How collaborating with another brand can boost your brand’s awareness

As an established brand, one of the most empowering philosophies you can adopt when operating in the wellness industry is ‘collaboration over competition’.

This doesn’t mean you give away all of your insider information or unique selling points to competitors or take commercial risks that don’t make sense. What it does mean, though, is that it is worthwhile considering how you can form clever, mutually-beneficial partnerships with other established brands that can help to propel you forward, especially where brands in the same industry sub-categories are compatible and can experience shared momentum together.

So, let’s look at some examples of where partnerships with complementary companies have worked in the wellness industry to advance the brand awareness and agendas of both parties.

1 Boom Cycle and Apex

In the UK, Boom Cycle, a boutique fitness studio very much focused on offering a service in a bricks and mortar facility, recently partnered with Apex, a business focused on connected fitness equipment (including stationary bikes that connect to digital content).

In need of more of this high quality, well recognised digital content, Apex approached Boom Cycle (a more established brand) to help them launch with reputable fitness programming that was already within Boom Cycle’s capacity to deliver. The collaboration demonstrates the opportunity for connected fitness brands and physical operators to work together to create an omnichannel offering that targets a wider audience.

2 OURA and Clue

Wearers of sleep tracking ring OURA can now synchronise their device with menstruation cycle tracker Clue to unlock insights about how their hormones and quality of sleep impact one another. In this unique partnership, two brands are connecting the dots between sleep, mood and cycle, utilising one another’s data, insights, audiences and brand recognition to create overall expansion of both offerings, and add great value to consumers.

This partnership points to a future where tech-enabled wellness brands partner to empower consumers to better track their wellbeing habits and more effectively generate meaningful solutions.

3 Casper and Plus

We can look at another way in which brands have partnered to expand the overall brand ecosystem in the form of a collaboration between sleep-focused company Casper, and CBD (cannabidiol) brand Plus. The two companies recently partnered to create a line of sleep-focused CBD edibles.

Whilst Casper are typically focused on selling mattresses, they could obviously see that CBD (a cannabis extract that has been shown to provide benefits for improved sleep) was becoming a popular trend, and one worth leveraging. It would mean being able to tap into a whole new group of sleep-deprived consumers who might then purchase a mattress as another tool to combat their bedroom woes.

The melatonin and CBD-infused sleep gummies highlight the growing trend of CBD products being positioned within new wellness vertices, as well as helping to further Casper’s goal of becoming ‘The Nike of Sleep’.

4 Headspace and Airline Partners

Finally, let’s examine a partnership between meditation app Headspace and various airlines including Air Canada, British Airways, Cathay Pacific and Delta. There were many mutual benefits for both in creating an inflight Headspace channel and audio exercises to help passengers relax and get some sleep.

The benefit for Headspace? They get to reach over 800 million passengers a year across 12 airlines. For the airlines, they get more relaxed customers who have a better inflight experience overall. The initiative highlights the growing importance of wellness as an integrated and continual part of the end-to-end travel journey, and emphasises the opportunity for wellness brands to reframe their offerings to meet the complex needs and demands of the wellness traveller.