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Episode #109
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Unless you’ve been living in a box recently, you cannot have failed to notice the explosion of all things pink and sparkly that has suddenly been covering people, places and things around us.
Yes, Barbiecore has been everywhere! The Barbie movie is out after what seems hearing about it forever, and it’s been just as successful as predicted.
As a business owner, I have been fascinated by the buzz around it. How it's tapped into so many people’s imaginations and caused so much excitement.
So, as I’m always learning, I took a deeper look into the marketing strategy that was used to see if there is anything I (and of course you) can take away from it.
Here’s what I discovered…
BASIC LESSONS
Once you strip away the sparkly pink glamour, they actually used some pretty standard marketing techniques, just on a huge scale and with a massive budget behind it.
This is the first lesson for us: you don’t need to reinvent the wheel. The tried and trusted marketing methods do work, alongside the more modern social media strategies.
The next lesson is that you need to invest in marketing. It’s estimated that the marketing budget for Barbie was $150 million, which is just slightly more than the $145 million production budget. Although there have been endless gifs and memes on social media that the marketing team had a huge budget, this actually is pretty standard for a blockbuster.
It shows just how vital marketing is, and not just for blockbuster movies. It's equally important for startups and entrepreneurs like you and me. Just creating a great product isn't enough anymore. You've got to shout about it from the rooftops and make sure it gets the spotlight it deserves. Remember, it doesn't matter how revolutionary your product is if no one knows about it.
Getting your marketing right is not an expense, but an investment that can lead to significant returns.
BRAND & BRANDING
Another lesson is about brand and branding. Barbie has a huge brand and 50 years of imprinting it into our psyche. Love it or hate it, you know about it. So the movie producers had a lot to work with. The logo and imagery are really distinctive and when you think of pink, you automatically think of Barbie!
Now of course, when you start out you are not going to have that kind of brand or branding. But you do need to think about what you want people to think about your company and you if you are going to be at the forefront. Then everything you say and do needs to be aligned to whatever that is.
Also, you don’t need to have a logo or super complicated branding at the start but make sure whatever you do have is the same wherever post about your business.
LONG RUNWAY
In marketing terms, the runway is the time from when you start talking about the thing you want to sell, to the the time you actually put it on sale. There are certain phases of that runway to bring you from not knowing about it, to desperate to get your hands on it. In general, the longer the runway the better, as you need time to influence people’s decisions.
The Barbie movie had a super long runway. They started at CinemaCon 2022, which was in April of that year, so a full 15 months before the movie was released! They just had an image of Margot Robbie as Barbie in her famous pink car.
That strategy is the initial teaser that any of us can use in our business or product launches. It’s giving your potential clients a glimpse of what is coming but giving them nothing more.
What followed is what’s called a breadcrumb strategy. This is when you leave a trail of enticing crumbs of information that lure people toward your product.
So, how did the Barbie Movie do this?
About a month or so after CinemaCon they were filming Barbie and Ken dressed in head-to-toe neon lycra and on rollerblades on Venice Beach. Images of them were ‘leaked’ but it would have been pretty difficult not to notice them as it’s hardly a private area. Those images went viral and the Barbie plane was on the runway picking up speed!
The first teaser trailer was put out in December 2022. The 1st main trailer was dropped in April 2022, and Ryan Gosling and Margot Robbie were interviewed in full pink costumes at CinemaCon.
From there the intensity increased until the weeks before the opening Barbie was everywhere. By the time of the opening, expectation and excitement were at a fever pitch and people were queuing to go and see it.
The long runway, along with the other techniques I’m going to talk about, gave people time. Time to catch on, time to get interested, time to change their mind and time to really buy into the concept.
So, if you're planning to launch your business or your first product think about how you can stretch out your marketing efforts. Give your audience enough time to sit up, take notice, and get excited.
BUILD INTRIGUE
The next strategy is one that I think made a big difference, introducing intrigue and secrecy. Throughout the runway they did this, keeping the story secret, leaking behind-the-scenes footage and just giving enough away to make it seem mysterious and not what you expect.
A big part of the was to run the first teaser trailer in December 2022 before the most highly-anticipated film of the year, which was Avatar: The Shape Of Water. Not really a traditional Barbie fan type of movie,
It got it in front of people who may not have seen themselves as their target audience, but made it intriguing enough to whet their interest and start to wonder if it could be worth seeing. It was totally not what you would expect from a Barbie movie and also did not give much away, keeping the intrigue going.
A later trailer said "If you love Barbie, this movie is for you. If you hate Barbie, this movie is for you."
What this did was intrigue even the sceptics, people who might've thought, "Oh, it's just another kid's movie." They started wondering, "Wait, what's different about it?" and that right there is a win. It's like telling someone, "I've got a secret, but I can't tell you," and immediately, they're dying to know!
As an entrepreneur, you can tap into this power of intrigue and secrecy Maybe there's an unexpected feature of your business, or a unique use for your product, or a surprising backstory to your company. Whatever it is, hint at it, and create a little mystery. Make your audience think, "There's more to this than meets the eye."
COLLABORATION & PARTNERSHIP
Another huge strategy for this movie was collaborations, both for merchandise and other experiences like the Airbnb dream house.
According to CNN, Mattel, maker of the Barbie doll, has made over 100 brand deals for the movie. With all that branded merchandise and partnerships no wonder Barbie seems to be everywhere.
Now, I’m not suggesting you go out and make the kind of deals Barbie marketing has, but you could introduce a few branded products to send your clients when they start working with you or if you have a hospitality business you could have gifts you leave for customers.
Overall, partnerships were a massive part of the Barbie movie marketing success. It’s more of an advanced strategy and not relevant to all types of business, but even if you get involved in a small way it can help with your marketing plans for your launch.
COMMUNITY
The combined effect of all the marketing techniques built up the launch of the movie to be a big event. Something that you don't want to miss out on. We all get that FOMO when everyone else is doing something fun right?!
Because of the hype, it was an event that groups of friends wanted to go to, that they told their friends about. It was a destination event, where people dressed up and made an effort for. It was no longer just going to see another movie, it was more than that.
Barbie marketing encouraged the link with the other movies that were released on the same weekend, Oppenheimer and Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning, which built into a thing where people went to see all three, Barbenheimer Impossible I think they called it! Dressing up in outfits related to all three.
Community and connection can be an important part of your marketing strategy. Especially in this post-pandemic era, people want to feel that sense of belonging, of being seen and having the support of a group of people.
Of course, it will depend on what your business is, but introducing an element of community to whatever it is you do can really make a difference.
THE BOTTOM LINE IS…
Even though your business launch will be tiny in comparison to the Barbie movie, the strategies they used over the past year can still be helpful.
Whether you are a fan of the movie or not, it has broken some records and boundaries and will go down in history as a marketing triumph.
If you can have a fraction of the success with your launch using the same techniques, you will do very well indeed! So work out what your Barbie strategy is and get your business and what you do best out into the world now!
Links mentioned in this episode
Variety article: https://variety.com/2023/film/box-office/barbie-marketing-campaign-explained-warner-bros-1235677922/
