Are you all seeing pink, or is it just me? Just kidding. I know it’s not just me—it’s Barbie!
Barbie turned the world (and consumer subconscious) pink. And the Barbie movie’s marketing playbook will go down in history.
A few years ago, we saw the impact of the success of “The Lego Movie” on Lego toy sales; more recently, the Barbie movie has followed suit, even serving as a marketing channel (one of many, in fact).
Open any social media app, walk into any retail store, or turn on your smart TV and you’ll be inundated with splashes of pink or talks of all things Barbie.
“Barbie” is everywhere, solidifying its status as a masterclass in the power of creative omnichannel marketing. In this article, I’ll take you on a tour of top examples from the movie’s marketing playbook to learn some valuable lessons from the Mattel team that you can incorporate into your own strategy.
Introducing Mattel’s Barbie Movie playbook
As the world pushes for greater diversity and body positivity, Barbie sales have long been in decline. In 2015, the brand experienced its lowest annual sales volume in over 25 years.
Since then, Mattel has been on a mission to rewrite Barbie’s story and reignite profits. In 2021, Barbie achieved a record $1.7 billion in annual sales, and the Barbie movie is set to generate exponential growth on top of that.
The Mattel strategy focuses on four key areas: purpose, design-led innovation, cultural relevance, and executional excellence. Barbie’s mission has always been to “inspire the limitless potential in every girl.” Mattel’s playbook aims to align this mission with current societal expectations, behaviors, and activity.
The Barbie movie itself strikes a perfect balance between modernizing Barbie’s narrative and inspiring nostalgia in adults. The film’s marketing team playfully orchestrated every element of this to ensure they’re everywhere. From working with big-name brands to creating out-of-home (OOH) campaigns, viral filters, and a star-studded soundtrack, the Barbie movie has thought of everything — even marketing channels you might not have considered.
Let’s dive into some marketing examples from “Barbie” to see how the team successfully promoted the film through online, offline, and partnership channels.
Online marketing examples from the Barbie movie playbook
Online marketing should be at the heart of any modern marketing strategy. Everything we do is digital first — and the “Barbie” marketing team knows that well. They placed virality at the center of their strategy. From building viral selfie generators to inspiring a world of memes and fan-generated content, “Barbie” was everywhere people looked online.
1) The Warner Bros. viral Barbie Selfie Generator
The first viral moment of the Barbie movie was the Barbie Selfie Generator from Warner Bros. back in April 2023.
As trailers for the Barbie movie started to air, Warner Bros. launched the Barbie Selfie Generator so fans could put themselves at the heart of the movie poster. People could create their own poster by uploading a selfie to the www.barbieselfie.ai website and adding their own “This Barbie is…” tagline. Users were then encouraged to share their AI-generated poster on social media.
Since its launch, the Barbie Selfie Generator has been used more than 13 million times, creating a global viral moment for Warner Bros. Celebrities, brands, and influencers all jumped on board the Selfie trend by sharing their personalized movie posters.
The grocery store chain H Mart, for example, used the Barbie filter to promote their kimchi on social media. H Mart even added a Barbie twist to the caption, emulating the doll brand’s tone of voice.
2) The movie soundtrack
The “Barbie” soundtrack alone is a marketing triumph. The star-studded soundtrack features big names in the music industry on every single track.
From Lizzo and Tame Impala to HAIM and Nicki Minaj, the film’s soundtrack brings together an array of music artists. This collaborative approach thus appeals to even more fans, creating a diverse sound and experience for listeners.
Released on July 21, 2023, “Barbie The Album” has racked up an impressive number of plays on Spotify. “Dance The Night” by Dua Lipa received more than 127 million plays alone, and Nicki Minaj and Ice Spice’s version of “Barbie World” garnered over 65 million plays.
Beyond simply releasing the soundtrack, the film team also built a marketing website to promote the album. U.S. fans can visit the Barbie movie album website to buy the soundtrack CD, cassette tape, limited edition vinyl, or a fan pack with a Barbie t-shirt.
3) Barbie movie memes
You know something has captured people’s attention if it reaches meme status, and the Barbie movie has achieved several of these spin-offs. Two of the most notable “Barbie” memes are “He’s just Ken” and “Hi Barbie.”
The former is thanks to one of the movie posters for Greta Gerwig’s film, which featured the tagline, “She’s everything. He’s just Ken.” This resulted in people taking to social media to share celebrity couple photos accompanied with the tagline, “She’s everything. He’s just Ken.”
Pairings included ex-celebrity couple Miley Cyrus and Liam Hemsworth and fictional couple Katniss Everdeen and Gale Hawthorne (ironically also played by Liam Hemsworth) from “the Hunger Games” movie series.
Meanwhile, the “Hi Barbie” meme inspired people to create bite-sized videos on TikTok and Reels using a soundbite from the movie where all the “dolls” say, “Hi Barbie” to one another. Memes made using this soundbite included Barbiecore outfits, make-up looks, and friends doing their best Barbie doll impressions as they say hi. At the time of writing this, #hibarbie has earned 242.8 million views on TikTok.
People began to see Barbie everywhere they looked and took to social media to share it with the world. From pink skies to the moon itself, the Barbie movie’s marketing managed to master color association perfectly.
4) Barbie branded hashtag
On Twitter, people could use Barbie branded hashtags when talking about the movie. Branded hashtags let companies design a custom emoji—known as a Hashmoji—that appears whenever a tweet contains a specified hashtag. This exclusive Hashmoji encourages people to use the hashtag to feel like they’re part of the conversation and wider culture.
The Barbie branded hashtags on Twitter are #Barbie, #BarbieMovie, and #BarbieTheAlbum. Whenever people publish these hashtags, the recognizable “B” from the Barbie logo appears alongside them. The Barbie movie marketing team pulled out all the stops to make sure their branding pervaded every nook and cranny.
5) Barbified Google search results
Google loves to add hidden features, or Easter eggs, to their search engine result pages (SERPs). Common Google Easter eggs include typing “askew” in the search bar to tilt the search results, or causing them to spin as they load by using the search term “do a barrel roll.”
To celebrate “Barbie,” Google added a Barbie movie Easter egg: When people searched for “Barbie,” “Barbie Movie,” “Greta Gerwig,” “Ryan Gosling,” or “Margot Robbie,” the SERPs would show a bright pink firework display, and the Google interface would adopt a pink color.
6) Zoopla’s Barbie dreamhouse campaign
Zoopla capitalized on the Barbiecore trend by creating a campaign centered around Pink houses. They encouraged property buyers to use the keyword filter “pink” to find their very own Barbie dream homes.
While the campaign wasn’t officially affiliated with the Barbie movie, it’s another great example of how brands capitalized on the Barbie momentum to drive interest for their own products and services.
Many other brands and businesses jumped on the bandwagon by adding a Barbie spin to their online marketing content. In an effort to make their brands relevant to the Barbie hype, they also helped further promote the movie by driving more excitement.
7) Payscale’s Barbie gender pay gap campaign
While Payscale didn’t collaborate with the Barbie movie, they did capitalize on the film’s hype to create a time-relevant marketing campaign.
Using the Barbie Selfie Generator, Payscale showed Barbie dolls in different job roles and shared the gender pay gap for that role between men and women.
This is an out-of-the-box example of a brand leveraging a popular trend to promote their own products and services. By using dolls to illustrate the gender pay gap, Payscale’s campaign also tied in nicely to Mattel’s mission to increase opportunities for girls. While they may not have been officially associated with “Barbie,” they effectively used the movie branding to gain more eyes on their campaign.
8) Barbie’s online impact
The impact of the Barbie movie isn’t just hearsay; statistics back up the noise, as Semrush proved. In a recent email campaign, Semrush broke down the numbers behind the Barbie movie to show how it’s taken the world by storm.
Over the span of just 60 days, the @BarbieTheMovie account on Instagram got 119% more engagements and 661K more followers. Meanwhile, the film’s Facebook page received 182% more engagements and over 14.5K new followers.
The Barbie movie website has also performed well, bringing in 494K new backlinks. On Google, there were 2.6 million monthly searches for the term “Barbie,” and 440K searches for “barbie the movie.”
Semrush even included numbers for the most popular songs from the movie: At the time of statistics curation, “Barbie World” by Nicki Minaj and Ice Spice proved to be the top song from the album. Further, 251,000 TikTok videos featured music from the movie, and TikTok videos related to “Nicki Minaj barbie girl” garnered 36.2 billion views.
Offline marketing examples from “Barbie”
If you want to create a holistic marketing strategy that reaches people wherever they are, make sure you incorporate offline marketing channels into your playbook.
By combining online and offline marketing channels, the Barbie movie marketing team was able to create a multi-touch attribution model that targeted customers at every stage of their journey — right up until they bought tickets to see the movie.
Let’s take a look at some of the offline marketing activities that helped ramp up excitement for “Barbie.”
1) Global press tour
The Barbie movie press tour kept media publishers busy, with many outlets reporting on Margot Robbie’s outfits from the press tour.
Throughout the press tour, Margot Robbie embodied Barbie at every moment by dressing and acting just like the world-famous doll would. Robbie also swapped her usual red carpet posturing for Barbie-fied vogues, holding herself in more rigid, static poses.
The costume designer and fashion stylists held nothing back when creating the actress’s looks for the press tour. Even the tiniest detail was taken into consideration to ensure Robbie was transformed into a real-life Barbie.
At the L.A. movie premiere, she wore a high-fashion recreation of Mattel’s 1960 “Solo in the Spotlight” Barbie. Guests at “Barbie” premieres around the world took the chance to show up as their most glamorous Barbie selves, like Amelia Dimoldenberg, who dressed as 2010 news anchor Barbie at the film’s London premiere.
Robbie wasn’t the only cast member channeling their movie counterpart on the press tour: Ryan Gosling also brought the “kenergy” with a laid-back attitude, Ken-inspired puns, and retellings of fun anecdotes while on the film set. His enthusiasm throughout the tour made everyone feel excited about the movie.
2) The Pink TARDIS in London
“Doctor Who” fans are all too familiar with the navy blue TARDIS used for space and time travel in the namesake fictional series. However, few likely expected to see a pink telephone box.
On July 12, 2023, Barbie infiltrated the “Doctor Who” fandom in the form of a pink TARDIS, which appeared in London on the banks of Tower Bridge. The “Doctor Who” and Warner Bros. social media accounts both shared the news of the pink TARDIS’ landing.
The connection between Barbie and Doctor Who may seem odd at first. But Ncuti Gatwa, who plays a version of Ken in “Barbie,” is slated to play the Doctor in the next season of the series. The pink TARDIS was a subtle nod to Gatwa’s involvement in both productions.
And it worked magic!
Fans of both “Doctor Who” and Barbie flocked to London to snap selfies in front of the pink Tardis before it left the city.
3) The iconic Barbie Pink billboard
OOH advertising goes hand-in-hand with movie promotions. But the Barbie movie took a subtler approach to its billboard ad with a simple pink background. This bold take on OOH advertising had both Barbie fans and marketing mavens mesmerized.
The Barbie movie billboard features the iconic pink with the date “July 21” written in the corner in the signature Barbie lettering — and that’s all it took to remind people of the film. The stripped-back approach speaks volumes about the power Barbie has, as people all over were able to recognize the brand behind the billboard instantly.
4) Barbie pop-up booths in malls
Even malls got in on the action: Red Carpet Cinema, for instance, hosted a Barbie pop-up booth inside Shangri-La Plaza mall.
The booth encouraged mall-goers to snap a selfie inside the iconic pink Barbie toy box and post their photo on social media for a chance to host a viewing party within the cinema’s party venue.
“Barbie” partnership marketing examples
Partnership marketing is powerful. It allows you to align your brand with other like-minded companies to expand both parties’ reach and impact.
The Barbie movie marketing team recognized that impact and made partnerships a central component of the film’s marketing strategy. They aligned the Barbie brand with similar companies that would appeal to their target audience, demonstrating a high degree of audience intelligence.
However, they also formed less conventional partnerships, like with gaming companies, to show they’re breaking the stereotypes associated with the brand and living up to their values of modernizing the way we see and experience Barbie.
1) Fashion and beauty brand collaborations
Thanks to the film’s promotion, “Barbiecore” became the buzzword on every fashionista’s lips. Taking inspiration from the Barbie movie, Barbiecore is the name for the latest fashion trend where everyone embraces pink (especially hot pink) in their everyday life and outfits.
The number of fashion and beauty brands that have collaborated with the Barbie movie to launch exclusive products and lines is extensive. Let’s look at some of the standout Barbie fashion and beauty collaborations.
a) Impala skates
You can buy the iconic neon yellow inline skates from the movie thanks to the Barbie x Impala collaboration.
b) Fenty Beauty
Ahead of the release of “Barbie,” Fenty Beauty launched their Fenty Icon Velvet Liquid Lipstick in a limited edition, Barbie-inspired Pink Limo’scene color.
While the lipstick isn’t an official Barbie movie collaboration, it highlights the power the film has had on the world. Brands who aren’t even affiliated with it are jumping on board by launching Barbie-inspired hot pink product lines.
c) OPI Nail Polish
Channel your inner Barbie with OPI’s range of limited-edition Barbie shades. The nail care company teamed up with the movie team to launch Barbie press-on nails and a range of 12 limited-edition nail polish colors.
d) Crocs
Crocs recently reclaimed the limelight, becoming fashion influencers go-to shoe for everyday outfits — and, thanks to “Barbie,” their popularity doesn’t appear to be slowing any time soon. Crocs joined forces with the doll brand to launch a series of Barbie clogs and charms.
e) Rue21
Fashion retailer rue21 created a unique Barbie x HotWheels x rue21 three-way collaboration to coincide with the release of the Barbie movie. This collaboration leaned into the nostalgia of the 90s-era Barbie and Hot Wheels toys and merged the two to create a fun clothing line that brought back childhood memories.
f) Zara
Zara also embraced their inner glam through their Barbie collection, which featured outfits inspired by looks from the movie. You can buy Zara’s take on the pink gingham dress Barbie wears in the movie, or an outfit that gives homage to Ken’s western cowboy look.
But that’s not all: To celebrate the launch of “Barbie,” Zara also created two immersive pop-up spaces in Paris and New York. These spaces brought the Barbie movie universe to the real world.
g) Fossil
Watch and clock maker Fossil brought back the nostalgic ring watch in a brand collaboration with Barbie, showcasing a popular way to tell time from the 90s to tap into our memories of childhood. The ring watch comes with a certificate of authenticity and is only available for a limited time, furthering the Barbie Movie hype.
2) Listing the Barbie Dreamhouse on AirBnB
Ever wished you could stay in the Barbie Dreamhouse? Well, now you can.
As part of the Barbie movie’s marketing playbook, Barbie’s Malibu DreamHouse was listed on AirBnB. The property originally appeared on the site in 2019 as part of another Barbie campaign. This time, however, the property received a Kenergy makeover to bring the decor in line with the Barbie movie and ramp up excitement.
Fans could request to book Ken’s room on AirBnB for two individual one-night stays for up to two guests on July 21 and 22 free of charge. The lucky guests also got to take home their own Barbie x Impala skates and surfboards.
3) Barbie takes over the gaming industry
The Barbie movie expanded its marketing wings into the gaming industry. One way the Barbie movie took over the gaming industry was through its Xbox collaboration.
The Barbie Xbox collaboration allows Barbie fans to get their hands on an exclusive Barbie Xbox console with matching controllers.
The brand partnership also created exclusive in-game content for “Forza Horizon 5,” where fans could race Barbie’s Chevrolet Corvette and Ken’s GMC Hummer EV Pickup from the movie.
As part of Barbie’s culture shift and repositioning, Xbox also spotlighted some of Barbie’s real-life counterparts in the gaming industry so they could speak about their career journeys, motivations, and Barbie connections.
Another way the film has made moves in the gaming industry is by collaborating with the “Stumble Guys” game. Playable on a variety of platforms, including PC, mobile phones, and Nintendo Switch, “Stumble Guys” players can unlock a new Barbie Dream Dash course.
This is the second time “Stumble Guys” and Mattel have worked together; they previously collaborated in 2022 on a Hot Wheels integration that transformed the game with a head-to-head driving mode. In their newest cooperation, Stumblers can immerse themselves in the Barbie world as they play the game.
4) Barbie compliments on Bumble
Dating and friendship-making app Bumble partnered with Barbie to bring a fun, new feature to their mobile users.
From July 12 to 26, Bumble users saw Barbies and Kens from the movie pop up in their swipe queues. If they swiped right on them, they could read their tips on kindness and see their favorite Bumble Compliments. In turn, they could send a Barbie-inspired compliment to people they like in their swipe queue.
5) Barbie screensavers on Roku
With over 70 million active accounts, the TV streaming platform Roku was an obvious choice of partner for the Barbie movie marketing team.
Roku partnered with the film to “Barbify” their home screen, which users saw when entering the streaming platform. A detailed Barbie cityscape backdrop would also appear whenever people paused their Roku device.
The Roku x Barbie campaign wasn’t all about imagery though — users could click the Barbie banner to watch the movie trailer or scan a QR code to purchase film tickets from their local theater.
6) Pink food on the menu
Food and drink companies also hopped on board the “Barbie” train. From Barbie burgers to ice cream, themed food and drink collaborations were everywhere (and I, for one, loved it).
Here’s a small selection of the Barbie snacks that were on the menu around the world.
a) Burger King’s Barbie burger
Burger King Brazil jumped into the Barbie movie action by releasing a Barbie combo meal. The star was the Barbie burger — a Burger King cheeseburger featuring a smoky flavor, hot pink sauce, and bacon bits.
Next, there was the Barbie Shake. This pink strawberry milkshake was topped with a pink donut, making it fit for a Barbie.
Finally, they renamed their fries to “Ken’s potatoes.” All of this was packaged up in Barbie-branded takeaway boxes.
b) Cold Stone Creamery’s Barbie ice cream
There were lots of ice cream collaborations as part of the Barbie movie marketing playbook. One such partnership was with Cold Stone Creamery, which introduced a Barbie-inspired flavor: Pink Cotton Candy, a bright-pink ice cream that paid homage to the Barbie movie.
This ice cream flavor served as the foundation of more Cold Stone Creamery x Barbie creations, such as the “Best Cake Ever” ice cream cake and the “All That Glitters is Pink” ice cream creation with a graham cracker pie crust, sprinkles, and whipped topping. Unsurprisingly, all these creations screamed “Barbie” with their pink, playful aesthetic.
They also ran a Barbie movie sweepstakes where customers could enter online for a chance to win a variety of film-related prizes.
c) Barbie pasta at Whole Foods Market
Shaking up the grocery store visit, Whole Foods gave their shoppers the chance to get their hands on Barbie pasta.
The Barbie Pennette Reigate by Pasta G. Di Martino was sold exclusively at Whole Foods Market. While the pasta wasn’t pink, the box had a retro Barbie look, and the pasta shells were shorter than your standard penne pasta.
d) Pinkberry’s Barbie Land frozen yogurt
I can’t think of a more perfect Barbie dessert than frozen yogurt. Fortunately, Pinkberry’s branding is already hot pink, which aligns perfectly with the Barbie aesthetic.
The Pinkberry and Barbie movie collaboration led to the creation of the Barbie Land Berry Pink — a bright blend of strawberry and dragon fruit frozen yogurt topped with glittery silver and pink “Dream Sprinkles,” all in a Barbie-branded tub.
e) Krispy Kreme Barbie donuts
In the Philippines, Krispy Kreme released a range of Barbie movie donuts and a themed milkshake.
Krispy Kreme put a Barbie spin on their classic glazed donut with a pink glitter glaze. They also launched a “Barbie Original Donut” — a blue iced donut with a bubblegum filling and a customizable edible message on top.
The Barbie Cotton Candy Chiller milkshake completed the collection with its pink-and-blue swirled color, sweet cotton candy flavor, and whipped cream and sprinkles topping.
f) Swoon’s Barbie pink lemonade
The Swoon x Barbie movie collaboration led to the creation of a limited edition Pink Lemonade. This drink stayed true to Swoon’s zero-sugar, diabetic-friendly mission while adding a hot pink Barbie twist to it.
As part of the collaboration, Swoon promised to donate 10% of the lemonade’s net sales to support the Barbie Dream Gap Project. This global initiative by Mattel aims to close the gender gap and help girls achieve their full potential. That aspiration plays into the larger Barbie marketing playbook by helping the Barbie team reinforce their mission to “inspire the limitless opportunities of girls.”
g) W Osaka’s Barbie The Movie cafe
Tokyo is the place to be if you want to visit a themed restaurant or cafe that’s a feast for the senses. Barbie joined the ranks of themed cafes with the W Osaka hotel’s Barbie Movie Cafe.
The hotel’s Barbie Movie Cafe in Osaka was designed as a temporary pop-up overflowing with Barbie-inspired treats. The cafe itself was decked out in Barbie decor to complete the look and feel.
h) Barbie ice cream at Selfridges
In London, the luxury department store Selfridges turned their Corner Shop pink with a pop-up Barbie ice cream bar. There, shoppers could buy Barbie ice cream, merchandise, and collaboration fashion pieces.
Since Selfridges is a department store, they didn’t limit their Barbie takeover to The Corner Shop alone; people could also visit an in-store makeup artist to get one of three Barbie-inspired looks, watch the film in the Selfridges cinema, visit the Barbie pop-up in the Toy Store, and check out the official movie costumes in the store’s window display.
i) Barbie popcorn for the movies
Go to the movies at the time of any big movie release and you’ll likely see movie-branded popcorn buckets or drink cups. Movie snack merchandise isn’t new, but movie theaters stepped up their game for “Barbie.”
Movie theaters around the world embraced Barbie snacks in celebration of the film’s launch: AMC theaters in the U.S., for instance, released a Barbie popcorn bucket that’s a replica of Barbie’ pink Corvette, as well as a pink or blue drink floatie. Meanwhile, Regal theaters there offered Barbie pink popcorn.
Cinemark sold an array of Barbie merchandise, including a pink diamond-studded cup, a Barbie popcorn bucket, and a Barbie blanket and bag. At Cinemark theaters that have a liquor license, movie-goers could also purchase a limited edition Barbie cocktail called “Pink Dream.”
In the U.S. and Mexico, Cinépolis and Icon Cinemas had a Barbie popcorn bucket shaped like a Barbie doll box and a Barbie drink cup shaped like a pink and white beach ball.
In the UK, the Odeon cinema sold a collector’s combo that featured your choice of drink, regular popcorn with a topper, and a pink Barbie cup.
Lastly, in Rio de Janeiro, Cinesystem and Grupo Cine flexed their creativity by offering shell-shaped popcorn buckets that doubled as a bag, while UCI kept it simple with a pink Barbie cup and pink popcorn.
Wrapping up — Take a page out of Barbie’s extensive omnichannel marketing examples
The impact of the Barbie movie is undeniable. Its creative omnichannel marketing showcases the immense influence of a strong brand identity. By leaning into your own identity and reinforcing it across every available avenue, you can build a memorable (and highly profitable) experience.
Everyone has been talking about the film and seeing Barbie everywhere they look. Whether it’s due to brand partnerships, marketing campaigns for the movie, or just when they spot a hue of pink, the Barbie craze has reached just about everyone — and that’s all part of the plan for Mattel. The borderline over-the-top marketing for “Barbie” has set the stage for an entire Mattel movie universe à la Marvel, which further proves the company’s brilliant, chess-like maneuvering and emphasizes the importance of foresight in marketing.
Learn from the Barbie movie marketing playbook by embracing omnichannel marketing for your brand. You may not have the massive budget of a global company like Mattel, but you can incorporate the lessons from their marketing efforts into the platforms most important to your audience and plaster your name far and wide.