“The foundation of all foundations, the base of everything is cross-pollination” emphasizes Drieke Leenknegt, Nike's former Global VP of Influencer Marketing & Collaborations when talking about the delicate art of collaborations with Jeff Staple in the latest edition of his podcast “Business of Hype”. After having spent the last twenty years in various roles at Nike, Drieke is about to set out to new shores and eventually provides unparalleled insights into what she believes makes art collaborations truly successful: The goal of each collaboration should be a so-called cross-pollination (the notion originally stems from botany where cross-pollination describes the transfer of pollen from the flower of one plant to the flower of a plant having a different genetic constitution) where the cooperating partners create something completely new together while mutually pulling each other into their distinctive, often disparate universes. The outcome or, to put it in Drieke’s words, the “seed” of this kind of collaboration will then possess characteristics of both partners, resulting in really aspirational products and unique brand experiences. We at Cc could not agree more with Drieke since, with our latest art collaboration service (www.cc-artcollaborations.com), we pursue the exact same approach, as declared in our mission statement: “We build on the freedom, creative power and incorruptible perspective of the arts and provide support for joining forces with brands, corporations and institutions of all kind in a truly connected, cross-pollinating way.” But we are also simply proud, when listening to Drieke’s wisdom on collaborations, because she had been our very first client at Nike when we initially started to work for them in 2002. Back in the days, Drieke was based at Nike’s European headquarters and embodied a great inspiration to us: Under her guidance we not only developed the field of energy marketing, but also exported our concept for Nike’s Spirit Room to Milan, Paris and London. Go listen to the podcast yourself if you feel like deep-diving into the challenges of accomplished art collaborations: https://hypebeast.com/2020/1/drieke-leenknegt-nike-interview-business-of-hype-jeffstaple-episode-62.