Brand collaborations 101: e.l.f. and Dunkin’ prove the power of partnership

There isn’t much that gets consumers more excited than seeing an “X” between their two favorite brands. Marketers are learning more about their target audiences and some of the most valuable information is what other brands they have their eyes on. Brand collaborations and cobranding are a win-win–plus, these campaigns can cost 25x less than other forms of digital marketing.

We’ve seen a lot of collabs in the fashion and music space, but right now, the winner for best brand collaboration might be e.l.f. cosmetics and Dunkin’.

It’s more than cooperating, it’s cobranding

While e.l.f.’s Dunkin’-inspired product line might not have launched until April, the two brands have a comarketing history. In late 2021, e.l.f. launched a TikTok “reality show” style campaign, “Eyes. Lips. Famous.” The campaign featured three challenges set by influencer judges with the winners taking home a year’s worth of free e.l.f. products. One of those challenges just happened to be a Dunkin’-themed look.

The campaign helped e.l.f. leverage affiliate marketing tactics, gave a glimpse into potential consumer interest in a brand collaboration, and created an opportunity to gather authentic and exciting user-generated content. Altogether, the TikTok hashtag “#EyesLipsFamous” garnered 41.8M views. It’s no wonder that Dunkin’ and e.l.f. decided to take their brand partnership a step further with a product launch.

Winning brand collaborations start with unexpected pairs

Coffee might not seem like it has a lot in common with concealer, but e.l.f. and Dunkin’ have managed to make their partnership seem organic. In some ways, they’re leaning into the seemingly offbeat nature of their partnership, like how Dunkin’ did when they first tweeted about the partnership.

In other ways, this brand partnership makes perfect sense. On social, Dunkin’ and e.l.f. are working to appeal to the same audience of younger, budget-conscious consumers. By working together to create a campaign, they’re able to reach a wider audience of their ideal customer profile.

We dove into Sprout Social’s Listening tool to quantify the campaign’s impact. We looked at social media data from March 14 to April 14, 2022, to examine how the brand partnership affected social performance.

Since launching their brand partnership with Dunkin’ on March 30, 2022, 21% (12.9 million) of e.l.f.’s Twitter impressions are coming from the keywords and hashtags, “Donut,” “Dunkin,” “#dunkindonuts,” “#elfxdunkin” and mentions of @dunkindonuts. This marked a 52% increase in impressions for e.l.f. compared to the two weeks leading up to the product launch. Those impressions are hitting the target audience too: 80% of Tweet authors are between 18 and 34 years-old.

Positive scarcity mindset

Everyone loves a limited edition. The e.l.f. and Dunkin’ product is super niche–and super sought after. Only allowing members of e.l.f.’s Beauty Squad loyalty program members to purchase the product–and only having a limited supply–ensured that this cobranded product would sell out. Even after selling out, it’s still sought after. While the original “Classic Dunkin’ Stack Vault” sold for $75 with free shipping, it’s being listed on resale markets as high at $135 with $30 shipping.