Hi Barbie! Unravelling The Barbie Movie Marketing And Why It Is Genius

 Just like the Aqua song says -She’s a Barbie girl in a Barbie World, and we’re all in it!

You cannot escape her. Greta Gerwig’s Barbie movie comes out in one week, and it would be a disservice on our part not to highlight the genius of the Barbie movie marketing campaign.

Watch the Barbie Movie Trailer

Marketing is such a big part of pushing a product or service. It’s one thing to create one, but another for people to like and interact with. How else will you make your money back, right?

Here, the Barbie marketing team has gotten it right!

They have created enough buzz to make this one of the most (if not the most!) anticipated movies in 2023.

Tapping Into The Barbie Doll Nostalgia

Growing up, we all wanted or had a Barbie Doll (whether original or a dupe.)

Barbie was a part of our formative years, from the Barbie dollhouses to the Barbie pink-inspired outfits, and how can we forget the Barbie Princess movies?! 

There is a ready audience to receive this movie that Mattel has nurtured over the past six decades, especially the Millennial and Gen Z demographic. 

Having this in mind, you can tell that the marketing team knows its audience, and with the emergence of Y2K right now, there is some semblance of nostalgia in a few of the creative and marketing choices they’ve made. 

They are bringing back this old doll we all loved and cherished as kids to the top of our minds- upping the value of this part of our childhood and, in turn, the importance of this movie.

Barbie Takes Over Social Media 

Although it may seem like the marketing campaign for this movie has gone on forever, it all began in April 2023. (Before this, we only saw the various paparazzi shots of Ryan Gosling, Margot Robbie, and other cast members on set circulating social media relentlessly.) 

On April 4th of 2023, they took social media by storm and introduced us to the cast and characters with the Barbie generator posters and tagline- “This Barbie is…” and "He's just Ken.” The catch?

The Barbie generator is available to everyone, and this plays into a little thing we call- meeting your audience halfway- because with this, they have given their immediate target demographic the tool to do free promo for the movie.

Posters were everywhere within hours of announcing the Barbie generator!- on Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok. This act got people curious about what next was coming from the Barbie movie marketing campaign trail, and they did not disappoint.

The official trailer was also released on this same day because there’s already a tuned-in fanbase- so many videos and memes about the trailer alone have initiated discourse online among the audience, piquing more people’s interest in the movie.

From the Barbie fashion videos to think-pieces like this- you can’t escape Barbie content on socials right now. 

Perfecting The Traditional

The month of May came with the start of the traditional promo, you know, the regular things we all love, but what makes this a tad bit different is that once again- we are all tapped in, waiting to hear more about the movie, what it was like, the thought process of the creatives, etc. 

This period gave us the magazine spread and interviews- Margot Robbie for Vogue’s Summer Issue, Ryan Gosling for GQ’s Summer Issue, and The Barbie Girls for Time. 

There’s also the unmistakable all-pink billboard making rounds on socials; we love that it’s just pink with the movie release date, very ‘if you know, you know coded.’ 

There are the press tours with Margot Robbie churning out look after look, the very quaint AD tour, and the most recent being the popular Buzzfeed segment where Margot & Ryan play with puppies (watch here). Again, this is another nod to the thought-out Barbie movie marketing plan. 

Come On Barbie, Let’S Go Brand Collaborations!

The month of June came with a bang! Suddenly, a barrage of well-thought-out online and offline collaborations is bombarding us, and if this doesn't scream BUDGET, Mattel spared no expense on this Barbie movie marketing!

We have Barbie x Beis, Barbie x AirBnB, Barbie x Ruggable, Barbie x Xbox, Barbie x Forza Horizon, Barbie x Aldo, Barbie x Progressive, Barbie x Pinkberry, Barbie x Homesick, Barbie x Impala Skates, Barbie x the Bachelorette and many more.

 Integrating the Barbie dream house in the Progressive TV ads is very camp!

Barbie x XBOX collab with the console coming with its own Barbie doll house!

 The viral Barbie x Beis collection 

The Barbie Malibu AirBnB is back and ready for you starting July 17, and this time Ken is hosting. 

These strategic collaborations integrate the movie and Barbie into our everyday lives online and offline, telling us we are in a Barbie World now and must get with the program!

What’s Barbie Without The Fashunz? 

Since the beginning, Barbie has been the it girl, and her outfits have been at the forefront of this status. Unsurprisingly, Margot Robbie and her team have referenced iconic Barbies for all her red-carpet looks.

It doesn’t stop there; it is being pointed out by the media and the audience, creating a different kind of buzz for the movie.

Not many recent movie campaigns have heavily leaned on fashion the way the Barbie movie marketing has; they have successfully used Barbie and Margot Robbie’s fashion as a marketing tool to create discourse for the movie. 

Much like the wearing of suits trend for the Minions movie last year, there is a rising trend of asking what people are wearing to watch the Barbie movie; people are beginning to prepare for the GRWMs, showing us their outfits, lookbooks, etc.

Feeding The Discourse & The Mystery Of The Plot

You will not know if people are not talking about something. The marketing and creative choices Mattel & Warner Bros are making for the Barbie Movie are doing just that, feeding the discourse. 

Little easter eggs are dropped here and there, giving you a little to make you curious, leaving things open for us to guess the movie's plot.

It makes for anticipation; you watch one TikTok video theory on the story or characters, and now you’re hooked, wondering, and wanting more. 

Production designer Sarah Greenwood, in telling Architectural Digest, ‘The world ran out of pink…’ caused a discourse on why that was. The Barbie AirBnB, hosted by Ken, has been pointed out as a nod (more like theory) to the movie’s plot. 

Mattel is pulling out all the stops for this movie, and we can’t blame them.

This movie directly ties to their legacy and number one selling product; it is an extension of them, and the team is doing an excellent job! Whether you’re going to watch the Barbie movie or not, one thing is for sure: you cannot deny that the Barbie movie marketing has exceeded expectations, and you cannot escape Barbiemania.

 ✍️ Written by Teniola Sokoya