We love seeing well-known brands working together to develop new products, and recently we’ve noticed this more and more within the FMCG sector. On crowded supermarket shelves, trusted brand partnerships help products stand out and offer a way to be both familiar and newsworthy at the same time. This got us thinking about the collaborations that have recently caught our attention, ranging from those we’re desperate to try, to those we’d (frankly) rather not.

Sweets-on-sweets

The sweet-treat category has exploded with collaborations that tap into nostalgia, comfort food and are simply fun. Just look at the rise of sweets-on-sweets mashups: Cadbury teaming up with Biscoff, Oreo and Daim, or McVitie’s x Jaffa Cakes creating a Jaffa Cake inspired biscuit. These collabs tap into the thrill of discovering something new whilst retaining the brand trust and familiarity that drives purchases.

Giving the people what they want

Some of the most successful partnerships aren’t wild at all, they are simply formalising habits consumers already have. A perfect example is Heinz x Cathedral City, which turned the nation’s unofficial comfort meal into an official product. Heinz Cheesy Beanz wasn’t invented, it was recognised.

The rise of the wacky mashups 

Of course, there has also been the rise of the wacky mashups, where brands are leaning into humour, chaos and internet culture. IKEA x Chupa Chups started as an April Fool’s joke and quickly became reality when they ended up with a meatball-flavoured lollipop. We loved the TikTok where taste-testing IKEA employees dutifully maintain that it’s “actually strangely quite nice” (we’ll need some convincing).

When Pringles x Burger King teased their partnership, social media couldn’t decide whether it was real or AI-generated, only making the hype stronger. The eventual release of Chicken Royale and Bacon Double Cheese-flavoured crisps proved that curiosity is a powerful purchase driver, with users in the r/UKFood Reddit thread keen to report that they taste just like the real thing. The collaboration worked both ways, with Burger King releasing Pringles Sour Cream & Onion Chicken Fries as part of this limited-edition partnership.

Heinz x Absolut Vodka turned a viral pasta trend into a valuable addition to supermarket shelves. We’ve also seen Jude’s Ice Cream x Guinness and Oreo x Coca-Cola tell a similar story – that FMCG collaborations thrive on shock value, meme potential and limited-edition hype.

Sport as a platform for product innovation

Sport has also become a powerful platform for product innovation. KitKat x Formula 1 turned “Have a Break” into a global motorsport message, complete with an F1 car-shaped KitKat snack and even a full-size chocolate car. Meanwhile, the World Cup has inspired a wave of creativity: Walkers’ country-inspired flavours (see Portuguese Chorizo & Onion, Mexican Beef Taco), McDonald’s collectible legend cups (fuelling a mini-economy on eBay!), and BuzzBallz’s limited-edition “SoccerBallz” cocktails.

Whether it’s comfort food formalised, flavours pushed to extremes, or sport used as a creative playground, FMCG brands are proving that partnerships aren’t just marketing, they are entertainment. The most effective collaborations do more than create a moment of hype; by linking brands to new occasions, needs and consumption contexts, they can create fresh category entry points and strengthen mental availability. A shopper may not have been thinking about a particular brand when planning a movie night, watching Formula 1 or recreating a viral pasta recipe, but the right partnership can help a brand come to mind in those moments. In a crowded market, that ability to be both memorable and relevant may be the biggest win of all.

Understanding behaviour is what we do

• UK
• Ireland