July brings Comic-Con energy to San Diego, Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey to theaters, and a run of collaborations that show just how many forms a partnership can take: a film-and-beverage tie-in built on shared values, a streaming series that turned its sponsors into part of the story, a celebrity partnership that proved its worth by simply… continuing, and a nostalgia mashup that’s bringing two fandoms together right here in our backyard.

Let’s get into it.

BERO × The Odyssey — When a Brand’s “Why” Shows Up in the Collab

To mark the July 17 movie release of Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey, actor Tom Holland’s non-alcoholic beer brand BERO released a limited-edition Noon Wheat six-pack wrapped in a custom, film-inspired box, with three collectible can designs pulled straight from the epic: the Trojan Horse, the Hydra, and the ancient Greek “penteconter” ship that carries Odysseus home.

Holland, who co-founded BERO in 2024, plays Telemachus, the son of Odysseus, in the film. BERO described the collaboration as rooted in a shared appreciation for storytelling and adventure, and in the cultural moments that create lasting connections between a brand and its audience. That framing tracks with how Holland has talked about the brand more broadly. In an April interview with The Hollywood Reporter, he said BERO has helped him stay sober precisely because the brand’s whole ethos is authenticity, and that it would be inauthentic to sell non-alcoholic beer while drinking himself (that quote wasn’t made about this specific collaboration, but it speaks to the values driving the brand behind it).

The product itself does the storytelling: three unique cans, a custom box, and a $20 price point (plus shipping) positioned squarely for collectors and fans, not just beer drinkers. It’s a different kind of collaboration than BERO’s June release, a shandy lineup Holland said was inspired by his fiancée Zendaya, who doesn’t drink beer, but the same instinct runs through both: build the product around a real person or story rather than a customer avatar or profile.

For founders building a mission-driven brand, this is a good reminder: your collaborations don’t need a celebrity attached to work, but they do need to be rooted in the same “why” that built your business. When the partnership and the purpose are the same thing, the product becomes proof, not just promotion.

Sources: BERO’s Odyssey product page | The Hollywood Reporter | American Craft Beer

The Five Star Weekend × HomeGoods × On the Rocks — Sponsors Woven Into the World of the Story

When Peacock adapted Elin Hilderbrand’s The Five Star Weekend into an eight-episode series starring Jennifer Garner, it didn’t just get product placement for the show. It built a partnership ecosystem around it.

HomeGoods and On the Rocks Bartender Created Cocktails signed on as sponsors, but the integration went well beyond commercial breaks. On the Rocks became the first-ever “integrated advertiser” on a companion podcast for a Peacock scripted original, hosted by Hilderbrand herself, where she answers reader questions over an On the Rocks drink in a segment called “The Five Star Weekend Podcast.” HomeGoods, meanwhile, designed an immersive coastal gathering space for the show’s July 8 premiere, translating the on-screen Nantucket setting into something guests could actually walk into.

What ties it together is fit. According to Karen Kovacs, president of advertising and partnerships at NBCUniversal, the goal was to bring in partners that were authentic to the world of the story, since Nantucket-style coastal hosting is practically a character in Hilderbrand’s books. HomeGoods’ whole brand identity is built around the art of gathering, which made it a natural extension of the show rather than a traditional sponsor. On the Rocks leaned into the built-in audience of Hilderbrand’s book-club readership, a community that already gathers around a table and a good drink.

This is a partnership marketing lesson worth sitting with: the sponsors didn’t interrupt the story, they became part of how the story was experienced, on-screen, in a podcast, and in person at the premiere. For businesses thinking about partnerships around content, whether that’s a podcast, a docuseries, or a local event, the takeaway is the same one we come back to often: look for the partner whose brand identity already overlaps with the world you’re building, not just the one with the biggest audience.

Source: Marketing Brew

Jonathan Bailey × Martini — Proof That the Best Partnerships Get Renewed

Not every collaboration worth watching is brand new. Sometimes the most telling move a brand can make is simply choosing to continue. This summer, Wicked actor Jonathan Bailey returned as “The Martini Man” for a second year, after first collaborating with the aperitivo brand last summer. What’s new this time is the length of the commitment: Martini and Bailey have signed a multi-year deal. The 2026 campaign features Bailey arriving on the coast outside Venice in an original 1970s Martini racing car (a nod to the brand’s motorsports heritage), going through what the brand describes as an initiation to become The Martini Man, and closing the film by pouring a Martini Bianco Spritz.

Martini’s global vice-president Emma Fox said Bailey has “a natural ability to make every moment feel both aspirational and accessible, which makes him the perfect partner for Martini.” That’s really the throughline of the whole partnership: it isn’t chasing a single viral moment, it’s building a recognizable, ongoing identity for the brand around a person whose energy consistently fits it.

Partnerships don’t prove themselves in a single campaign, they prove themselves over time. A first collaboration can be a great creative swing, but a second, multi-year commitment tells a much deeper story: that the audience responded, the values aligned, and both sides saw enough long-term value to formalize it. For a spirits brand, extending a face of the campaign into a genuine multi-year role also builds something a one-off ambassador deal can’t: a character people recognize and look forward to seeing again.

For founders evaluating their own partnerships, this is a helpful gut check. A collaboration that’s working shouldn’t need reinventing every cycle. If a partner is genuinely aligned, the smartest move isn’t always a bigger campaign, it’s a longer one.

Source: The Spirits Business and Top Marketing Moves From June 2026

Blink-182 × PAC-MAN — Nostalgia, Community, and a Little Bit of Home

This one hits close to home, literally. As Comic-Con returns to San Diego July 23–26, Bandai Namco and blink-182 are teaming up to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the band’s iconic album Take Off Your Pants and Jacket with a full retro-arcade takeover at booth #1415.

The collaboration includes co-branded arcade cabinets, a claw machine stocked with PAC-MAN plushes and blink-182 prizes, and an animated appearance from the band, plus photo opportunities with PAC-MAN and the band’s longtime bunny mascot. The merch lineup leans hard into fan memory: a numbered vinyl pressing of the album from Blood Records, and a blink-182 version of the PAC-MAN x 7-Eleven t-shirt that bassist Mark Hoppus famously wore during the band’s Coachella 2023 comeback set. Fans had speculated for years about getting their hands on that exact look, and this collaboration is what finally brings it to market.

What stands out about this collab is how specifically it’s built for the people who already love both brands. It’s not a broad, everyone-welcome activation, it’s a deep cut for two overlapping fandoms: pop-punk kids who grew up on this album, and arcade and gaming nostalgia fans who remember when PAC-MAN felt like a cultural fixture rather than a throwback. Referencing a real, spontaneous fan moment (that Coachella t-shirt) and turning it into an actual product is also a smart move: it rewards the people who were already paying close attention.

For businesses building community around a niche, this is worth studying. You don’t need mass appeal to make a partnership work, you need specificity. The tighter the overlap between your audience and your partner’s audience, the more a collaboration will feel like it was made for the people in the room, not at them.

Sources: SDCC Unofficial Blog | NME

Were there brand collaborations you spotted this month worth highlighting? We’d love to hear what caught your eye.

And if this post sparked ideas about potential partnerships for your own business, our team offers dedicated project and retainer partnership services to guide you from ideation to launch, identifying the right partners, building the strategy, and making it sustainable. Reach out to start the conversation.