What is the messaging of the Barbie marketing campaign?

‘Humans only have one ending. Ideas live forever’. The objectives of the Barbie marketing strategy are being communicated to audiences in various types of ways. In terms of creating excitement and curiosity, the marketing team for the film used a ‘breadcrumb’ strategy which allowed for elements of the film to be released (Rubin,2023). This allows for the audience to be involved with the campaign as this could lead to conversations that can be used as a promotional tool. Additionally, the use of nostalgia is present within the marketing through the taglines such as ‘if you love Barbie, this movie is for you. If you hate Barbie, this movie is for you’ and this can attract a multigeneration of fans who had a history with Barbie or simply fans of the doll.

Fig 1, Barbie character posters

Throughout the marketing campaign, the message of feminism is present, and this is shown through the reclaiming of the ownership of the colour pink. The perceptions of the colour have changed over time (Grovier,2018), Barbie and the colour are 'gendered commodities' that can refer to the embodiment of an ‘ideal or exaggerated performance of femininity’. Barbie has typically been seen as a ‘girly’ product through the socialisation of femininity through girls (Holland,2015). The live action film has been able to reflect the rebranding of the Barbie franchise through the inclusion of diverse dolls that are reflected through the character posters that reveal a diverse cast (Kitchener, 2016). Through presenting the themes of empowerment and inspiration, like the brand values of Mattel, this was presented using an AI selfie generator for consumers to generate selfies like the character posters that allowed them to be any type of Barbie or Ken. Through this, the campaign used transmedia that allowed for the entertainment to be spread across multiple media platforms and this gives the perception of ‘Barbie Land’ being real to audiences (Freeman, 2016).

Fig 2, SWOT Analysis

Arguably, with the marketing campaign of this scale allows for the rebrand of Barbie to reach an audience globally. They were able to achieve this using transmedia that distributed their promotional tools across multiple media platforms such as TikTok and Instagram. The marketing campaign for the film allowed for fans to create their own promotional tools that resulted in Barbenheimer (Barber,2023), and this showed that it allowed for the promotion to reach great lengths. However, through the messaging of feminism it may be hard to have audiences relate to the topic, particularly audiences in the eastern world.

On the other hand, the messages being communicated allowed for the opportunity for the marketing campaign to generate earned media and this allows for the campaign to reach influencers and brands that want to be associated with the campaign (Chaffey,2022). Through this, the message of feminism and female empowerment allowed for the movie to collaborate with Save The Children which allowed for them to give resources to help empower girls around the world (Save The Children,2023). Additionally, this raises the threat of oversaturation of the marketing campaign that can lead to a decreased interest from audiences. Following this, it also raises the risk of the rebrand of Barbie not reflecting well with audiences due to the negative connotations surrounding the brand, it may give the impression of the film marketing campaign disregarding these issues.

Fig 3, Greta Gerwig, Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling on set of Barbie

Reference List

Barber, N (2023) What does ‘Barbenheimer’ really mean for Hollywood. BBC Culture. Available on: What does 'Barbenheimer' really mean for Hollywood? - BBC Culture (Accessed on: 8th November 2023)

Chaffey, D. (2022) Digital Marketing. Pearson Education

Freeman, M. (2016) Historicising transmedia storytelling: early twentieth-century transmedia story worlds. Routledge

Grovier, K (2018) The shady past of the colour pink. BBC Culture. Available on: The shady past of the colour pink - BBC Culture (Accessed on: 8th November 2023)

Holland, S. (2015) Who is the ‘girly’ girl? Tomboys, hyper-femininity and gender. Journal of Gender Studies Vol.24 Issue 3.

Jenkins, H. (2006) Convergence Culture: Where old and new media collide. New York: New York University Press

Kitchener, O (2016) Mattel rebrands the material girl, Barbie; Launch of President and Vice President dolls meant to get kids talking about leadership. Toronto Star Newspapers.

Rubin, R (2023) Barbie marketing campaign explained: How warner bros promoted the film. Variety. Available on: Barbie Marketing Campaign Explained: How Warner Bros Promoted the Film (variety.com) (Accessed on: 8th November 2023)

Save The Children (2023) Our partnership with Barbie to help girls everywhere achieve their dreams. Save The Children. Available on: Our partnership with Barbie to help girls everywhere achieve their dreams (savethechildren.org.uk) (Accessed on: 8th November 2023)