Maisie Lloyd
Maisie is the Digital Content Manager at Intelligency, handling all things creative for the agency. Her experience centres around the production of digital content, pertaining to graphic design, writing copy, and video and audio content.
Brand collaborations don’t always deliver the cultural impact brands hope for. When partnerships feel forced, disconnected or poorly judged, campaigns can quickly alienate audiences instead of attracting them.
Why do brands pursue collaborations?
Brand collaborations have become one of the most widely used marketing strategies because they allow brands to access audiences that are already highly engaged and culturally established. Rather than building attention from scratch, collaborations enable brands to tap into existing communities that are more likely to interact with, trust and purchase from a campaign.
Collaborations also allow brands and creators to borrow credibility from one another. When audiences already trust one side of the partnership, that trust can transfer onto the campaign itself, helping brands appear more culturally relevant and authentic.
What causes brand collaborations to fail?
The key issue that causes brand collaborations to fail is when the audience can’t understand how the two belong together. A collaboration is only effective when brands share one of the following things in common:
- Personality (whether that be portrayed as a funny, honest or professional type of brand)
- Audience perception
- Cultural positioning
- Emotional alignment
- Product relevance
- A shared audience
If brands fail to align on at least one area, it can result in collaborations that feel random, inauthentic or forced.
The latest brand collaboration fails
Peppa Pig x Tottenham Hotspur Football Club
One of the more recent brand collaboration fails we’ve seen to date was the Peppa Pig x Tottenham Hotspur F.C merchandise collaboration. For many supporters and spectators, the collaboration felt disconnected from the club’s current reality. At a time when fans were frustrated with on-pitch performance and concerns around relegation were growing, the campaign appeared unserious and commercially tone-deaf.
The lack of overlap between fanbases makes campaigns like this irrelevant. A great campaign should solve a problem or feel deliberate and understandable.
Sydney Sweeney x American Eagle
with messaging that many audiences interpreted as echoing ideas associated with eugenics and exclusionary beauty standards. We discussed the negative impact of the campaign on both American Eagle and Sydney Sweeney.
By contrast, this campaign lacked the right tone or messaging, rather than being poorly aligned with the collaborative partner.
Successful collaborations feel inevitable once consumers see them. Failed collaborations do the opposite; they force audiences to question why the partnership exists at all. In a market where consumers are increasingly sensitive to authenticity and cultural awareness, collaboration alone is no longer enough to guarantee relevance.
