The Barbie Movie: A Marketing Campaign for the Books
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Greta Gerwig’s, Barbie—it’s easily the biggest movie of 2023 with a movie marketing campaign budget to match. Hitting cinemas at the end of the month, there is a huge amount of hype for this film, and unless you’ve had your head in the sand, you’re sure to have seen that iconic magenta-pink splashed across activations worldwide. An ongoing press story since the first shots were taken of Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling rollerskating down Venice Beach during filming, it’s managed to build and sustain hype remarkably.
It’s every marketer’s dream to be handed a huge sum of money to pull off a major activation, taking the Barbie slogan “you can do anything” quite literally. From an Architectural Digest house tour of the Barbie House to a Bondi Icebergs Barbie Pool—the scale of this PR and marketing campaign is truly enormous, leaving no stone unturned in creating widespread impact and bringing the Barbie universe to life.
Here are some highlights that have inspired the team to live their Barbie dream marketers life:
BRINGING THE BARBIE DREAMHOUSE TO LIFE FOR AIRBNB AND ARCHITECTURAL DIGEST:
Out of the slew of viral Youtube series’, Architectural Digest’s Celebrity Home Tours arguably demand the most attention, with celebrities taking us through the intimate details of their McMansions. It was a stroke of genius to execute this concept on the Barbie Dreamhouse, with Margot Robbie opening up the pink doors for a BTS tour. The stunt received a huge amount of attention both in the press and on social media, with the video itself already viewed over 8 million times. Core to the Barbie world is, of course, the Dreamhouse, and this piece worked simultaneously to showcase the behind-the-scenes of the movie set while also bringing to life the fantasy of the Barbie World.
Now they didn’t just stop here. A few weeks later, they listed the Malibu Barbie Dreamhouse on AirBnB. The property is actually available for consumers to book, giving fans of the franchise a chance to stay in the house—talk about a dream gals’ weekend! The listing is complete with a host’s profile for Ken, adding another layer of reality to the fantasy—a truly genius stunt that again created an absolute flurry of press.
CREATING A VIRAL SOCIAL MOMENT WITH THE BARBIE FILTER:
Nothing captures the internet’s attention quite like the ability to put one’s face in a filter. Often done poorly, this execution of a filter-based marketing ploy was done soooo so right. It began with a coordinated release of the movie promotional posters onto each cast member’s Instagram, with 24 different stars, including Margot Robbie, Nicola Coughlan, and America Ferrera, posting a personalised version of the Barbie marketing poster.
These images quickly went viral, capturing consumers’ hearts, and those with the editing eye quickly meme-ified the simple format with other celebrities, characters, and even themselves. However, Warner Brothers had the foresight of the format they had put out, armed and ready with the Barbie Selfie Generator: an AI-powered website allowing users to put themselves into the marketing posters—yet another stroke of genius. We even jumped on the trend on our own agencies’ socials, celebrating our Copywriter Erin’s 3-year work anniversary.
XBOX x BARBIE: BARBIE IS A GAMER!
From an NYX palette to an Xbox console, there has been no shortage of Barbie Brand collaborations, truly bringing the essence of the Barbie world to all aspects of life. So far, over 15 brands have hopped on the Barbie bandwagon entering licensing agreements with Mattel. The gamer angle is an interesting one. A more fem-skewing movie (no shit); the people mastering the marketing campaign didn’t ignore a growing demographic of female gamers. Releasing custom controller faceplates inspired by Barbie and Ken’s distinct on-screen outfits as well as a custom console design, it’s a collaboration that’s levelled up the game, literally and figuratively! The power of brand collaborations is major, and they certainly didn’t neglect this in the Barbie marketing campaign.
PINK, PINK, PINK
Throughout all the marketing comms, the magenta pink is omnipresent. Enter the pink billboards—no headline, no visual, just a simple pink billboard with a date at the bottom. Barbie has harnessed the magenta pink to such an extent that it’s the only thing needed to generate brand recall. It’s a true example of the power of branding when done right. Embodying the simple but effective marketing ploy.
These billboards for #BarbieTheMovie are utterly fabulous! pic.twitter.com/r2mpZB002I
— Sebastian Groebner (@SGroebner) June 27, 2023
A common through-line with all of these activations and stunts is the inclusion of the fans, bringing to life the fantasy of the Barbie universe for a 2023 world. It’s been an ‘in your face’ campaign, but it hasn’t been annoying or over-saturated. An exemplary execution; we loved drawing inspiration from all the activities and can’t bloody wait to see the film. Although the budgets are fairly unheard of in an Australian market, we can at least draw inspiration.
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