This paper explains the benefits and risks of brand collaboration from a strategic perspective. It integrates the benefits and risks with co-branding that previously lay scattered across poorly integrated domains. It is argued that brand managers can have three general benefits from brand collaboration--functional, emotional and self-expressive benefits. However, it is also argued that beyond the more obvious benefits, brand collaboration also involves risks for both the parties involved. First, there is a risk with loss of control over the brand associations; second, there is a risk with loss of control and lost focus in the target groups; third, image dilution through overexposure; fourth, a lost focus in the target group; fifth, a risk that one of the brands in the alliance becomes generic; and sixth, less leverage points for the involved brands in the future.