The Barbie Omnichannel Marketing Template 2023

Aug 25, 2023

In the previous post of Outside In, we covered a case study on “mentally reframing brands” with the story of Cruzcampo’s ‘Heavily Accented’ campaign here at: https://outsideinlens.substack.com/p/nudgestock-2023-my-notes-part-3

While we are on the topic of reframing brands – with a primary objective of appealing to a new audience – Outside In goes deep into what has called as the marketing campaign of the year by Variety Magazine: The Barbie Omnichannel Marketing Template 2023. This will be a fun read for sure!

Barbie through the Years

Different generations have unique perceptions of advertisements (and overall marketing), and aspects that resonate with them most. The key to impactful advertising/marketing is knowing what those components are and understanding the audience for each brand and product. Barbie has managed to cracked this successfully through the years, from its inception in the 1959 to 2023

The Barbie Omnichannel Marketing Campaign

Nostalgic revivals can be risky, as they could risk reinvigorating outdated values with them. The Barbie marketing campaign 2023 – centered on a movie release by Warner Brothers headed by popular actress Margot Robbie – has shown a seamless integration of a range of mediums to convey a comprehensive and consistent omnichannel campaign

A) Product

1) Promoting Barbie's Values: The marketing campaign sought to promote what Barbie stands for, such as feminism and beauty standards. This was reflected in the movie itself, as well as the types of products that were released as part of the brand collaborations

2) Owning the Pink Color Palette: ‘Barbie Pink’ has been an integral part of the brand. The movie had a wonderful girl-power element, and pink became the color of the movie. They saw it start to resonate in the culture very early in the long process. The concept of Barbie coming to life in fashion kept going. It didn’t have its moment; it sustained and kept growing and growing with the movie. While it has always been associated with the color, the movie allowed the brand to make Bubblegum Pink synonymous with Barbie – ‘making Pink the new Black’

3) AirBnB Malibu Dream House: A partnership with Airbnb presented the Barbie Dream House – a custom built Malibu mansion, which was listed on the website

4) Margot Robbie took you inside the Barbie Dollhouse with Architectural Digest: Barbie opened her world to Architectural Digest, giving a tour of her Dream House, as part of the iconic AD ‘Open Door’ series:

5) Forever21 x Barbie Clothing Line, in the Metaverse: Forever 21, in partnership with the iconic doll, not only launched a clothing line in physical stores but also replicated it within the virtual realm of Roblox. And, the partnership also included a contest where the winner and their fashion style were recreated in the online game platform

B) Place

1) Local Marketing Moments: Local and social media moments were created by altering tube stop signs, with ‘Barbican’ becoming ‘Barbie Can’ and ‘Kennington’ becoming ‘Ken,’ making a global campaign feel local

2) Star-studded Movie Soundtrack and Spotify Playlists: To reach the global audience further and create a buzz around the world, the film makers onboarded several international singers way ahead of the movie’s release. This musical lineup added to the movie’s marketing bling and used the singers’ fandom to their advantage. The Barbie movie soundtrack was splashed across top Spotify playlists and the explore page, injecting the campaign into the world of audio, including trending sounds on TikTok

3) Themed Boat Cruise

4) Barbie Boxes for User Generated Content

The marketing team put life-sized boxes in different locations, including in cinema lobbies, so people could step into them and snap a photo. A photo that they’re likely to share online, which increased the desire to replicate that user-generated content (UGC) by everyone

C) Promotion

1) Social Avatars: Social media filters on Instagram and TikTok let users transform themselves into Barbie-style avatars, further engaging the audience

2) Make your own custom “Barbie” Poster Website

People love making memes. It gave people a chic, sleek, simple palate they could embed their own images and thoughts on, spoof, or even make social commentary out of it. The sharing exploded. From a marketing standpoint, this was brilliant for at least three reasons: artificial intelligence, interactivity, and widespread sharing

3) Xbox Barbie Console

Xbox, owned by Microsoft, hosted a contest where one lucky winner will receive a pink console housed in a mini replica of Barbie’s Dreamhouse, but players of Forza Horizon 5 were also treated to an in-game replica of Barbie and Ken’s cars from the movie. The partnership also included a contest to award winners Barbie dolls dressed in Xbox-branded gear

D) Price > Replacing the 4^th P of Marketing with Partnerships (since there isn’t much to write about movie ticket pricing strategy)

1) Official Ones and Unofficial Ones

From roller skates to Burger King, NYX, and Xbox, brands flooded social media feeds with their Barbie collaborations. Unofficially affiliated brands jumped in on the hype, creating a snowball effect of Barbie content, reaching an unprecedented range of demographics and industries

Even an Insurance Player – Progressive Insurance – organically aligned with a (Barbie) Secret Client Campaign – by bundling a home and auto insurance package together:

Brands wanted to become part of this because they saw the film was finding its way into culture in such a dynamic way. It stopped becoming a marketing campaign and took on the quality of a ‘Movement’

Checkout a more detailed list of Barbie Partnerships here in this Twitter Thread by @MosheIsaacian: https://twitter.com/MosheIsaacian/status/1673415496929267712

2) Licensing Deals: Mattel approached partners over the last 18 months to fill the market with Barbie products. In some agreements, a brand paid Mattel a flat licensing fee, while others gave Mattel a 5% to 15% cut of sales

Insight on Strategy, Spends and Returns

The efforts of this extensive and expensive marketing campaign are estimated to cost $150 million, in addition to the $145 million production budget. But it is likely to pay off in a big way. The movie “Barbie,” starring Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling as life-size versions of the popular Mattel dolls, crushed box office expectations with $165 million in North America and a stunning $337 million globally – in the opening weekend in July

The movie makers saw their Marketing efforts as a breadcrumb strategy, where they gave people little elements of the movie to stimulate curiosity and that created conversation. In every campaign, there were elements of earned media [like social media buzz] and paid media [such as a trailer spot]. They believed that the Barbie brand had the opportunity to generate some exciting earned media. Some of the choices they made stimulated that. Then it did totally take on a life of its own

Barbie will be very, very profitable. Warner has wisely focusing on the cool and fun factor, versus nostalgia (alone) – Rival Studio Executive

The Barbie Marketing Template Takeaways:

Here’s how the Barbie movie marketing magic happened and how normal marketers can benefit:

Understand and relate to the audience (social listening is a huge help here)
Create a coherent, detailed campaign plan (it didn’t just happen spontaneously)
Build tension and excitement (start to hint at what’s to come)
Reveal exciting pieces bit by bit (slowly peel back the layers)
Incorporate user-generated content (find your own easily recreatable template)
Engage and interact (make cool comments, repost content)

Plus,

Appeal to Culture

There are more than 100 Barbie marketing tie-ins, collaborations, and co-operations. While there is a viral, organic appeal to this all, there is also a grand plan in place. Everyone started wearing pink. All these outside brands came and wanted to partner with us. But that wasn’t because we spent so much more than a normal movie. It’s because the movie spoke to the culture (and people wanted to celebrate it in the summer movie season). – Josh Goldstine, Warner Bros

Appeal to Virality

The best viral marketing campaigns right now feature memeable content, and templates (or even photos) that people can edit, insert themselves into, and create humor and storylines around. Encouraging your team to naturally be a part of the fun by making it engaging and enjoyable can go a long way to creating successful viral marketing campaigns

The power of shared social events – that is something we have to remind ourselves about. 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. – Josh Goldstine, Warner Bros

Appeal to the Human Side

There was a clear branding strategy, a tone, and a visual voice to every single thing. The marketing by Warner Bros. and Mattel was personable, relatable, adding a human side to everything, which gave the movie a personal touch. The people behind-the-scenes and on screen engaged very well with audiences. As the movie inched closer to its release date, the makers and stars announced a global tour, giving their fans a chance to interact with them face-to-face. Through a video shared on official social media accounts, the actors revealed their intention to embark on a tour across the world, including Canada, Mexico City, New York, Los Angeles, London, Berlin, and Seoul. On these tours and other press stops, Margot wore some iconic Barbie outfits, encouraging nostalgia. This also got the fashion world talking

In Conclusion

Barbie’s “standout content” for a 2023 audience demonstrates the power of world-building and storytelling as tools for persuasive marketing. A comprehensive, consistent, and multi-channel approach ensured Barbie’s presence in every form of media. By the physical, digital and conceptual supporting each other, Barbie’s imagined world was cemented and convincing – an important lesson for brands considering their physical and digital strategies. The Barbie movie marketing strategy has shown how omnichannel campaigns can bring a beloved, yet seemingly outdated brand back into the spotlight. Key themes of nostalgia, escapism, and frivolity resonate with contemporary audiences and show how the power of well executed world building and storytelling can power virality for any brand

Share Outside In

References and Sources

1) Barbie through the Years: https://www.mni.com/blog/barbie

2) Barbie Marketing Strategy: https://formroom.com/barbie-movie-marketing-strategy/

3) Barbie Boat Cruise: https://www.thebostoncalendar.com/events/barbie-boat-cruise-on-boston-harbor-hosted-by-warner-bros-and-fangirl-fantasy

4) Barbie Marketing Campaign Explained: https://variety.com/2023/film/box-office/barbie-marketing-campaign-explained-warner-bros-1235677922/

5) Progressive Insurance Joins Campaign:

https://www.highsnobiety.com/p/jamie-flo-progressive-barbie-premiere/

6) Barbie Movie Marketing Magic: https://sentione.com/blog/barbie-movie-marketing

7) Barbie Marketing Genius: https://rockcontent.com/blog/barbie-movie-marketing/

8) Barbie/Mattel Reclaiming Pink: https://www.socialsamosa.com/2023/07/barbie-movie-marketing-how-mattel-is-reclaiming-pink/

9) Barbiemania: https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/barbie-movie-marketing-campaign-1235534537/