Better Together: How Co-Branded Campaigns Drive Results for CPG and Grocery Brands
By Caroline Zerilli, Product Marketing Manager at Chicory
Some product combinations are simply meant to be—cheese and crackers, coffee and creamer, peanut butter and jelly. These pairings don’t just belong in the kitchen—they represent strategic opportunities for brands to create impactful marketing campaigns together.
As economic uncertainty prompts consumers to tighten their wallets and brands to rethink marketing budgets, advertisers must find creative, effective ways to make it onto the shopping list. Co-branded activations offer a unique solution.
Why Co-Branded Activations Work
Communicating brand and product value is critical in today’s competitive media landscape. Co-branded campaigns—where complementary brands join marketing forces—offer advertisers a strategic way to build off of each other's brand equity to make a bigger, more memorable impact.
These partnerships also mirror real consumer behavior, aligning with the way people actually shop. For example, someone entertaining during the holidays is unlikely to buy crackers without picking up a cheese, spread, or dip to accompany them. A co-branded campaign anticipates these needs and makes complementary recommendations as consumers are planning their next shop.
In other cases, co-branded activations can even inspire entirely new usage occasions. For example, Chicory facilitated a partnership between a fruit commodity board and a popular ready-bake brand to show shoppers how to create easy Easter treats featuring the fresh fruit.
Overall, these partnerships offer three key advantages:
Enhanced Brand Relevance: By positioning products as components of a complete meal solution, brands transform from just another shelf item to an integral part of meal-time and entertaining occasions.
Increased Media Efficiency: Co-branded campaigns allow participating brands to maximize exposure while sharing investment, enabling an expanded presence that may be difficult to achieve independently.
Higher Purchase Intent: Enable seamless shopping experiences that encourage consumers to add both brands to their carts with a single click.
Sweet Success for Peanut Butter and Jelly
Putting this strategy to the test, two iconic American brands partnered with Chicory to promote their squeeze-tube peanut butter and jelly products during the holiday baking season.
Rather than positioning these products solely as sandwich ingredients, the campaign highlighted how these conveniently packaged items could elevate holiday baking at home—showcasing applications like peanut butter sugar cookies and jelly-filled treats.
Leveraging Chicory Premium—our exclusive in-recipe ad placements—the brands contextually targeted specific ingredient keywords like “peanut butter,” “almond butter,” “jelly, and “jam” as well as relevant recipe categories like “holiday desserts” and “cookies” to reach shoppers who were actively seeking inspiration.
These results spoke for themselves:
40% of purchases came from new and lapsed households
8.96X return on ad spend (ROAS)
The campaign underscored the power of co-branded activations to drive both brand reach and real sales impact.
How Contextual Commerce Media Fits into Your Co-Branded Strategy
Just as co-branded campaigns bring together complementary products for greater impact, contextual commerce media unites engaging media experiences with contextually relevant context to reach shoppers when it matters most.
Chicory’s suite of engaging ad formats and precise contextual targeting capabilities allow brands working together to activate campaigns that reach shoppers in a high-intent mindset—right as they build their lists for their next grocery store visit.
Whether your brand partnership aims to:
Drive awareness around a new joint product launch
Inspire shoppers with new ways to use products together
Increase consideration and sales at a specific retailer
Chicory’s contextual commerce media solutions help influence purchase decisions at the critical moment of planning and inspiration.
The Co-Branded Advantage
As brands navigate a competitive media landscape and consumers reconsider the brands they buy from, earning consumer attention is harder—and more valuable—than ever. A co-branded strategy offers a strong opportunity to amplify reach, strengthen brand relevance, and maximize media efficiency by tapping into the power of shared investment, loyalty, and affinity.
Chicory is a trusted partner facilitating brand partnerships and executing co-branded media campaigns for leading CPG and grocery brands. From identifying strategic brand pairings to bringing them to life within the right context, we help brands connect with shoppers in the moments that matter most.
Interested in learning more about how your brand can activate a co-branded strategy? Say hello@chicory.co today.
