‘Barbie’s’ dream brand collaborations—inside the movie's marketing machine

“Barbie” marketing features a robust campaign of product partnerships, immersive activations and brand integrations.

Jun 29, 2023 - 21:01

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Over the past year, the “Barbie” film has built a culture of its own as viral moments from Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling being announced to play Barbie and Ken to leaked set photos and a slow drip of teasers, trailers and tracks from the official album have bubbled up into a full Barbie-mania that has painted pop culture pink. Even Universal’s “Oppenheimer,” which also hits theaters on July 21, has gotten a boost from Barbie enthusiasts.

Mattel

The film and additional efforts to franchise Mattel’s toys (features for Hot Wheels and Barney are reportedly also in the works) are the product of Mattel CEO Ynon Kreiz, who joined the company in 2018. Notably, the same year marked a turn in Mattel’s worldwide revenue. The toy maker had seen annual net sales decline from $6.5 billion to $4.5 billion from 2013 to 2018, per Statista. In 2021 (when the “Barbie” movie began making waves with the announcement of Greta Gerwig and Noah Baumbach as co-writers and Gerwig as director), the Barbie brand hit its highest net sales value since the 2013 slump at $1.7 billion, boosting Mattel along with it.

In a sign of the Barbie brand’s importance to Mattel, the company this week filed a notice of opposition, trying to stop Burberry from getting the “BRBY” trademark rights.

As “Barbie” is an official Mattel Films production (alongside Heyday Films and Robbie’s LuckyChap Entertainment), the film has the expected amount of cross-promotion. An official line of “Barbie” Barbies was created to depict Robbie’s characterization of the doll as well as co-stars Issa Rae and America Ferrera. Three of the four dolls depicting Robbie in various film costumes are sold out.

Recently, Twitter users seemed to collectively lose their minds when aerial footage of a real-life Barbie home in Malibu, California, was posted. In the days since, it was revealed as a partnership between the film and Airbnb, which will book two reservations for July 21 and 22, aligned with the film’s release. Bookings open July 17.

And, as if Barbie didn’t already have her hands full being the branding queen of the real world, Forever 21 took her into the metaverse. In addition to launching a real apparel line in stores, the fashion brand created a virtual duplicate of the line for Roblox. The partnership also included a contest to create a duplicate of the winner and their fashion style for the online game platform.

Similarly, Xbox is bringing Barbie into its universe. The Microsoft-owned gaming console is not only hosting a contest to award one winner a pink console housed in a mini Dreamhouse replica, but Forza Horizon 5 players will be gifted an in-game replica of Barbie’s pink 1956 Chevrolet Corvette EV Corvette and Ken’s 2022 GMC Hummer EV Pickup from the film. The partnership also includes a contest to award winners Barbie dolls dressed in Xbox-branded gear.

And to create the Dreamhouse of, well, dreams, homeware from Ruggable, Homesick, Dragon Glassware, Moon Oral and Funboy complete the “Come on Barbie, let’s go party” vibe.

For the many hoping to win a trip to either HGTV’s or Airbnb’s Dreamhouse, they needn’t worry about Barbie’s insurance status. A spot from Progressive depicts the brand’s goofy cast of insurers outside the house, making corny puns about the mystery inhabitants of the pink, plastic structure.