3 Things You Missed About Barbie's Marketing

Did you know that there are 13 toy-centric Mattel movies coming soon and there are FORTY FIVE more in development?

Here are three other things you might have missed and why they are important.

Too Much is Never Enough

A large part of the marketing success has been the myriad of partnerships. More than 100 in total, including everything from Xbox controllers to Airbnb houses to roller blades to luggage to a pink condiment sauce... This reminds us that there is no such thing as ‘too much’ when we are trying to stand out in an algorithm-driven world where we see between 4-10,000 ads a day. Many marketers would have been selective in their brand partnership choices so as not to dilute their brand but more partnerships actually had the opposite effect (noting that Mattel has a big team working on this).

Find an Enemy

I have no idea how planned this was but opening on the same weekend as Oppenheimer was perfect because it gives the campaign an ‘enemy’. A movie about atomic bombs is about as different as you could get and it allows the internet’s love of memes to run wild. Cue joke upon joke. It’s a classic strategy but one that too few brands choose because it’s often perceived as too risky and perhaps ‘negative’. In reality, the ‘enemy’ doesn’t have to be another brand or individual; it can be a broader movement.

Timing is Everything

Last year, Vogue said, ‘Is Being Called A Bimbo Now A Compliment?’ and this movie feels perfectly timed in the context of the new culture that article referred to. As NPR says, “Barbie's brand of hyperfeminine fun has been on the rise for years — especially online among left leaning femmes who call themselves bimbos and have been giving the term a new meaning.” The lesson is that we need to pay attention to immediate, more fleeting moments in pop culture (#girldinner, anyone?) but we also need to recognise the broader themes at play.

So, will we see using movies as a more central media channel? Maybe, but more importantly, we need to heed the lessons this teaches us regardless of the brands we work on, the budgets we have and the media channels we use.