The popular doll, Barbie, has long been established as a cultural icon in the realm of digital marketing and within the households of millions of families around the world. Barbie’s brand has been kept alive for more than 60 years, since its launch in the market in March, 1959. The doll has sparked numerous cultural, sociological and psychological conversations throughout the years, and has managed to keep its reputation going by adhering and responding to any criticisms around its polarising figure.
Barbie’s long-term success has been highlighted and established by the brand’s adaptable and responsive nature to remaining competitive and relevant. Typically the favourite toy of young girls, the doll has been a staple in nurturing the imagination of little children and inspiring hours of playtime and storytelling by always remaining connected to the palm of the people, even amidst the digital emergence.
The latest in the advertising agenda of the Barbie brand is the much anticipated movie adaptation, starring Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling; two powerhouse names in the celebrity universe that have taken on the roles of Barbie and Ken alike. Despite its late July release in movie theatres, the film has already gone to impressively creative lengths to enter our collective consciousness months earlier. And guess what? It’s working!
So, we thought this was a great opportunity to go down memory lane of the key marketing efforts by the Barbie brand and get to the bottom of its longevity and consistent connection to consumers of all ages.
Gap In The Market
At the time Barbie was launched, dolls were mostly modelled after infants, which inevitably limited the target audience, and that’s where the creator of Barbie, Ruth Handler, found a gap in the toy market and opted to appeal to little girls, instead. Handler was inspired by her young daughter, Barbara, after whom Barbie is also named after, who was playing with paper rolls and was assigning them grown-up roles and stories, instead of baby-focused activities. The strategic approach for Barbie’s launch is the ultimate storytelling of finding a gap and providing an instant solution for it.
What Barbie went on to become is a whole other thing. But, since day one, the intention was for the dolls to allow young girls to expand their imagination and dream big.
Supporting Characters
Although the sole figure of Barbie took over the toy world by storm, with around 350,000 dolls being sold on its debut year, there was an immense opportunity to expand on its big success by introducing a whole community. Perhaps, even, the original universe was created by Barbie herself! First there was Ken, her handsome boyfriend, followed by her younger sister, Skipper, and her trusted friends, Midge and Christie, the first black Barbie character in the history of the brand.
The introduction of more diverse races throughout the history of Barbie shows the brand’s inclusive intention to adapt to social norms and continue allowing for relevant stories that resonate with the audience to be imagined.
The phenomenon of Barbie keeps expanding, offering boundless new opportunities to be explored, while increasing their brand visibility and awareness. One of them was Barbie and Ken’s breakup announcement in 2004, only to be reunited on Valentine’s Day in 2011, thus further connecting and resonating with the brand’s audience in sustaining interest and provoking an endless storytelling approach.
Hit Them With Nostalgia
A vital element throughout the history of Barbie in the markets has been that of nostalgia. Despite the initial purpose of the doll being to inspire and appeal to young girls, the brand’s marketing efforts have exceeded and expanded on that intention way beyond expectations.
The brand has often come up with limited edition tolls targeted at adults and has an extensive line of merchandising ranging from clothing to foodware and homeware that appeals to people of different ages. Whether the Barbie dolls inspire young girls to imagine a larger, better vision for their future or other generations’ attachment to the dolls - perfectly exemplified in the promotion for the movie - the brand has successfully managed to import a powerful essence of nostalgia into their marketing that inevitably attributes a sense of trust and positivity to the brand.
Movie Branding
Perhaps a Barbie movie adaptation was inevitable at this point, but it’s the way they have gone about with everything that has already generated such intense buzz around its release. The marketing efforts for the promotion of the movie, almost 2 months earlier than its premiere, have already set the aesthetic expectations that viewers can expect, without giving away too much about the plot itself.
It all started with a teaser trailer back in January 2023, parodying the film “2001: Space Odyssey”, giving a small glimpse into the vibe of the movie, infused with humour, lots of colours and setting the tone for this vibrant, joyful and optimistic world that the director, Greta Gerwig, had brought to life for viewers to witness. Then, followed by a second teaser trailer that revealed all 24 guest stars of the movie, the engagement was on the rise as it hooked an even larger portion of moviegoers.
And that’s when the marketing innovation took off. The team took advantage of all the likeable stars of the film and posted custom graphics for each one, in the signature Barbie packaging style, as a ‘meet the team’ kind of approach, which also set the tone for the next meme activation that dominated the digital space.
The marketing team recruited the social media of all 24 stars, who went on to share their own movie poster as an introduction to their character. That’s a whole lot of star power to get the town talking about your movie. The genius behind this social media activation was that they had already predicted the potential of people wanting to recreate the posters with themselves as the stars - which they did - and launched a meme generator.
Using an AI-powered website, users across the globe were able to generate their own promotional memes, along with a customisable catchphrase, which they then went on to share on their own social media profiles, marking this campaign a huge viral success. The UGC activation won the hearts of thousands of users, ranging across multiple target groups, and garnered a great anticipation and boosted the audience’s interest in the movie.
It remains to be seen how the Barbie marketing will proceed and expand until the actual release of the movie. They keep on playing on the audience’s nostalgia and giving them more incentives to care for, with the latest being the re-introduction of the famous Barbie model house in Malibu being available once again for bookings on AirBnB!
This is Barbie’s world evidently, and we’re just living in it!