It’s either your favorite or most loathed day—happy April Fools’ Day! Lots of food-related gags this year, like: CRUNCH promised a Buncha Crunch dispenser that is sadly not real (though many wish it was), Butterfinger teased a fake collab with Top Ramen, Keebler announced cookie-flavored toothpaste and IKEA UK announced a meatball-flavored lollipop.

My favorite prank so far is Yahoo! actually releasing a Scrōll Stoppr, a device for your thumb to stop scrolling, which is available for purchase on TikTok Shop, and Snap renaming its video feed “Reals,” a nice tongue-in-cheek joke about Meta’s Reels feed (and the company copying many of Snap’s core features).

And that brings us to collaborations. Unlike merch, which is a way to get consumers to own something that is explicitly branded, collabs between brands are meant to “surprise and delight.” The sign of a great collab is someone thinking, “how come they didn’t do this sooner?”

Lately, there’s been some entertainment licensing fatigue. The Wicked licensing was a bit out of control (did we need Dawn x Wicked dish soap?), and Target’s “The Devil Wears Prada 2” apparel has left much to be desired.

One brand that consistently nails collaborations? Crocs. The shoe company worked with LoveShackFancy last month to release a line of Crocs, including ballet flats (which have since sold out). In February, Crocs debuted more shoes in its ongoing LEGO Crocs collection (the soles of the shoes look like LEGO bricks). In 2024, BARK and Crocs released matching dog and human shoes because DINKWADs love any opportunity to shower their pup with style and care. (BARK is a Catamaran client.) Crocs even collaborated with hand-sanitizer brand Touchland to sell Croc bag charms to tote around the sanitizer.

Crocs creates products for niche communities that are actually useful. In a December 2024 Confidant/Catamaran/Vytal study, 50% of respondents say they use brands as a way to express their identity and values. Crocs allows people to literally wear an item that says something about their personal interests, whether it’s Hello Kitty, Margaritaville or Fortnite, and it’s a real, practical shoe.

The product is usually the same iteration—a clog—but it doesn’t feel overdone because it’s a new IP and targets a new fandom. And people love exclusivity and limited-edition items (we covered merchmaxxing in our February 4 newsletter). It’s another way to signal not just what you’re into, but that you’re so into it, you were early enough to buy a limited-edition product.

Over in the personal care and beauty aisle, the same playbook can be found at Bath & Body Works—except with candles, lotions and hand sanitizers. The company’s latest collab is with PEEPs, just in time for Easter, and back in February, they released another collection as part of its ongoing Disney Princess line. Brands we didn’t know needed to collab until they did include e.l.f. Cosmetics and Liquid Death “lip embalms” and Glossier and Magnolia Bakery rolling out a banana pudding-flavored lip balm. Functional and smells great (to each their own).

In entertainment, Netflix’s Bridgerton collabs were tasteful and true to its Regency style. Instead of washing dishes with eau de Bridgerton (which “the ‘ton” don’t do), the show had partnerships such as a jewelry line with Pandora, a picnic basket and floral teapot with Williams-Sonoma and even a whimsical Polly Pocket set for children and adult collectors who wanted their own version of the Bridgerton house to display. 

I don’t think we’re at peak collabs or even collab fatigue. But people are tired of brands mashing products together without wondering how useful it is to a consumer.

It’s why April Fools’ Day resonates with people. Consumers get to think for a moment—wait, what if this was real? (But please, let’s not actually invent meatball-flavored lipstick.)

Easier said than done. But as we lean into this era of hyper-personalization and trying to make consumers feel like they’re being spoken to one-on-one, collabs present a way to do that at a mass scale. And with the right partners, it could be the start of a multi-year partnership that gives year after year.

Was this email forwarded to you? Subscribe to The Zeitgeist by Catamaran here.