How Barbie’s Movie Marketing Raised (and Cleared) the Box Office Bar
As Barbie tells us in her record-breaking hit movie, there is nothing you can’t be.
And as her marketing team showed us in the months leading up to this weekend’s release, there is no industry they can’t touch.
With more than 100 promotional partners and a $155M domestic box office opening weekend (keep reading for the global numbers), it is worth taking a deep dive into Barbie's dream pool of marketing campaigns to see why it worked.
First of all, the breadth and depth make sense.
Since Barbie’s creation in 1959, she has held over 200 jobs across a wide swath of enterprises. As described by parent company Mattel, Inc.:
“[Barbie] first broke the ‘plastic ceiling’ in the 1960's when, as an astronaut, she went to the Moon…four years before Neil Armstrong. In the 1970's, Barbie saved lives in the operating room as a surgeon, at a time when few women were applying to medical school. In the 1980's she took to the boardroom as…CEO Barbie, just as women began to break into the C-suite. And in the 1990's, she ran for President, before any female candidate ever made it onto the presidential ballot. In the 2000’s, with only 24% of today’s STEM careers held by women, Barbie has been a computer engineer, video game developer, Mars explorer and robotics engineer, just to name a few.”
The marketing team assembled to roll out the Barbie movie took this list and ran with it – heels and all.
From features in Architectural Digest, Vogue and The New Yorker to collaborations with General Motors, Food Network, and Burger King, the film’s marketing partnerships span a myriad of industries and are reportedly worth at least $70M to Mattel and Warner Bros.
What did teens and tweens at Être – a mentorship platform that asks girls every day who they want to be - love the most?
Here are a few noted favorites:
If you’re traveling:
a themed luggage collection from BÉIS and a list of hotels and vacation rentals going all-in on Barbie themes;
If you’d rather stay home:
the most epic Barbie Dream House EVER, along with bundled insurance from Progressive or furniture from Joybird;
If you’re hungry:
Barbie penne rigante from Whole Foods, Burger King Brazil’s Barbie menu, Cold Stone Creamery’s cotton candy dessert and - my personal favorite - glitter-filled donuts from Krispy Kreme Phillipines;
If you’re gaming:
If you’re getting red-carpet ready:
a glam nail collection from OPI, toothpaste from Moon, epic capsule collections from Forever 21, Gap, Zara, Barefoot Dreams, Boohoo, Primark and more, and footwear choices like custom Crocs, Aldo pumps (that arrive in a Barbie doll box), or sneakers from too many brands to count;
And if you need to get to the red carpet:
a choice of cars from General Motors. Rather skate there? Impala has the movie’s skate collection here.
Maybe that’s the point. Because even without opening night red carpets (dual Hollywood strikes remain ongoing), the Barbie marketing team set the stage well in advance. We were ready for this movie months before we ever saw a trailer, and global brands blended seamlessly into a cultural movement that broke box office - and other - records.
Barbie earned the title for biggest opening weekend ever for a film directed by a woman (previously held by Captain Marvel) and biggest movie opening of the year. At the international box office, the film added another $182M for a global total of $337M, while causing a shortage of Barbie-pink paint.
What are marketing experts and former Mattel strategists like Laura Barajas (she/her/ella) saying?
"With in-person experiential experiences becoming essential to consumers of all ages, especially after the pandemic, Barbie opened up her fantastical world and brought it to them. They created cruises, cafes, hotels...and more to allow fans to be a character in her world." When we asked her for more, Barajas added:
"This Barbie marketing really blew my mind as a brand that understood how to modernize itself for today's girls who demand much more from brands...and deserve every bit of it."
What are girls saying?
"It was inspiring to watch as a young woman," reported 16-year-old Canadian filmmaker Arianna Grace Goarley, "especially as a young female director (with ADHD), because she [Gerwig] shares stories in a similar way as I do, hiding the messages in entertainment. I loved it!"
Will everyone love it? Maybe not. Will it redefine marketing storyboards as execs everywhere redouble creative efforts? Without question.
As Mattel makes plans to pull at least 17 more movie ideas straight out of their toy boxes, it seems likely that marketing strategies will build on those created by the Barbie team.
And we can't wait.
Remembering what Mattel's former Head of Global Brand Communication Marissa Beck Viola told us in The Epic Mentor Guide, the next gen of marketers should be watching Barbie today:
“Our goal is always to leave brands better than we find them, so evolving brands like Barbie for the next generation is a dream come true. There is a true intersection when you work on heritage brands on keeping what made them beloved in the first place while also ensuring they continue to be a reflection of current culture to remain relevant. My advice is simply to be a solid study of what is resonating in cultural context and to make sure that your brand is reflecting and embracing where the world is at — while ultimately remaining authentic. A brand’s mission never goes out of style.”
Thank you, Barbie. Let's go party.
Looking forward,
Illana
ÊXTRAS: As we reflect on Barbie's epic careers, here are three extra jobs Barbie held that we can’t believe we missed: Matador Barbie (1999), Paleontologist Barbie (2012), and Beekeeper Barbie (2018). Yes, you can truly bee anything.
