In a not-so-distant marketing era “collabs” were the shiny new toy. Supreme x Oreo. Balenciaga x Crocs. 7-Eleven x Crocs, KFC x err, Crocs… again. Collabs are now as surprising as a Love Island breakup. We expect them. We scroll past them, even when a crisp packet costs $1500.
Balenciaga x Lays
What if the future lies, less in collaboration and more in crossover? Less of a joint press release, more a shared cinematic universe. Stealing from Marvel and, more importantly, when boyband 5ive turned up in an episode of Neighbours From Hell, what if brands lived inside each other’s worlds? Less logo mash-up, more narrative sprawl. Brands would no longer stand alone, they would cameo, fuel plot-twists and steal the show.
A 'storyweb' instead of a storyline. Integrated narratives to keep viewers engrossed across multiple channels.
The legendary 'Monkey & Al' have storywebbed (ITV Digital, then PG Tips) their way from tech into tea with more emotional chemistry than most rom-coms. Tide's hijacking of the Super Bowl in 2018 turned every commercial and parts of the broadcast into its own story and Visit Britain recently built a cinematic multiverse featuring Paddington, Bridget Jones and Spider-Man.
Monkeh - From Tech to Tea
But what if we went further and fully embraced the FMCU (Fast-Moving Consumer Universe)? In this multiverse Howard from the Halifax now works at Abbey National. The OXO family are absolutely rinsing the broadband in EE land. Barry Scott is moonlighting as a cleaner in The Rovers, the Queen Vic and The Woolpack. And we all watch it Start with a Swipe when a Scottish Widow joins Tinder, matches with Captain Birdseye, goes Insta official from a hot tub at Center Parcs, survives an Ikea flat pack meltdown to not just book the honeymoon, but Thomas Cook it.
Let's put brands back in charge of what they first started, the soap opera. Think timelines instead of taglines. Plot placement instead of product placement. Aleksandr and Sergei don't just sponsor Coronation Street, they move into Number 13 and wreak havoc on the cobblestones. Sergei takes a job at Underworld, Aleksandr starts dating Gail Platt and the meerpups appear as surprise twins in a paternity twist that even Ken Barlow didn’t see coming.
Guiding Light - 1937-2009, Proctor & Gamble.
Forget the collab. Embrace the crossover. Collabs were about commerce. Crossovers are about character and characters create stories that stick. In today’s Attention Economy, brands need to do more than simply show up; they need to show range. Brands that crash the party,spike the punchbowl and wake up in another brand world will win. In a world where ads are skipped one way forward is to storyweb. In this universe the stories are layered, chaotic and connected. Storylines are dead. Long live the StoryWeb.