5 Interesting Co-Branding Cases in 2020

Co-branding has become one of the most trendy marketing methods in China. Brands from different industries collaborate with each other to reach a wider audience and break into new markets. Here are some recent co-branding cases that we find interesting and creative.

1. Hey Tea x Fenty Beauty

Fenty Beauty and Hey Tea just officially announced this cooperation on 29th April. Hey Tea’s “Creamy Peachy” drink - one of Hey Tea’s most popular drink is back, together with Fenty Beauty’s Cheeks Out creamy blush. A limited edition crossover makeup bag will also be given out as gift.

Rihanna’s Fenty Beauty entered China market in June 2019 by launching its Tmall Global store. Its highlighter product once became top 1 in highlighter category on Tmall Global platform. In order to reach more Chinese consumer, especially female Gen Z, Fenty Beauty chose to work with Hey Tea, the No. 1 milk tea brand in China that is famous for its creative design and content management.

2. Li Ziqi’s Rice Noodle (Luosifen 螺蛳粉) x People’s Daily

Li Ziqi is a super popular KOL who is famous for her traditional Chinese lifestyle. She is not only well-known in China but also has over 10 million followers on Youtube. In her Tmall shop, the most popular product is a River Snail Rice Noodle (螺蛳粉) which is a traditional Chinese noodle and a specialty of Liuzhou, Guangxi Province. The noodle is controversial because it stinks but tastes very good.

This time Li Ziqi’s rice noodle collaborated with Chinese official newspaper People’s Daily and launched a limited edition of rice noodle, selling at RMB 39.7 for 3 packets. The packaging is designed like the cover page of People’s Daily and there is also a piece of paper placemat which looks like the People’s Daily newspaper inside the packet.

This limited edition of noodles has sold out over 1 million packets on Tmall, ranking number 1 in rice noodle category.

3. IKEA x Pizza Hut

IKEA’s new pizza table is a real life version of the pizza saver - a small holder inside pizza delivery box. The material of the table is designed for easy cleaning when you eat pizza. The packaging of the table is a giant pizza delivery box. This crossover pizza table is widely welcomed by customers. Pizza Hut also launched a Pizza Hut x IKEA pizza flavoured with IKEA’s classic Swedish meatballs.

This collaboration brought a 67% increase of sales for Pizza Hut.

4. Dior x Nike

Earlier in 2017, Dior’s CCO at that time Kris van Asshe once posted a picture on Instagram combining Dior and Nike logo. Later the post was deleted and the collaboration was also suspended.

This year, Maison Dior and Dior men Artistic Director Kim Jones debuted the new Dior x Nike Air Jordan sneaker. It's said to be the most expensive Nike sneaker ever. Before this, he also contributed to the collaboration of LV and Supreme. Luxury brands collaborating with sports and street wear brands has become a trend.

5. Netease Yeation (网易严选) x Calabash Brothers

Calabash Brothers is a cartoon series that represents the childhood memory of post-80s and post-90s generation. There are 7 brothers in the cartoon and each of them has a super power. Netease Yeation is an online shopping platform backed by the Internet unicorn Netease.

This time Yeation and Calabash Brothers launched 7 make-up products: face powder, cushion foundation, eyeshadow, lipsticks, face mask, hand cream and perfume. Each product is related to a super power of one Calabash Brother. For example, the 3rd brother can breathe fire and he is featured with the lipstick - the shade is hot like fire. The 4th brother’s super power is to spray water so his product is a hydration face mask.

This crossover campaign is very popular among post-80s and post-90s, which are also the target customer of Yeation. The design is very creative and easily went viral on social media.

Which of these 4 cases really surprised you?