Who can forget those images of Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling rollerblading around Venice beach in those 80’s Barbie fluoro outfits, which was only a teaser into what consumers would see in the film. This peaked global interest into the movie’s storyline, why are the characters in Venice beach? What other iconic Barbie looks will we see in the film? From there, the hype machine went into overdrive supported by a seamless marketing campaign to drive global awareness and in turn, converting one of the highest grossing movie release weeks in cinematic history.
A week prior to the much anticipated trailer dropping, Mattel released Barbie-inspired memes of the cast and characters on Twitter gaining 13.8m views and over 17.5k retweets. They also launched the now iconic Barbie AI generator, creatively putting users directly into the Barbie posters and marketing which was used, shared, and reshared millions of times globally across social media essentially creating free UGC-esque buzz for the film. Like many things on the internet, the world ran with this to organically (and hilariously) create the viral “She is everything, he is just Ken” trend which was also broke through on the seemingly impenetrable Tik Tok platform.
Not only did they break the internet digitally, but also painted the world pink with creative driven Out-Of-Home strategies seen in many cities globally like London’s Black Taxis as billboards and Sydney’s iconic pool at Icebergs in Bondi being shared online to millions of views. This channel started seemingly organically (but strategically planned) with the discovery of the Malibu Barbie dream house on Twitter which we now know is a partnership with Air BnB to rent the legendary home of many childhood dreams.
When it came to partnership collaborations, Warner Bros and Mattel left no crumbs. From their in-game addons and bespoke console with Xbox, the interactive World Of Barbie pop-ups in LA and now Dallas or the birth of Barbiecore fashion and beauty collaborating with ALDO, OPI Nails and NYX Cosmetics; avoiding the Barbie hype in 2023 would be akin to an olympic sport.
Earning $1.38billion in worldwide box office sales, making it the highest grossing film ever from a female filmmaker at the domestic box office (shoutout to Greta), there’s no denying the juggernaut powerhouse of the Barbie marketing machine. So unless you’re Beyoncé who is synonymous with zero marketing and surprising her fans with new material (mind you, she has curated her brand and audience over 20+ years), watching the Barbie campaign unfold has been a masterclass in modern marketing done the right way.
Because at the end of the day if you’re a small or large brand, investing in your brand awareness and strategic creative output directly relates to establishment of brand authority, cost-effectiveness, boosting of customer retention, a higher chance of averting competition and most importantly – a higher Return on Investment.