It’s a Barbie world — even the advertising and marketing one.
The Barbie film is only a few days away from its official launch on July twenty first, and its promotion continues to be a shining advertising and marketing instance.
The marketing campaign has all of the elements to shine your eyes. I’m speaking concerning the intelligent utilization of some of the recognizable model colours worldwide, tons and tons of product partnerships, and even the usage of AI and interactivity.
Possibly you had been a child who performed with Barbies, perhaps not. But it surely’s a incontrovertible fact that the advertising and marketing marketing campaign has struck the correct chord to pique the curiosity of this new and anticipated viewers for Warner Bros’ upcoming movie: us, adults.
As folks say, “The satan works laborious, however the Barbie film advertising and marketing group works tougher.” And we are able to study rather a lot from them.
So, I invite you to affix me on a go to to the Barbie world and take a better take a look at the advertising and marketing behind the brand new film.
Barbie is without doubt one of the strongest manufacturers on the earth – and it is aware of it
Are you able to think about the satisfaction of realizing that your model could be acknowledged and convey a message with out utilizing any written language? Only a single colour.
You don’t should be a shopper of the model to acknowledge {that a} particular shade of pink represents Mattel’s iconic doll. The Barbie film advertising and marketing group understands this and has cleverly exploited it.
I keep in mind a specific occasion when my two-year-old niece noticed a pink keychain hanging from my purse. She pointed and stated, “Look, it’s from Barbie!”
It wasn’t truly a Barbie keychain. It was merely pink (the correct shade of pink). And that alone was sufficient to create model recognition in a two-year-old.
In fact, this technique may by no means have been employed within the advertising and marketing of the 2023 Barbie film with out the doll’s greater than 60-year historical past.
As Eliana Dockterman, a journalist from TIME, aptly said throughout an interview with the movie’s lead actress, Margot Robbie: “The phrase ‘Barbie’ has the sort of globally acknowledged standing that solely manufacturers like Coca-Cola obtain. Since her debut in 1959, she has been a cultural staple.”
Not solely the colours but in addition each distinctive attribute of Barbie has been meticulously explored, from the form of the foot to the intricacies of the units and costumes. All to actually deliver the pink toys of our childhood to life in a live-action setting. Quoting the well-known Aqua music: Life in plastic, it’s unbelievable.
There’s positively a nostalgic allure to it as properly, and it’s extremely efficient.
Mattel’s ups and downs
You’ll be able to’t be a model with over six a long time of historical past and count on to sail via your journey with out going through any challenges.
Barbie, specifically, is a model that carries complexity.
Whereas it goals to encourage kids to think about themselves as astronauts and politicians, it has confronted important (and legitimate) criticism for selling unrealistic physique requirements and probably impacting the vanity of kids, with its historically thin-waisted, blond, doll-like look.
In 2016, Mattel launched a brand new line that includes Barbies with numerous physique sorts. Nevertheless, it took a while to get better. In response to Statista, Mattel skilled a decline in annual web gross sales from $6.5 billion to $4.5 billion between 2013 and 2018.
As I discussed, Barbie is a model that sparks controversy. So, how did the advertising and marketing for the Barbie film sort out this difficulty? By embracing the controversy itself. Because the trailer boldly declares, “In the event you love Barbie, this film is for you. In the event you hate Barbie, this film is for you.”
AI and interactivity
In April, our social media feeds had been flooded with folks sharing pictures of themselves on the Barbie film poster.
Clearly, this buzz didn’t occur by probability. The Barbie film advertising and marketing group created a synthetic intelligence software that enables anybody to add their photograph and generate a film poster with the customizable tagline “This Barbie is a ____.”
In fact, the web did what the web does and created limitless memes of the outcomes:
From a advertising and marketing standpoint, this was good for no less than three causes: synthetic intelligence, interactivity, and widespread sharing.
Integrating synthetic intelligence into the movie’s promotion was a genius transfer. Let’s be trustworthy: individuals are captivated by something that includes “AI” these days.
And executing it on an interactive platform that permits user-generated content material and encourages natural sharing is the proper recipe for producing buzz and selling any firm.
Partnerships within the Metaverse and the sport universe
Not even the metaverse escaped from the Barbie film. Eternally 21, in partnership with the long-lasting doll, not solely launched a clothes line in bodily shops but in addition replicated it throughout the digital realm of Roblox.
And there’s extra: the partnership additionally included a contest the place the winner and their style type had been recreated within the on-line recreation platform.
Xbox can be bringing Barbie into its universe.
The gaming console, owned by Microsoft, isn’t solely internet hosting a contest the place one fortunate winner will obtain a pink console housed in a mini reproduction of Barbie’s Dreamhouse, however gamers of Forza Horizon 5 will even be handled to an in-game reproduction of Barbie and Ken’s vehicles from the film.
The partnership additionally features a contest to award winners Barbie dolls wearing Xbox-branded gear.
Barbie merchandise, however not only for kids anymore
Final, however actually not least, let’s discuss probably the most timeless and basic facet of the Barbie phenomenon: merchandise. Numerous merchandise, created in collaboration with a big number of manufacturers.
What’s fascinating to notice is that, in contrast to the normal concentrate on kids that has characterised Barbie’s legacy for the previous 60 years, these merchandise are actually focused in direction of adults, catering to the movie’s supposed viewers.
I’m positive the ‘Barbie lady’ inside you’ll be thrilled to have the chance to remain at Barbie’s Malibu DreamHouse alongside Ken. Properly, because of Airbnb, that dream can truly come true.
The listing of partnership merchandise appears to be endless, starting from the anticipated, like make-up and clothes, to the surprising, comparable to a Barbie-themed toothbrush and even a Barbie Cruise expertise.
You’ll discover that a good portion of the Barbie film advertising and marketing wasn’t truly for and from the live-action advertising and marketing group.
It comes from the care that Mattel has taken with the model, permitting it to be very well-established for many years (though we’ve to confess, the film group did a wonderful job of embracing all of the elements, even the controversial ones).
It additionally comes from overlaying varied factors of promotion, together with the newest developments like AI, the Metaverse, and the world of gaming—completely positioned to focus on the movie-specific viewers, which, I have to point out, isn’t the identical as the normal Barbie doll viewers, including an additional problem.
And, properly… from the world. It’s fueled by the thrill generated by folks and strategic partnerships with different manufacturers.
Like I stated, it’s a Barbie world — even the advertising and marketing one.
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Cowl photograph: Jennifer Killens
