Barbie Movie Marketing Strategy (WHAT YOU SHOULD IMPLEMENT!)
Here's what you can learn from the marketing strategy used for the Barbie movie. In this post I'm sharing the three main takeaways that business owners can implement into their own marketing plan based off what the Barbie marketing team did.
Read until the end to learn how these tactics will help you achieve that marketing sweet spot!
My name is Megan and I help business owners go from confused to confident on Instagram. I help my clients build a loyal community, get quality clients from Instagram, and make their business more profitable.
So the Barbie movie is all over the place. Through social media campaigns, experiential marketing, and brand partnerships, they've done a really great job marketing the new movie.
The first thing that the marketing team did really well was teasing the Barbie content. It's natural to want to tell your whole audience exactly what's going on in every single part of your new service and product when you come out with something really awesome. However, releasing interesting clips here and there helps hook your audience, keep their attention, and build anticipation. So what you can do as a business owner is be sure to slowly release sneak peeks about your new services and products to be sure to build anticipation within your audience. For example, if you have a new coaching program coming out, you can show a few Instagram stories of you creating the actual program and post those before you announce what you're even working on to really just build excitement within your audience and get people asking what you're making. As time goes on you can post more and more but make sure to keep most of it a secret until you officially launch.
The second thing their marketing team did was brand collaborations. Barbie did over a hundred collaborations with retail marketers and collaborators. Some examples include Barbie themed Xbox consoles, Pinkberry frozen yogurt flavors, Cotton On apparel, and OPI Barbie themed nail polish colors. Fans can even book a stay through Airbnb at Barbie's Malibu dream house or watch Architectural's Design tour of Barbie's Mansion. The takeaway from these collaborations is that you as a business owner should really be prioritizing collaborating with other fellow business owners that are in your industry. I always tell my clients the best collaboration partners are people that are in your industry but not your direct competition. For example a real estate agent should not be collaborating with another real estate agent instead they should collaborate with a mortgage broker. By creating collaborations that are well placed and well timed you can really start to grow your audience and your authority.
The third tactic that the Barbie marketing team really utilized was social media. No surprise there, social media is actually one of the best ways to market anything in today's society. Some specifics that the marketing team really tapped into was meme culture. Barbie memes have seen over 6 million engagements over the past six months. So don't be afraid to make jokes and be funny with your audience, it shows off your personality. Barbie even got into AI filters that are really popular on TikTok that actually change the way you look and turn you into a real life Barbie using the power of AI. You as a business owner probably aren't making filters for your audience to use that promote your products or services. But what you can take away from this is by creating content that is interactive, it's encouraging people to promote your content for you. Even something as simple as using Barbie filters turns a marketing campaign into something you see as an interactive piece of content that just keeps the Barbie movie top of mind.
Another thing the marketing team did was use really popular actresses and actors as their movie stars. While no one is actually acting out your business, what you can do is use your super fans that love your products and services and use UGC content to really grow your brand. User generated content or UGC is actually a really great way to market your business because real people who aren't yourself are marketing your products or services. It really builds trust and shows social proof that what you do works.
It's estimated that the Barbie marketing team had over a hundred million dollars to use to promote this movie. While most of us business owners don't have that kind of budget, really finding that sweet spot of marketing is the balance between your budget, your creativity, and your innovation. And if you're struggling with the creativity portion of that marketing sweet spot, download my Free 40 Content Ideas for business owners!
