One really fun way to get more eyes on your brand mascot is to collaborate with well-established brands and characters. It's a win-win for both parties - the new brand 'piggy-backs' off the recognizability of the established brand, and the established brand gets fresh creative content that helps them stay relevant.
Many (previously) up-and-coming artists and IPs owe their success to brand collaborations - Kaws x The Simpsons, Ignasi Monreal x Gucci, Tokidoki x Hello Kitty.. and went on with the collaboration model to cross over with other big brands, eg. Tokidoki has since partnered with Marvel, Peanuts, Barbie, Karl Lagerfeld and Bearbrick.
"Collaboration can be THE way to discover new market opportunities, push product branding in new directions, or establish a presence in a completely new area" - https://www.braineet.com/blog/co-creation-examples
One collaboration that we are working on is a crossover between our characters and the Emojis brand:
You don't necessarily need to have an existing relationship with the established brand you'd like to do a crossover with. Create some tribute art and tag them on social media! Under "artisic license" law, you can even use their logo without copyright infringement, as Trevor Andrew did with Gucci.
That's exactly what I've been doing with our main character, Floob, during the long Shanghai lockdown - daily drawing challenges creating all sorts of tributes just for fun. It's hard to get the attention of huge brands like Marvel or Ninetendo, but I don't mind whether it leads to any kind of collaboration - regardless, it shows our fans how versatile and fun our character is, and lets us flex and show off our creative muscles!
Here are some of the designs we did.. first - tributes to our favourite superheroes and popular characters:
And then some tributes to iconic, classic popular art & media:
And then some artworks experimenting with different styles:
Whether you work directly with brands and set up crossover projects, or want to increase your library of creative assets that references pop culture, IT'S FUN!
If you'd like to keep up with the many incarnations of Floob and his friends, follow our Instagram page!