Collaboration Value

Products or services with high mass appeal reach a large audience, offering greater potential for viral spread. While they face competition from numerous existing products, they also possess explosive hit potential.

Another category is brands with high loyalty. These often already have a dedicated fanbase, meaning users who specifically seek out the brand can become advocates themselves, actively spreading the word.

Collaborations with strong PR impact can also effectively stimulate regular communication activities. Making news serves as a reminder of the brand to the public. It becomes a significant step contributing to branding, not just a limited one-off initiative.

So, who and where truly benefits from collaborations? Let's dig deeper into this.

People Who Benefit from Collaborations

First and foremost are the "employees" involved in the collaboration project.

Collaborating with another company or brand often requires navigating adjustments across multiple fronts. Progressing the project with methods and goal-setting entirely different from routine operations provides highly valuable employee training.

It also serves as an excellent OJT opportunity for technical department employees supporting back-office functions like development and research. For those who typically work in a closed environment, it provides exposure to external stimuli (both from outside the company and other internal departments).

Particularly in large corporations where specialization is deepening, if such opportunities can spark interaction between members of different departments and subsequently influence their regular work, that alone represents a significant gain.

Collaboration creates delicious "places"

Collaboration also delivers value to commercial facilities and retail stores where products circulate.

The retail industry has a unique custom of treating the year as 52 weeks, requiring initiatives for each one. While weeks like Christmas or Halloween are obvious, not every week has such an event. Every store is constantly brainstorming creative ways to plan their next sales floor.

This is where collaborations can become a "counter-proposal" to retailers. When unexpected brands from different industries join forces to launch new products, it creates perfect news to energize the space.

Officially stealing from others' methods

Another appealing aspect of collaborations is the opportunity to practice and learn by "stealing" methods from others.

I might get scolded by marketing professors for saying this... but I don't believe there's a single correct answer for a company's marketing methods. Since every company has different histories, cultures, and corporate styles, it's only natural that 100 companies would have 100 different approaches.

Therefore, it's only through collaborations between different companies and brands that you truly witness "how others do it." Especially since development processes are a company's DNA, they're naturally packed with confidential information (I've personally been in many situations where I had to keep a straight face while my heart was racing over sensitive data...). Collaborations where "outsiders" share their secrets and learn from each other provide an opportunity to objectively view your own company's rigid rules and processes. You could say it's like opening a certain kind of black box...

As someone on the creative side, I'll add that planning collaborations is incredibly exciting. What if we combine this with that? What if we sold this there? There's a unique dynamism in seeing such wild, almost fantasy-like ideas come to life in your work – something I'd never experienced before.

As an aside, the moment that made me happiest while planning a collaboration was when a local friend said, "I saw it at the supermarket, got curious, and bought it!" While creating ads and campaigns, where results are measured by reach, KPIs, and various other metrics, this gave me a tangible sense beyond the numbers – that the output I worked on truly reached the people I wanted to reach.

It was incredibly, incredibly rewarding work.
(To be continued)