Don’t waste time wishing you were Mattel. Here's what you can takeaway from the Barbie Movie marketing strategy.
I’m going to be totally honest with you to start this article. I have two older sons and no little girls around me to go and check out the Barbie movie for myself. However, numbers have proven the success of this movie, and we all have eyes and ears to see and hear the amazing chatter built up about it. So, I think it’s fair to speak on the marketing tactics used to create the amazing appeal for the newly released Barbie Movie, and there are some key take aways that business owners can use in the creation of their own marketing strategies.
Not only was Barbie’s movie a total success, but it was also a masterclass in the new direction of brand marketing. I found several key takeaways from Barbie’s marketing efforts that business owners can utilize in their branding strategies, that will help generate more awareness and in return higher revenues.
1. Don’t be part of the entertainment, be the entertainment.
Brands spend a lot of money inserting themselves into the entertainment industry. Usually after a movie is near completion the brands will contact the production studio to see where they can place their brand into the production process. Instead, Barbie took the approach of becoming the entertainment. They created the platform that the audiences would watch and be entertained, and not just the younger audience that play with dolls, but the parents of those children. In a world where consumers spend most of their time on social platforms being entertained in some capacity seems like the likely approach to take for a brand to insert themselves into the consumers lifestyle. Your brand can find ways to be the entertainment, from podcast, documentaries, or YouTube web series. Allow the consumer to be entertained and watch your brand awareness grow with it.
2. Harness the power of co-creation and learn from the Barbie Movie marketing strategy.
Normally brands have interrupted entertainment with ads, and honestly depending on the type of entertainment these ad placements can run in the millions of dollars. With Barbie the marketing leveraged co-creating and owned the entertainment they promoted. With over 100 brand partnerships they turned the movie into a profit machine rather than an expense. What does this mean for your brand? Position your brand so that people can create the content for you. Allow your brand to inspire content to be created. You can even think about co-creator content deals with influencers that have an audience that aligns with your brand.
3. Understand your target audience for “reel.”
Barbie intentionally pivoted the target audience to grab the attention of the parents while still inspiring the children. To accomplish this, they understood the nature of social media and integrated Barbie into our lives so strategically. You saw the pink all over your social media, and the parents having birthday parties for their kids hopping out of pink limos.
We can think about this shift in marketing strategy as possibly the death of advertisements. The future lies in leveraging the power of entertainment that tells a story and expanding a brands atmosphere to connect with the consumer on a more genuine level. The entertainment and media world are constantly evolving so your brand must adapt and seize the opportunity to make entertainment. So, R.I.P to traditional advertisements, it’s the entertainment that will maintain the esteem in the hearts and minds of the consumer.
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