Is the Ice Spice x Starbucks Drink Real?

Since sneaker culture popularized the idea of distinct brands partnering on a project throughout the 21st century, we've started to see more and more disparate companies working together on something. What makes these collabs so valuable is the means through which the larger brand has the opportunity to "put on" the smaller brand. And in doing so, they demonstrate that they are "in the know."

I think one of the greatest examples of this phenomenon over the past few years is Reebok. James Chan—the Global Marketing Lead across Reebok’s streetwear fashion collabs—works to bring in a myriad of partners for the powerhouse sneaker brand. They range from other relatively well known names, like the Eames foundation, to fully burgeoning designers like Kanghyuk. As a consumer, I now come to Reebok because I view them as a tastemaker/curator who can put me on to up and comers. And for the smaller brands, Reebok has now helped expand their reach and audience. Win-win.

A creator on our team, Aaron Dukes, concocted the idea of posing a partnership between Ice Spice and Starbucks. And with the dawning of AI tech, especially this year, the team was able to produce the now-viral image providing a series of prompts to the platform Midjourney.

You can see a little bit more about how he produced the image itself above. Overall, AI signals a bit of a shift for collabs of this type. Whereas we used to rely on a higher lift process to have the opportunity to visualize potential crossovers, AI can now allow us to get a pretty good reference point quickly. Obviously if the idea were to come to fruition, the actual marketing would probably take a bit more lift, but it's interesting to see how quickly you can create a pitch.