enhanced by digital technologies such as AR and VR.
With technology making data collaboration easier than ever, we can also anticipate more innovative and unexpected partnerships between brands from different industries, such as financial or automotive sectors, creating unique and memorable products or experiences.
To get the most out of their partnerships, CPGs should invest in building out as robust of a first-party data strategy as they can, and then collaborating data with external ecosystem partners to uncover new insights across channels. When companies can measure that their co-branded campaigns delivered more personalized touchpoints with customers, enhanced reach and scale, and drove value for their business, they’ll know they were successful.
P2PI: What are some challenges you see in this space, and what's your advice on how to tackle it?
Shapiro: A lot of data lives in silos, creating a fragmented view of consumers. Consumer data being scattered across platforms, clouds, and even enterprise teams can make achieving a holistic view of the customer journey feel out of reach.
This is why the emergence of data collaboration is so exciting. By breaking down these barriers and safely bringing all this data together, data collaboration brings companies the insights they need to drive brand and business value. There is a use case for every level of maturity and quantity of first-party data — whether a brand is looking to “crawl” by building up its first-party data strategy, “walk” by finally measuring holistically across screens, or “run” by launching a commerce media network. My advice is to find partners that can advance your unique business goals with a flexible, privacy-focused approach to propel your company confidently into the future.
This is an incredibly exciting time when technology has finally caught up with companies’ desire to know their customers intimately and partner meaningfully.