With the release of the Barbie movies, produced by Warner Bros, our world was transformed into pink. You can’t go anywhere without seeing a collaboration between a company and Mattel’s Barbie. Social media was overwhelmed with Barbie content and promotion of Barbie products. In need of some Pink Barbie footwear? Both Crocs and Vans’ got you covered. Need to spice up your black console with some pink and glitter? Xbox released a Series S Barbie-themed game console. Barbie and Ken even made their way over to the dating app, Bumble. You had to be living under a rock to miss this Barbie Marketing Takeover.
Movie Marketing became popular in 1989 with another Warner Bros production, Batman. The immense marketing campaigns gained the name “Batmania”. This is where we first saw not just the success of a movie but the shattering success of a brand. Over $750 million worth of merchandise was sold with the release of Batman in 1989. Similarly, with the release of the Barbie movie, CNN documented that Mattell itself saw a 25% increase in Barbie Toy Sales from July to August. With over 30 collabs, companies were finding ways to profit off the movie as well. According to Time magazine, the Copyright Office documented over 2,000 Barbie-related products released during the time of the movie.
Aside from all the Barbie products you could ever want, Barbie dominated social media engagement as well. The Barbie marketing team spent about $150 million on marketing their movie which cost $140 million to produce. Lifesize Barbie boxes can be found in every movie theater, encouraging viewers to share their all-pink, Barbie-inspired fits. On Warner Bro's website, you can create your own Barbie selfie with AI. AI will take your selfie and create a graphic showcasing what kind of Barbie you are. You also have the option to be photoshopped into a movie scene. Creating an online presence is crucial for a brand and campaign. A lot of the marketing for the Barbie movie comes from User-Generated Content, or UGC. The hashtag #Barbie has over 10.5 million posts. The hashtag #BarbieMovie has over 1.5 million posts. The Barbie Marketing team found a way to engage its audience and form a pink-sparkly relationship with its viewers. They managed to seamlessly introduce the Barbie brand into every aspect of social media and customer experience. In the end, the Barbie movie brought in $162 million opening weekend and $1.4 billion to date.
I personally felt so overwhelmed and surrounded by Barbie Marketing that I couldn't do anything but give them kudos. They managed to transform our world into an actual Barbie world this summer, and we are still recovering in the best way. I bet others will agree with me when I say that it will be a long time before I can see something pink and not associate it with the Barbie movie. In an interview with Vanity, Warner Pros president of Global Marketing Jsoh Goldstine said “Someone took a picture of a pink sunset and thanked the work of the Warner Bros. marketing department. I thought that was pretty amusing.”