Well, it's official.
The Barbie movie crushed any
and all box office expectations
bringing in $337 million globally on opening weekend.
But do not be fooled.
This was not just a lucky break.
It was the result of a well executed marketing plan
and an impressive pre-launch awareness campaign
that generated serious hype.
We're talking about billboards in Times Square,
a real life Malibu dream house for rent on Airbnb,
tons of big name brand collaborations,
Barbie selfie generators that went viral
on social media months
before the movie's release, a TikTok filter that turns you
into a real life Barbie, a fully interactive Barbie cafe
and life-size Barbie outfits that Margot Robbie wore
on tour leading up to the movie's release.
Yeah, just to name a few.
One thing is for sure
Barbie's marketing campaign was flawlessly executed
and there is a lot, and I mean a lot that we can learn
as copywriters, marketers, and business owners
from studying this movie's outstanding pre-launch strategy.
But the real question is, because I know you're
wondering, how can the average business owner
with a tiny marketing budget build hype like this?
Well, that is exactly what we're gonna be talking
about today.
Barbie Marketing on a Budget.
Keep watching.
Hey Posse, what's up?
It's Alex.
And yes, you knew this one was coming.
You knew I couldn't let Barbie's cinematic debut pass me
by without breaking down all
of the genius marketing behind it right here on my channel.
Now, I am sure that like me, Barbie is all you've been seeing
and hearing about for months now, and
that hype has been even more amplified
in the last week or so since the movie came out.
Marketing Gurus everywhere are celebrating Mattel
and Warner Brothers for pulling
off a marketing campaign for the ages.
And while they aren't revealing their marketing budget,
you can be pretty certain that it was massive like huge
but the coolest thing about the marketing strategies
that Barbie used is that they're actually pretty simple
and you can use them too on a smaller scale, obviously
but every single thing that the Barbie movie did
in its marketing campaigns is something that you
can replicate in your own business if you get creative.
So I did what I do best
and studied every single aspect of Barbie's marketing
and identified five foundational strategies
that contributed massively to its success.
And I broke them down for you
into simple steps that you can realistically follow
with little to no marketing budget.
But before we get too far
down the pink Barbie marketing rabbit hole,
if you're new to the crew, welcome. Right here on my channel
you'll find hundreds of videos
and in-depth tutorials teaching you everything
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go ahead and hit subscribe Below.
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Now, Barbie Marketing on a Budget, let's get into it
starting with the first and maybe the most
obvious thing that this launch did so, so well.
Number one, a unique brand experience.
Every single thing from every single collab to the AI filter
to the real life Barbie Cafe was executed flawlessly
with the Barbie brand experience in mind.
There was nothing you saw that was promoting
the Barbie movie that didn't feel like
oh my God, this is so Barbie.
Everything felt really authentic and unique and really true
to the Barbie brand, which is key to replicating this level
of hype and loyalty for your own business or brand.
If there was anything put
out in this campaign that wasn't aligned,
our BS meters would've gone off immediately
and you can bet that people would've been turned
off right away or would've known it was an imposter.
And brands unknowingly do this all the time.
They promote an affiliate offer that feels totally
off-brand just to make some extra cash
or they speak on a podcast that has zero alignment
with their brand mission just for the sake of exposure
and a million other seemingly small or harmless compromises
that a brand makes in an attempt to grow
but it's actually doing them a massive disservice.
There is a better way to attract your ideal audience
and grow your business, which is to
create a consistent brand experience that is uniquely you.
You want every single touch point of your brand
from what you post on social media to the emails you send
to the way you ask a person to buy, to be dripping
with your brand personality, that it honestly feels
like a no-brainer for the right people to stick around.
But how exactly do you create a brand experience as stellar
as the Barbie one without buying a mansion in
Malibu? Well, the very first thing you need to
do is stop trying to fit yourself
into the standard box of what you think you should be doing.
Brands, just like people, are multifaceted
with different layers, quirks, likes, dislikes, preferences
so on and so forth.
So what you need to do is sit
down and get crystal clear on exactly who your brand is.
If your brand was literally a person, who would they be?
How would they dress?
How would they speak?
An example of another brand that does this so
so well is someone that I love to follow, Qveen Herby.
So she's an artist who creates music
but she understands the power
of creating a brand experience for her fans.
So she doesn't just post about her music.
In fact, I didn't even realize she was a musician
when I started following her.
She doesn't keep herself in that box of "I make music
so go listen to my music".
And that's all she posts about, right?
She lets her audience into her world.
She's quirky, she's colorful, she's funny, she's sarcastic
and she's a little woowoo
and she has built her brand to mirror these characteristics
which in turn has created a super loyal audience
who loves her music, and they also just really love her
and love her brand. Something that she does all the time,
and I freaking love these,
they're so funny,
are Aura Cleanse videos on Instagram, and at first glance
this has absolutely nothing to do with her music
or getting more people to listen to her music on Spotify
but her fans absolutely love this and engage with it so much
that it's now a regular feature of her brand experience.
So when thinking
about your marketing strategy, the first thing
you need to do is stop doing what everyone else is doing
and get clear on your unique brand experience.
And you really should crystallize this
before you do absolutely anything else.
Luckily, I have an entire program to help you
through this process
of creating your brand voice and strategy
and I'll link to that in the description box below.
All right.
Now the next thing that Barbie marketing did so
so well is number two, consistent visual branding.
Okay, so we just talked
about creating a unique brand experience, which has to do
with personality and the voice of your brand.
But what about the visual branding
like brand colors, logos, and fonts?
Yep. You better believe that Barbie did this better
than any brand I have ever seen.
I mean, hello?
In what other reality do you see a color
and immediately think of a brand.
In fact, Barbie Pink even has its own signature
Pantone Shade, PMS 219 C.
So naturally, when it came
to their marketing strategy, pink was everywhere.
Barbie marketing was not one bit afraid
of making everything and anything boldly stand
out with their signature pink color and Barbie logo.
I mean, they literally put Barbie pink sauce on a burger.
How's that for extreme?
And it is totally genius.
In fact, Google searches
for the term Barbie Pink have skyrocketed in the last month
and I went and checked myself on Google Trends.
Yet most brands are terrified
of being this bold with their branding.
They're scared that they'll turn people off.
But the ironic thing is
that being bold is exactly what draws people to you,
makes you recognizable, and of course makes you memorable.
In fact, let's play a little game.
I love this.
Can you guess these brands based
on their color palette only?
Did you get them?
I'll reveal what the brands are at the end of this video
and we will see how many you got right. Now,
I'm sure some of them you guessed immediately
like that Tiffany Blue is undeniable.
You want your brand to be recognizable just
like that to your audience, even if the logo is not present.
So that means you need to be consistent
with the visuals you are putting out there.
Use the same colors
on your website, your Instagram, your LinkedIn, and so on.
And now I'm not saying that you should just
pick some crazy colors for the sake of standing out.
You want your colors to be cohesive
with your brand experience.
So pick colors, logos
fonts that make sense with your brand's personality.
All right, next up we're moving into sort of a three
in one tip, collaborations, PR and user-generated content.
I'm a Barbie girl in a Barbie world.
The marketing team worked
overtime to make Barbie world a reality
with well over 100 brand collaborations, press coverage
on all the big magazines and TV shows
and tons and I mean tons of user generated content.
Barbie world was literally taking over the real world.
Now you're probably thinking, yeah, cool, Alex
but my little startup could never get brand collaborations
like this, or I will never be interviewed
on Good Morning America.
Okay, that's totally fair, I get it.
But what you can do is take note
and replicate that concept in a way that works for you.
And here's how you do that.
Find brands of a similar size, same target audience
and brands that have complimentary products and services
and then team up to cross-promote each other.
This strategy was a win-win for the Barbie movie
and all of the brands that jumped on the Barbie train.
And it can be a win-win for you
and the brands that you partner with as well.
Just remember what we talked about earlier.
You never wanna sacrifice the integrity
of your brand experience just
for a collaboration opportunity.
A good brand collaboration will make sense
with your brand experience. Like a swimsuit brand collabing
with a sunscreen brand for example.
I guarantee that if you sit down and made a list
of all the brands or niches that are directly tied
to what you do, but not in direct competition,
you will come up with so many.
So start reaching out to those brands
get conversations going and just see what happens.
And when it comes to PR,
you don't need to be featured in Vanity Fair or LA Weekly
in order for PR to make a splash in your marketing efforts.
PR can mean being interviewed on someone else's podcast
or maybe doing a guest blog post on someone else's blog
or taking over someone's social media for a day.
All of these strategies are great PR opportunities
that literally any brand of any size could do starting now.
And another thing we have to mention
with this one is UGC or user-generated content.
This is when fans
or consumers are posting about your brand, product
or service on their own social platforms.
This is basically free advertising for your brand
but not just any kind of free advertising,
the most effective kind
because your customers are talking about you.
Barbie marketing was heavily promoted
with user-generated content.
Remember this?
So what you can learn from this is the power
of creating something fun and shareable.
Not everything you put into a marketing campaign
needs to be focused on selling something.
Remember, eyeballs have a ton of value.
There's a lot to be said about simply having fun
or sharing super useful and relevant information.
So create a fun filter, make a quiz, design a contest.
Consider what's trending now
and then how can you jump on that trend
in a way that's unique and relevant to your brand?
And when people do share
about your brand or tag you, make sure to re-share it.
Feature them on your website, social media
or in your emails with permission,
of course. Take full advantage of UGC whenever you can.
All right.
Now moving on to number four.
Know your audience to a T.
I'll be honest, when I first heard of the Barbie movie,
I assumed it would be a movie for kids.
Kind of like the Lego movie,
I thought, kid's toy kid's movie.
It makes sense
right? No.
Something this movie campaign did so freaking well was speak
to their ideal audience and hello, it was me.
They were not targeting little girls who play
with Barbies right now.
They were targeting Millennials and Gen Zs who grew
up with the Barbie brand and with Barbie toys.
This made a huge difference
in the messaging and overall marketing efforts.
And this is why you notice that there's so much adult humor
in the movie, even though it's still rated PG-13.
It's why so many of the marketing events were geared
towards adults, and it's why so many
of the brand collaborations were with brands
that 20 and 30 something year olds would be interested in.
They weren't trying to appeal to everyone
and that's why the campaign was such a huge success.
Literally, they made me, someone who had no intention
of seeing the movie because I didn't think it was
for me, booking tickets to go see it
in theater the week of its release.
I legit cannot remember the last time I did that.
I'm wearing more pink now.
My nails were even pink last week.
What is happening?
So while the strategy is literally the foundation
of all great marketing, it bears repeating.
Knowing exactly who your target audience is, what they want,
where they hang out, what they like, what they dislike,
what they wanna hear, cannot be underestimated.
If you need help figuring
out who your target audience is, I can help you.
I have a free customer avatar worksheet
and I will link to that for you below.
All right, now onto the fifth
and final lesson that you can take
from Barbie's brilliant marketing campaign.
Number five, play the long game.
If you remember anything from this video, let it be this.
Playing the long game is the best marketing strategy
of them all.
Being consistent and patient with your marketing
and content efforts is the thing that most brands
completely skip or ignore today.
Look, I get it.
Everyone wants to silver bullet, the overnight success.
But sorry, that doesn't exist, not even for Barbie.
Something the Barbie movie did so, so well was
that they built anticipation slowly and over time.
In fact, Mattel first announced that Barbie movie was coming
and that Margot Robbie was playing Barbie in 2019.
That was four years before the movie was released.
And the first look of Margot Robbie decked
out as Barbie was released in early 2022, followed
by reveal of the entire cast, then the first trailer
then the second trailer, a main trailer
and on and on and on.
They trickled out more and more Barbie content
without ever revealing too much at once
which is absolutely genius.
They didn't release one big trailer a year
before the premiere and hoped people would be
excited enough to go see it when it came to the theaters.
They stayed front and center
in our minds for four freaking years
picking up momentum and traction over time.
And by the time the movie was eight months
from being released, the Barbie hype was so big
that it literally took on a mind of its own.
And this did not happen by accident
and it certainly was not an overnight success.
In fact, Warner Brothers president
of Global Marketing, Josh Goldstein, said
in an interview about the Barbie marketing strategy,
"We saw it as a breadcrumb strategy where
we gave people little elements of the movie to
stimulate curiosity, and that created conversation." Genius.
This is a concept that literally every single brand, big
or small, can replicate right now, starting today.
Never underestimate how much impact you have simply
by investing time and effort into showing
up consistently and keeping your brand
and messaging at the forefront leading up to a launch.
So this is what I call priming
and I do it for months before every single launch.
And here's how you can do it too.
At least three to six months before your launch date
you should be one, generating curiosity
and excitement about your upcoming launch.
Two, educating your audience about your product and service
and three, sharing benefits to build desire
and create that curiosity gap to start conversations.
Do this
and you'll generate more hype, anticipation, and sales.
I hope you had fun breaking down Barbie mania with me.
Now, to go back to that fun game that we referenced earlier
I will pop up the brands right now on the screen.
How many of them did you get right?
I know I only got a few when I first saw them
but it really goes to show the power of using color
and a consistent visual experience in your branding.
Give me a thumbs up
below if you found this video helpful
and I will see you next week with a brand new video.
Until then, I'm Alex. Ciao for now.
All right, guys, if you enjoyed that video
make sure to check out the next one for me right here
and you can click right here to get a free gift.
People hear the word publicity.
They think, oh, that's something
for like internet superstars, or when I have a book coming
out or I've reached a certain financial milestone.
But publicity is all
about getting your ideas, your message, your products,
your services out on other people's platforms.
So this could look like traditional media
like being featured in magazines, TV, and newspapers
to what I call the new media
like being interviewed on an entrepreneur's podcast,
being a guest expert in their program,
doing an IGTV interview,
maybe them sharing their work
with their audience over email.
But it's all
about getting your work onto other people's platforms.