Longevity and Missteps… Can standing collaborations help brands survive their mistakes?

Where are we dropping? Gamers are leaping from the Battle Bus in style now, but the newest luxury brand collaboration just dropped. On November 2, legacy luxury brand Ralph Lauren became players’ newest ally in being the last man standing and looking good while doing it.

Image: Ralph Lauren, retrieved from the Verge

Since its advent, Fortnite has invested heavily in bringing campy adventure outfits to the game, while maintaining a classic look and comprehensive fashion. Dressing their humanoid characters in athletic wear, aviation pieces, and variations of outdoor survival gear, the brand has used continuity in its graphics to produce predictable styles for its avatars. Yet the newest collaboration with Ralph Lauren has pushed several of these boundaries, while remaining right on target to what consumers have grown to expect from Fortnite.

The Ralph Lauren collaboration features a set of RL outfits which became available to players on November 5th. Featuring red, black and white branding of both Polo and Fortnite, the styling is highly versatile and fitting to gameplay, yet the styling is quintessentially Ralph Lauren. The classic style and coloring elevate the outfits that we would normally see on the game, bringing a luxury and chic feel, which the Ralph Lauren brand is renowned for, to the forefront.

Ralph Lauren succeeded in bringing their brand effectively to the platform, but were not the first to do so. Early onto the scene, on September 20, 2021, Balenciaga launched their Balenciaga Fit Set, which featured four new characters dressed in the Unchained Ramirez Outfit, Shady Doggo Outfit, Fashion Banshee Outfit and Game Knight Outfit, each equipped with a new avatar as well. The launch of such outfits were paired with the drop of virtual bags, gliders, wraps, emotes, and free sprays unlocked with each purchase.

Balenciaga has been extremely effective in its placement of its highly unique look both virtually through partnerships and physically through celebrity ambassadorships, such as with Kim Kardashian, who started working with them at the end of last year. Proximity awareness from paparazzi photos and social media make glasses on Fortnite characters highly recognizable as signature to the brand online as well as in images and daily life.

Image: Vogue

Such partnerships are not accidental by any means. Both Ralph Lauren and Balenciaga are relying on the power of symbolism and our ability to recognize and associate shapes that are categorizable by organization. We recognize the shape of a pair of glasses because they’ve been created uniquely enough to be eye-catching, stand out in our minds, yet stand in the lineup of what a particular brand creates.

Similarly, Ralph Lauren took its Fortnite collaboration one step further, while remaining reliant on these reactions. They leveraged the connection of their iconic logo with the imagery of Fortnite to create an association equally leveraged by both brands. Our minds are able to unpack the classic polo player, with the graphic association of the llamas, which are so acclaimed to the Fortnite gameplay that the brands were able to create such joint recognition.

Image: Ralph Lauren, retrieved from The Verge

In this intersection, the power of brand symbols lives in the spotlight. Because of the tremendous amount of media that we absorb passively, associations of logos in partnerships are highly impactful, and when creatively leveraged bring not only a positive awareness, but an eye catching piece that reserves space in our memories. Partnerships like this call for constant creativity to bring together newsworthy cooperation which will build a positive rapport. These partnerships can, at times, be the lifeblood of the organization that keeps them above water.

Just last week, Balenciaga faltered, taking a misstep in their boundary-testing advertisements: bondage bears. Online shoppers began leaving scathing admonishments of the brand across Twitter and the rest of the Internet, calling out the brand for dressing teddy bears in BDSM harnesses and giving them to child models. The majority of critics stressed their concerns of the numerous adults involved in bringing the publication to fruition--how many parents, directors, and promoters were involved without raising a concern for the appropriateness of the ad, or the children’s welfare?

In such examples where it seems that fashion’s vision overlooked reality’s clarity, the successful promotion of constantly innovative areas to build positive associations are the only safety net to users turning their back on the retailers. While not without scandal, Ralph Lauren and Balenciaga’s partnerships with Fortnite continue to build rapport that hopefully promote enough good to lessen the bad, and build enough trust that outside struggles of the world can be forgotten at the door--but to do so, brands must remain highly aware and be constantly listening to audiences. We cannot separate our media from our fashion, so intense awareness of the ideas that will be attractive are just as important as the looks we choose for our avatars. Every choice must be critically made and maintained.