At first glance, Old Chang Kee and McDonald’s don’t have much in common.
- One is known for curry puffs, fishballs and classic local snacks.
- The other is, well… McDonald’s.
But put the two together and suddenly Singapore has something to talk about.
That’s the interesting part about collaborations.
You don’t always need the same product. You need the right audience.
And that starts with understanding the market.
Collaboration isn’t just “let’s do something together”
A collaboration can look great on paper and still completely miss the mark. Why? Because the audiences don’t connect.
The best collaborations have a strategic overlap.
Old Chang Kee and McDonald’s both speak to a very familiar Singaporean audience.
- People who know the brands.
- People who have grown up with them.
- People who recognise the products instantly.
And people who are likely to enjoy a little nostalgia, a little novelty and, let’s be honest, a good reason to try something they haven’t had before.
The products may be different. The audience isn’t.
That’s the opportunity.
And then you put curry puff into a burger
This is where things get fun. The collaboration could have played it safe.
Instead, they took something Singaporeans already know and love—Old Chang Kee’s curry—and put it into something completely different: a McDonald’s burger.
The result? The Curry Potato Chicken Burger became one of the most talked-about parts of the collaboration. And people had opinions.
- “Does curry puff actually work in a burger?”
- “Is this genius?”
- “Why does this somehow make sense?”
That’s exactly what you want from a campaign. People talking about it before they’ve even tried it.
Weird is wonderful.
The audience is the common ground
This is also why Instagram’s Collab function has become so powerful. A collaboration isn’t simply putting two logos together.
It’s putting two communities together.
- One post can appear across both audiences.
- One idea can travel further.
- One brand can borrow credibility from another.
Your product doesn’t have to be similar
There’s a lesson here for businesses far beyond fast food. Sometimes we’re too focused on finding partners who look like us.
- Same industry.
- Similar products.
- Similar positioning.
But the better question might be:
If you have the same audience, you already have a starting point. The rest is creative strategy.
Because your next great collaboration might not be with your closest competitor. It might be with a brand that looks completely unrelated… until you realise you’re both speaking to the exact same customer.
And that’s when “weird” starts looking a lot like smart.