The Barbie Movie: The Marketing Campaign that Turned the World Pink
The Barbie Movie took the world by storm this year with its top-notch marketing campaign that included teaser releases, trailer releases, cast appearances, brand partnerships, emotion, nostalgia, and most importantly, the color pink. Warner Bros., the studio that produced the film, and Mattel, the toy-making company that owns Barbie, joined forces to release The Barbie Movie and the marketing campaign of the year that came with it (Duffy, 2023).
By incorporating a multi-faceted marketing campaign and stellar film production and casting, the film became a mega-hit and brought in record-breaking numbers for Mattel, Warner Bros., and the box office. Not only has the film taken the box office by storm, the film has also made its way all over social media via paid advertisements, earned features, and organic engagement, and the conversation is STILL going (good and bad of course, but mostly good).
The Who, What, When, Where, & Why that Led to the Barbie Revolution
Mattel
Ruth Handler, Mattel’s founder and CEO’s wife, designed Barbie to bridge the gap in the toy industry from baby dolls to grown-up independent women (Dasgupta, 2023). Mattel launched Barbie in 1959, and the world fell in love (Duffy, 2023). Barbie represented so much more than a children’s toy. Barbie helped lead the women's empowerment/feminism movement and taught young girls that they could be and do anything they set their minds to (Dasgupta, 2023).
Barbie has seen some backlash over the years for its stereotypical design of how women should look and the lack of diversity. Mattel has taken action and produced Barbies with different skin tones and body types to be more inclusive to all women (Dasgupta, 2023).
The toy industry has slowed over the years due to plastic waste issues and the bankruptcy of long-time toy store, Toys R Us. Mattel CEO, Ynon Kreiz, decided it was time the company took a different approach by expanding into the entertainment industry. With that, the Barbie Movie was brought to life (Dasgupta, 2023).
Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. has been a world-class entertainment company since its opening 100 years ago. The company creates, produces, distributes, licenses, and markets all forms of entertainment (Warner Bros., n.d.)
The entertainment industry has taken a hit over the last few years with the pandemic and the rise of streaming services. Box office receipts were down 20% from pre-pandemic numbers and actors and writers were on strike in Hollywood, putting a halt to all major TV and film production. The Barbie Movie helped box offices and Hollywood turn this corner and was the breakout hit of the summer (Duffy, 2023).
Warner Bros. has had its fair share of trouble over the last year with the studio’s failed 2023 film, The Flash. The film was expected to be a mega-hit with a $200 million production budget and a $150 marketing budget. The Flash only earned $55 million in its opening weekend and has been coined one of the biggest flops in Hollywood history. Warner Bros. had another flop in 2022 after Batgirl was taken off the box office schedule after the film was paid for and ready to release to serve as a $90 million write-off for the company to help pay toward its debt (Duffy, 2023).
The Barbie Movie
Mattel and Warner Bros. both needed a hit to make up for the trouble in paradise, and the brands’ combined marketing efforts helped make that happen for the Barbie Movie.
The Barbie Movie marketing campaign kicked off early last year with the film first being teased at CinemaCon in April 2022 with a photo of Barbie in her Corvette in Barbieland. Barbie the Movie launched on Facebook in July 2022. @barbiethemovie joined Instagram in December 2022 and hard-launched their presence with the trailer teaser for the film that was also played before Avatar: The Way of the Water at the theater (McClintock, 2023). Since the teaser release, the world turned pink as Barbie appeared everywhere with out-of-home advertising, digital activations, brand collaborations, and more (Dasgupta, 2023) Ryan Gosling as Ken made an appearance at CinemaCon in April 2023, and @barbiethemovie launched on X. The first official trailer was released in May 2023. In June 2023, Barbie had several floats in gay pride parades before its release at the box office on July 21 (McClintock, 2023).
The Stellar Pink Marketing Campaign
Barbie became one of the most anticipated movie releases because of the way they spent their $150 million marketing budget with traditional media, media crossovers, out-of-home ads, interactive experiences, and best of all, brand partnerships.
Traditional Media
Everyone was talking about the Barbie Movie, especially journalists. Barbie received earned media/traditional press opportunities from Time Magazine, Vogue, People, CNN, The Hollywood Reporter, Variety, and more (Duffy, 2023). Grinberg (2018) with Medium tells us that traditional media is still important to public relations as traditional news outlets and magazines have made the online transition.
Media Crossovers
ABC’s The Bachelorette, Food Network’s Summer Baking Championship, and HGTV’s Barbie Dreamhouse Challenge (HGTV, 2023) are a few of the TV shows that partnered with Barbie for a media crossover so far (Duffy, 2023).
Elliot (2014) with the New York Times tells us that media crossovers are used to stimulate ratings, encouraging viewers to watch the other.
Barbie media crossovers have done just that by leaving viewers wanting more pink and more Barbie (HGTV, 2023). I can see Barbie further capitalizing on this opportunity in the future with more media crossovers with rumors of the Barbie cast appearing in Doctor Who.
Out-of-Home Advertising
Barbie (and the color pink) was everywhere this summer. Billboards, busses, benches, digital boards, cars, buildings, the sides of escalators… everywhere (Duffy, 2023). Drenik (2023) at Entrepreneur tells us that even though digital marketing has become prevalent, out-of-home (OOH) marketing is still important with its visibility and long lifespan.
Interactive Experiences
Barbie fans can engage with the movie through interactive experiences like World of Barbie in Los Angeles and Frisco and Malibu Barbie Cafes in Chicago and New York City (Duffy, 2023). IBM Watson Advertising (2022) tells us that interactive experiences serve as a wise advertising tactic because they allow consumers to personally interact with a brand while reinforcing brand loyalty.
Brand Partnerships
Warner Bros. and Mattel were able to secure 100+ licensing deals in several consumer categories including AirBnb, Candy Crush, Google, Cold Stone Creamery, Ulta Beauty, and Snapchat. These partnerships not only created awareness but also helped pay for the film with each deal paying a 5-15% royalty for rights to sell with the Barbie brand. Mattel and Warner Bros. were able to build up awareness, so everyone knew it was coming, even those outside of the target audience who would have no interest in seeing the film (Duffy, 2023). Rathod (2023) at Medium tells us that in this scenario, Barbie’s partnerships revealed to be mutually beneficial in terms of public perception, renewed interest, and record-breaking sales.
Mattel & Warner Bros. Response to Success
In an interview with Mattel president and COO upon the movie release, Richard Dickson said, “[We want] everyone playing with Barbie, and that doesn’t necessarily mean playing with a doll. The bigger opportunity for us is going to be outside of the toy aisle. That is the drive for where we see the monetization for the brand moving forward.”
I’m excited to see the continued efforts from the Barbie Movie marketing team for continued partnerships and media crossovers. The potential is endless for Barbie’s future.
Mattel’s stock has grown by 33% since the Barbie Movie’s release (Dasgupta, 2023). Mattel’s CEO, Ynon Kreiz, said that the Barbie Movie is just the beginning of a long-term strategy for the brand (Brown, 2023). Mattel is ready to continue capitalizing on this venture and creating buzz around a Mattel universe similar to Pixar and Marvel by executing more live-action projects with some of their other popular toys including Hot Wheels, Fisher-Price, and American Girl Doll (Dasgupta, 2023). The goal? To create multiple touchpoints for fans and continue to grow engagement in a unique way.
Josh Goldstine, Warner Bros.’ global marketing president said, “One of the things about theatrical marketing is that it has the opportunity to engage the cultural zeitgeist in an exciting way. Everyone wants to be a part of something. I’ve probably worked on 250 movies over the course of my career, including Spider-Man at Sony way back in the day. I haven’t felt this kind of electricity in a long time.”
Potential Oscar buzz has surrounded Warner Bros. and its biggest earning release (Brown, 2023). With the company’s response to its successful marketing campaign and movie release, we can all expect to see more works with Mattel and more incredible marketing strategies.
Mattel and Warner Bros. did a fantastic job with this campaign and solicited a very impressive response from the world. The brands took the already cultivated love for Barbie and turned it into a revolution that took the world by pink storm. The two have responded well to the Barbie buzz. The tease they’ve given the world about what’s to come was a great way to help boost that buzz.
Worldwide, Record-Breaking, Contagious Results
It’s safe to say that the world went WILD over the Barbie Movie and its pink-tacular marketing campaign. The film transcended all expectations by creating a remarkable amount of anticipation and buzz and by securing a record-breaking box office success. In its opening weekend, the Barbie Movie grossed $408.3 million worldwide (Rathod, 2023), and in its first three weeks, hit the $1 billion global box office mark (Maruf, 2023).
With fashion being such an important aspect of Barbie and the film, fans and movie-goers rose to the occasion by embracing their femininity by dressing to impress at theaters with matching t-shirts, pink outfits, and Barbie costumes (Sun, 2023).
After the film’s release, viewers kept the Barbie conversation going on social media to share their reactions and rave about Barbieland (Legardye, 2023). A few of those responses included:
I think confirmation bias is at work here and the reason why so many fans went to social media to rave. Confirmation bias is very commonly seen in a negative light and for good reason, but in this case, I see it in a more positive light. The Barbie Movie’s target audience already loved the Barbie brand and were proud to be a woman. This film served as an extension of those thoughts, leading to Barbie fans around the world posting about the emotion rollercoaster the film took them through as they were thrown back into their childhood, inspired, and related to on a whole new level.
Many people were not on the same page, however, and took their Barbie complaints to X calling the movie a “two-hour woke-a-thon” full of “nuclear-level rage against men” and “a man-hating woke propaganda fest”. I can attribute this to several biases including the pessimism bias. The individuals who wrote these negative reviews are entirely overestimating the nature of the film by assuming an agenda that was aimed at humor, not rage. It’s irrational to believe that this film will start “nuclear-level rage against men”. Confirmation bias is another one that can be attributed to this behavior. Many people want to see the evil or hidden messages from Hollywood and the box office. These individuals went in with the preconceived notion that Barbie was bad and had ill intentions, so that’s what they clung to.
The Barbie conversation was huge, spreading to other platforms beyond X including YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat. Barbie and her fans (and haters) took over all platforms in a huge way. I would estimate hundreds of thousands of people worldwide engaged in the Barbie conversation good and bad. @barbiethemovie on X has 114.5k followers, and I estimate that several hundred thousand more continued the conversation beyond @barbiethemovie’s profile. Several media outlets reported on this case including Vogue, People, Forbes, CNN, and more.
Despite some negative reactions, many believe that Barbie has set the stage for cinematic storytelling and transformative advertising with its genius approach that brought the film to the box office (Baranovsky, 2023).
Could the Campaign Be Anymore Pink-tacular?
While this marketing campaign was phenomenal, Contagious: Why Things Catch On by Jonah Berger has some valuable insights for an alternative approach to this campaign. In his book, Berger (2013) introduced six STEPPS to creating contagiousness: social currency, triggers, emotion, public, practical value, and stories. While I am confident that Barbie created a campaign that was social currency-laden, triggered emotional, public, practically valued, included a Trojan horse, and had a message tucked inside, I believe the campaign could have further capitalized on the social currency aspect.
Barbie did create content that was worthy of remark and mention, but I do believe more could have been done in this sector. Taylor Swift, for example, has partnered with Capital One and got her fans to sign up for their first credit cards through the company for a better chance of obtaining tickets to her legendary Eras Tour. The tickets to her show were also extremely limited, creating a scarce factor (Meisenzahl, 2022). Incorporating something like this could’ve been great for the Barbie Movie. The campaign could’ve incorporated a pre-release a week early with tickets only to those who are Southwest Airlines members or who have a Discover credit card. There was enough hype created around the movie that I think this could’ve increased sales for both Barbie and its chosen partner for the pre-release.
Here’s to Hoping the Barbie Revolution Never Ends
Mattel and Warner Bros.' combined efforts on the Barbie Movie’s marketing campaign will go down in history as one of the best, multi-faceted marketing campaigns in history. The takeaways are endless. Here are three of my favorites:
Use Your Marketing Budget Well.
Mattel and Warner Bros. used their $150 million marketing budget like champs, capitalizing on traditional media, media crossovers, out-of-home ads, interactive experiences, and best of all, brand partnerships. With their combined efforts, the Barbie Movie set a new standard for marketing in the entertainment/film industry. I recommend all industries take this campaign, learn from it, and use your marketing budgets well.
Take Risks.
Was it risky to focus on the feminist movement? Yes. Was it risky to bring humor to patriarchy? Yes. Was it risky for Warner Bros. to take this leap and spend this money after being in debt? Yes. Was it risky for Mattel to dive into the unknown waters of the entertainment industry? Yes. Was it worth it for everyone involved? Absolutely. I encourage all brands to take risks in their careers, strategic decisions, and marketing campaigns. Would we be here talking about the marketing campaign of the year if these risks wouldn’t have been taken?
Make Your Marketing Contagious.
I touched a little bit on Jonah Berger’s book, Contagious: Why Things Catch On, and how Barbie marketers could use his recommendations to be even more successful. The Barbie Movie was already contagious though. Barbie literally took the world by storm. Barbie, Ken, the swirly font, the color pink. They were everywhere all summer long, and we’re STILL talking about its success. From the best of Berger (2013), I recommend that you make your marketing campaigns contagious by implementing a sense of social currency, creating triggers, triggering emotion, being public, creating practical value, telling stories, and throwing your message in there so it won’t be forgotten.
References
Baranovsky, M. (2023, August 16). Painting the world pink: The brilliance behind Barbie’s marketing strategy. Breakwater Strategy.https://breakwaterstrategy.com/painting-the-world-pink-the-brilliance-behind-barbies-marketing-strategy/
Berger, J. (2013). Contagious: Why things catch on. New York, Simon & Schuster.
Brown, J. (2023, September 30). Mattel CEO says Barbie Movie success is just a part of a bigger strategy. CBR. https://www.cbr.com/mattel-ceo-barbie-movie-bigger-strategy/
Dasgupta, P. (2023, August 1). All about the Barbie Movie. Medium. https://medium.com/p/1b5c83427f45
Drenik, G. (2023, March 10). Brands are dominating the billboards this year: Here’s how to create impactful OOH advertising. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/garydrenik/2023/03/10/brands-are-dominating-billboards-this-year-heres-how-to-create-impactful-ooh-advertising/?sh=7b3410b77861
Duffy, R. (2023, July 31). Barbie: A motion picture marketing case study. Medium. https://blog.startupstash.com/barbie-a-masterclass-in-movie-marketing-367aca2cc6e4
Elliot, S. (2014, April 8). Magazines coordinate their content in version of TV’s crossover episodes. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/09/business/media/magazines-coordinate-their-content-in-version-of-tvs-crossover-episodes.html
Grinberg, D. B. (2018, March 14). Why traditional media still matters in today’s digital age. Medium. https://dbgrinberg.medium.com/why-traditional-media-still-matters-in-todays-digital-age-f81350674e2f
HGTV. (2023, August 6). All the Details: HGTV Brings Mattel's Barbie Dreamhouse to Life in New Competition Series. https://www.hgtv.com/shows/hgtv-stars/articles/hgtv-barbie-dreamhouse-challenge-details
IBM Watson Advertising. (2022, October 10). What is interactive marketing? IBM. https://www.ibm.com/watson-advertising/thought-leadership/interactive-marketing#:~:text=Interactive%20marketing%20allows%20brands%20to,customers%20expect%20better%20experiences%20online.
Legardye, Q. (2023, July 23). All the best ‘Barbie’ reactions taking over Twitter. Harpers Bazaar. https://www.harpersbazaar.com/culture/film-tv/a44620681/twitter-reactions-barbie-opening-weekend/
Maruf, R. (2023, August 29). ‘Barbie’ is Warner Bros.’ highest-grossing global release ever. CNN. https://www.cnn.com/2023/08/29/business/barbie-global-release-harry-potter/index.html#:~:text=Warner%20Bros.%20has%20swapped%20its,%24767%2C505%2C%20according%20to%20Comscore%20projections.
Meisenzahl, M. (2022, November 2). Some Taylor Swift fans are signing up for Capital One credit cards in hops of getting tickets to her first tour since 2018. Business Insider. https://www.businessinsider.com/taylor-swift-fans-capital-one-credit-cards-concert-tickets-2022-11#:~:text=Taylor%20Swift%20just%20announced%20a,for%20access%20to%20exclusive%20merch.
McClintock, P. (2023, July 21). Barbiemania: How Warner Bros. and Mattel painted the world pink and created marketing magic. Hollywood Reporter. https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/barbie-movie-marketing-campaign-1235534537/
Rathod, A. (2023, July 26). Barbie: A case study in successful brand partnerships. Medium. https://medium.com/the-afflatus/barbie-a-case-study-in-successful-brand-partnerships-40668b34125#:~:text=The%20symbiotic%20relationship%20created%20between,and%20potentially%20record%2Dbreaking%20sales.
Sun, E. (2023, July 26). Why ‘Barbie’ fans are wearing elaborate costumes to movie theaters. Today. https://www.today.com/popculture/movies/barbie-movie-dressup-fashion-rcna94911
Warner Bros. (n.d.). Company Overview. https://www.warnerbros.com/studio/about/company-overview
