Once you’ve fully wrapped your head around collaborative content as a future marketing strategy for your business as well as your clients’ business, you may find yourself hitting a road block thinking:

“Right, I found a brand that commands the interest of an audience by client wants, but we genuinely have nothing in common.”

Can apples be like oranges? You bet.

Like any muscle that gets stronger with applied training, so can your idea muscle around finding commonalities with brands that may appear totally unrelated at the start.

The degree to which you find commanlities between 2 brands will dictate how successfuly you are in executing your collaborative content strategy.

For example, what do apples have in common with oranges? Plenty actually.

They are both fruits.

They both require a farmer to plant them.

They both originate from trees.

They both have a sweet aftertaste.

They both are healthy.

They both can be used to make fresh juice, etc

Right let’s try another one. What do apples have in common with Yoga? They both can promote your wellbeing from a nutritional and physiological aspect, respectively.

So let’s say your client is a high-durability residential garage door company, that is trying to attract wealthy homeowners (the persona).

Say this persona also has an interest in a specialty outdoor BBQ grill brand (which may have a much bigger audience because let’s face it, it’s a cooler product).

You may collaborate with the BBQ grill company to come up with a video series that celebrates strong families who get together often to grill on their front porch and enjoy each other’s company, where the quality garage door can be seen in the background.

The benefit to the BBQ company is that you are introducing them to a new customer segment (people who already own your client’s garage doors) while promoting the message through a powerful story and medium.

The benefit for us is we get to leverage the audience of the BBQ company who will view our videos, and have a garage door brand in mind.

The next time they’re out for dinner celebrating their friend’s who just bought their first house, they may recommend your client’s brand because they associate it with good times — something they wish for their friends.

You get the idea.

The permutations and combinations of brands to collaborate with are endless.

While it may not always work, you increase your chances of getting a deal with a bigger brand by framing campaigns in terms of what they will get out of it and what your client’s brand may offer them.