Unpacking Barbie's Marketing Magic

I’ve seen lots of POVs on the Barbie movie marketing machine and one I see most is: “Not every movie/brand has $100 million to spend on marketing.”

Barbie’s advertisements didn’t ask people to show up in pink to the theater. But everyone who has been wearing highlighter pink around the city is a walking billboard. The cultural moment was sowed and people had a natural, expressive reaction. It created tribal behavior.

Barbie’s advertisements didn’t ask people to use the now-iconic promo posters as a meme template. Barbie made a smart visual graphic that people instantly wanted to jump in on. It was smart, easily adoptable creative.

Barbie’s advertisements didn’t force people to post or repost anything. They didn’t fish for engagement with bossy CTAs.

Barbie did create a culture. Some of it was due to it being a legacy brand. But not every legacy brand automatically pulls that cultural impact. There are many legacy flops, they’re not immune.

Most of the content I saw for the movie was people’s personal spin-offs of the movie’s culture and memes, not content directly from advertisements and promotions.

If you can’t afford the billboards, the massive volume of targeted ads, the celebrities, the plane wraps, or an all-star lineup of artists for a soundtrack, that doesn’t mean you should give up and scrap the marketing efforts.

Barbie did invest in ideas. They didn’t cut corners and use typical plug-and-play marketing tactics as the main strategy.

The lesson learned is not to find a million dollars for a campaign. It’s to get the creative powerhouse that’s needed to create a conversation and give them the flexibility, trust, and support that other teams on the project receive. It’s about taking branding and advertising seriously instead of deprioritizing and slimming.