barbie – marketing recap

How Warner Bros. has sold a surreal toy-inspired feature release

Greta Gerwig directs this week’s big new theatrical release Barbie. Co-written by Gerwig with Noah Baumbach, Margot Robbie stars as Barbie, who lives in Barbieland along with all her other various incarnations. One day Barbie’s idyllic life is turned upside down by thoughts of her own mortality, which causes her to venture into our real world to search for the human who owns her toy incarnation and find out what’s happening to her.

Barbie undertakes that journey with Ken, played by Ryan Gosling, who has to go through his own emotional journey as he discovers the real world’s patriarchal tendencies that run contrary to Barbieland’s society where the women run things.

Ariana Greenblatt plays Sasha, the young girl who owns Stereotypical Barbie’s toy version and America Ferrera plays Sasha’s mother Gloria, who also is a Mattel executive who helps Stereotypical Barbie evade capture by the CEO played by Will Ferrell. Most notably, other identities of Barbie are played by Alexandra Shipp, Issa Rae, Kate McKinnon, Hari Nef and others while Kingsley Ben-Adir, Rob Brydon, Simu Liu and others play alternate Kens.

Now that the meta nature of the story has been established let’s look at the massive marketing campaign Warner Bros. Pictures has mounted for the movie.

announcement and casting

The movie began life at Sony over a decade ago, with Diablo Cody on board to write the script at one point and Amy Schumer attached to star at another. Things never seriously moved forward, though a late 2018 feature on Mattel’s new CEO included comments about how the movie was a major focus for the company. It was around this time that Robbie’s name was first associated with the project, with her involvement confirmed following the announcement of a partnership between Mattel and Warner Bros.

Robbie Brenner, head of Mattel Films, later commented on the prospects for the movie as well.

Further changes came in mid-July 2021 when reports emerged WB had hired Greta Gerwig and Noah Baumbach to write the movie, with Gerwig interested in directing as well.

Robbie spoke briefly about the movie while promoting Once Upon A Time…In Hollywood, talking about the body positivity nature of the story and more.

The rumors of Gerwig as directing were confirmed in a July 2021 interview with Robbie. At the same time there was a feature on Mattel Films and the various projects, including this one, that were in various stages of development and production.

Gosling was reported to be joining as the voice of Ken in late October 2021. Liu and McKinnon joined in February 2022. McKinnon talked briefly about the movie a month later while promoting other projects.

A big casting wave took place starting in March of last year and going through the next couple months. In that time Shipp, Ferrell, Nef, Rae, Bel-Adir, Fennell and others all joined up.

Robbie was among those in attendance at CinemaCon in late April 2022, an event where exhibitors were shown a bit of footage and a first look photo – along with a release date – was released.

In an interview from late May, Liu talked about the uncomfortable waxing process necessary to get him into character. Around that same time he talked about how he was convinced to sign on to the project and teased the story a bit.

A photo of Gosling as Ken dropped in mid-June, inspiring a ton of memes and other reactions. The actor addressed those photos and more when he appeared on “The Tonight Show” a little while later.

There were also features through the end of 2022 on the movie’s costume design, how all the actors playing Barbie got together for a sleepover before filming began, how Gerwig was impressed by Nef’s audition, how the director was terrified by the prospect of what she’d signed on for and more. Unsurprisingly, this movie was frequently mentioned during Robbie’s publicity cycle for Babylon, including this feature profile and a conversation between Robbie and Carey Mulligan.

the marketing campaign phase one: it’s barbie’s world

The first teaser trailer came out in January of this year and takes a 2001 approach, presenting Barbie as the evolution of the doll industry that until then was dominated by babies. That actually helps establish early the slightly surrealist tone of the campaign, especially when the footage from the film is added to the end.

Nef received a profile that presented this movie as the next stage in a so-far notably fast-rising career.

The next teaser, released in April, offers a bit more background by showing how many Barbies live in Barbieland getting along wonderfully as opposed to the competitive relationship between all the Kens that are there. In fact we see that Primary Ken is kind of a jerk toward Stereotypical Barbie in how he’s always hanging around, including when she makes a a break for the Real World.

Several sets of posters came out at the same time showing the various Kens and Barbies along with the humans in the story. Those posters, with their taglines like “He’s just Ken” and “This Barbie is President” quickly became fodder for memes as people and even other brands inserted their own photos or products into the frames and added appropriate taglines.

It’s also worth pointing out that all the Barbies are identified by their jobs or positions while the Kens are “just Ken” or “He’s another Ken”, a not-so-subtle shot at who has value in the story’s society and who’s just a pretty face.

An online tool let you upload a photo to put in a selfie with copy like that featured on the posters.

Robbie admitted in an interview that when she first read the script she was simultaneously impressed and doubtful the movie would actually get made, largely because it was so good.

News came that an immersive experience taking visitors inside the “World of Barbie” was kicking off in Toronto and touring North America with footage from the movie alongside set recreations as well as other classic Barbie content, a hair salon and more.

“SNL” contributed to the hype by creating a fake trailer for American Girls, with the same premise as Barbie but about the dolls with faux historical realism and universally tragic backstories.

For the second time Robbie, this time joined by Gosling and Gerwig, appeared at CinemaCon to promote the movie to attendees and sell them on how fun and emotional it was going to be for audiences.

Another feature profile of Robbie touched on how she helped develop the project over the years, meeting not only with studio but also Mattel executives to get everything approved while still ensuring artistic freedom for Gerwig. It also had comments on the topic of whether Barbie as a whole is over-sexualized and how this movie takes some of that back and other matters too weighty to go into here.

The movie’s impressive lineup of soundtrack artists was announced in late May along with the video for “Dance The Night Away” by Dua Lipa from the album. That video features some of the same visual themes as the movie, including multiple versions of the same people, as well as footage from the movie itself.

the marketing campaign phase two: no really, it’s *just* barbie’s world

The second phase of the marketing campaign began in late May with the release of the first non-teaser trailer (44.3m YouTube plays). It opens by showing us how every day in Barbieland is the best day ever until Stereotypical Barbie starts having some very unusual experiences, including walking on her heels. She visits Weird Barbie for advice and is told the answers can be found in the Real World, leading her and Ken to make their way there. Hijinks and antics ensue, both because it’s so different from Barbieland and because the CEO of Mattel is trying to catch her and put her back in her box.

Much of the cast appeared on “Good Morning America” all that week to talk about the movie, highlight the costumes, interact with fans and more.

Gosling was profiled in a piece that focused on the four year break he took from acting and how this and other recent roles pulled him back but with a new “it’s just work” approach to the job. That feature also had Gosling calling out critics who took issue with either his age or his approach to the character, saying they never cared about Ken before so now it just seems like they’re doing it for attention.

Some of the cast along with other dancers were in costume on a movie-branded float during the WeHoPride parade in Los Angeles in early June as part of Pride Month.

All through this there was a continued focus on the soundtrack as various artists released their singles or promoted the album.

Rae, Robbie and Ferrera appeared on “The Kelly Clarkson Show” to talk about the fun they had making the movie, what they could expect from so many Barbies and more. Ben-Adir talked about how silly everyone looked in costume but how great the script was while on the “Secret Invasion” red carpet.

Robbie hosted a video for Architectural Digest giving them and the audience a tour of the Barbie’s Dreamhouse set. She and Gosling then marked the first day of summer by inviting people to buy tickets.

Promotional partners for the movie included:

• NYX Cosmetics, which launched a movie-branded collection of makeup and other items.
• Airbnb, which made a version of Barbie’s Dreamhouse that had been given a Ken makeover available to book.
• Cold Stone Creamery, which offered a movie-inspired ice cream creation and cake.
• Pinkberry, which had its own movie-inspired frozen yogurt item.
• Bloomingdale’s, which launched a movie-inspired line of clothing and other fashion accessories.
• Aldo, which also created some movie-themed footwear and other items.
• Xbox, which ran a sweepstakes offering a Barbie-themed console that fit inside a recreation of the Dreamhouse.
• Roku, which added movie branding and prompt to watch the trailer to its home screen.

The cast and crew kicked off the movie’s press tour in Los Angeles complete with Barbie’s pink Corvette. Later stops included Bondi, Sydney and elsewhere.

At each stop on the tour Robbie sported a different one of Barbie’s classic outfits and looks, something that increased attention to those appearances and helped reinforce how personally invested in the project she and the rest of the cast and crew are.

She and Gerwig also participated in the meme of the season, posting pictures of them holding advance tickets for upcoming movies like Oppenheimer, Indiana Jones and Mission: Impossible. This was a trend among top talent in recent months as they sought to encourage attendance at theaters amid sagging performance of some major recent releases.

An interview with Gerwig had her highlighting her casting of LGBTQ+ talent as part of the message of acceptance and individuality. Additional cast and crew features included Rae in Ebony, a group profile that included some details about discussions with the real life head of Mattel and more, a conversation with Greenblatt, a cover story with Ferrera and lots of other press interviews and appearances, including Gerwig and Gosling talking about the subversive role Ken plays in the story.

That last point was reinforced in the “Just Ken” video featuring Ken singing about his feelings and how he’s not sure what his future holds.

The Los Angeles premiere then took place last week with everyone involved in attendance save for co-writer Baumbach, who skipped it as part of the WGA strike. Shortly after that they all went to London for the red carpet there that included lots of brand-takeovers of everything from buses to Doctor Who’s TARDIS, which was painted pink for the occasion.

overall

Early tracking estimated a $70 million opening weekend for Barbie, but more recently that’s been revised up to around $100 million, the clearest indication that the campaign Warner Bros. put together here resonated with the target audience in any number of ways, whether it’s the embrace of feminist messages and ideas, the inclusion of an inclusive and interesting cast or just the way the leads are clearly having some fun with their roles.

The branding has been consistent, the focus has always remained on Robbie and Gerwig (and occasionally Gosling) and the overall identity of the project has been clear from the outset, making this a very strong effort.

picking up the spare

As the movie hit theaters and immediately following its release the biggest trend in entertainment media was an analysis of the massive, engaging campaign Warner Bros. ran and how it appealed to audiences of all kinds. 

There were a handful of interviews like this with Ferrera about how she provides some of the movie’s key emotional moments. There were also additional profiles of Greenblatt. The movie’s costume designer talked about creating some of the signature looks for the characters. Gerwig also spoke about what plans there may be for a sequel.