How to assess a brand partnership before signing it

Many brand collaborations start from a hunch or a personal connection. Sometimes they work, often they don't, and in some cases they push the brand somewhere it shouldn't be. That's why we developed MashScore, a method to assess a partnership before signing it and to design it the right way.

It all starts with Brand DNA

Before comparing two brands you need to know them in depth. The first step is understanding why the brand is looking for a collaboration, then mapping its Brand DNA across six axes: archetypes, identity tensions, codes, community and the way the brand moves through culture. Only with two clear DNAs does the comparison become objective.

Relevance before visibility

One question drives the whole analysis: is this collaboration relevant to the people it speaks to? A partnership can have big numbers and still be irrelevant. To measure it we use three dimensions with different weights.

Cultural Fit (30%): do the two brands share codes, values and imagery, or do their identities clash?

Audience Geometry (30%): how do the two communities overlap, and how far can each open a new audience to the other? This needs nuance, not demographic clichés.

Narrative Tension (40%): does the collaboration create a story worth telling? It carries the most weight, because this is where relevance is decided: a partnership without a story generates neither attention nor value.

A verdict you can act on

The score leads to three outcomes: GO above 75, CONDITIONAL GO between 65 and 74, NO GO below 65. A NO GO is as strategically valuable as a GO: it prevents investments and activations that wouldn't deliver.

After the measurement: concept and communication blueprint

The score tells you whether the collaboration makes sense, not how to deliver it. That's why the analysis continues with two phases that matter as much as the assessment. The first is the project concept: what the two brands do together, which product or experience is created, with which business model. The second is the communication blueprint: the story, messages, channels and sequence through which the collaboration reaches its audience. A strong match with a weak concept is still a missed opportunity.

What we rule out

Positioning matters more than traffic: a highly visible partner with no brand value doesn't help. An activation only counts if it generates real revenue or covers its costs, not if it's just an exchange of gifts. And every concept must explain why the partner would want the collaboration too, not only why we do.

An example: Outlierman × Jamiroquai

The analysis, built around the 30th anniversary of Cosmic Girl (1996), scored Cultural Fit 85, Audience Geometry 72 and Narrative Tension 86, for a total of 81/100: GO. Its strength is the story: the band's bond with supercars has been part of its imagery for thirty years.

In short

Assessing before signing costs little and changes the outcome. The right question isn't whether two brands look good together, but whether together they become more relevant than either could alone, and through which project.