A Pink, Plastic Paradigm Shift: Branded Entertainment in a Post-Barbie World
Regardless of how many Academy Award nominations ‘Barbie’ gets at this year’s Oscars, it’s certainly the undisputed winner at the box office. It’s also a game changer when it comes to branded entertainment – not only in its scale, but sophistication and the self deprecating humour meted out to the client, Mattel.
But how has ‘Barbie’ changed conversations with clients? Has this masterclass in brand-led storytelling raised ambitions for branded entertainment? And has it changed audiences’ appetites for such content?
As Oscars weekend looms, LBB’s Alex Reeves turned to industry enthusiasts to find out if brands are really living in a post-Barbie world now.
Jessica Lovell
Founder and chief strategy officer at Wonderhood Studios
The Barbie movie has certainly captured every marketeer’s imagination and woke them up to the power of branded entertainment. And, whilst most won’t have the resources to be able to pull off anything of this scale, it has brought into sharp relief three things for the world of branded entertainment.
Firstly, the power of longer-form narratives to create a deeper cultural value for a brand. We saw this with the Channel 4 series ‘Super Surgeons’ that we produced for Macmillan Cancer Support. Macmillan already had a celebrated and powerful ad campaign, however, the depth of engagement and understanding of Macmillan and its services, resulting from the series, was qualitatively different. It also offered the ability to reach new audiences other than those they would normally be able to reach.
Secondly, ad-funded programming is starkly different to branded entertainment. If you apply the rules of great entertainment, then the audience will give your brand their attention for long periods of time, and you will be rewarded with far deeper engagement than you could ever hope to pay for.
Finally, the ecosystem of marketing and communications you create around the programme has a powerful role to play in extending your message and its reach. It allows you to talk to an audience beyond the programme itself, creating a buzz and maximising the power of the branded entertainment property.
James Kirkham
CEO and founder of ICONIC
‘Barbie' changed conversations with clients around branded entertainment but perhaps not for the reasons you’d think; the crux of client attention is on the sophisticated nature of their PR and comms approach, where the branded entertainment showed the power of a ‘PR is everywhere and everything’ approach.
They made every single aspect of the marketing, the branded entertainment, the film itself, the talent, into an atomised, bespoke individual piece of PR. Everything was something to share, show, discuss, pass on. Everything from fashion to talent to client to every activation all had PR at the heart. It meant the film became a collection of bite-sized nuggets, digestible and consumable in moments when disseminated or discussed throughout the streams of audiences around the world. The relentless appearances and sheer ethic of the acting talent meant every single time they stepped out it became another PR moment, fuelling fandom and filling the streams of a million mobile screens.
Branded entertainment went so much further than an on-screen, in-cinema experience, with every activation from Google-takeovers to being able to buy the Barbie house online becoming a story which transcended culture.
So audiences and clients and marketeers all saw this change the game of branded entertainment, via the inclusion of a ‘PR is everywhere’ approach at the heart of the strategy. It will now be mimicked and referenced for years to come, where brands will look to echo the way 'Barbie' transcended popular culture.
Adele Reeves
Global development lead at Makers
One of the most important buzzwords from clients is ‘authenticity’ …and for a few good reasons:
Audiences are media-savvy and can discern between when they’re being entertained and when they are being sold to. Brands' growing interest in entertainment projects requires producing content that feels natural and not overly commercial.
‘Barbie’' s success as an entertainment-first property is a direct result of Mattel’s trust in a strong team of experts in producing big-budget, narrative feature films. As a result, we're seeing a shift with clients' willingness to relinquish some of the granular control they’re used to having with their content in favour of creating authentic characters, stories, and worlds.
For producers, this shifts brands from clients to partners. Conversations need to start with brands providing guardrails on what their brand is (and isn’t) and goals for short and long-term success, not unlike traditional advertising.
Brands are absolutely more ambitious now they’ve had this masterclass. Audiences are increasingly interested in who they’re buying from rather than just what they’re buying. Look to the rise of celebrity CEOs and influencer-owned brands. This shift means brands must stretch beyond products to build brand love and deeper connections with their audience, turning consumers into fans. This requires a focus on creating content that defines a brand's essence rather than just promoting specific products or logos.
Barbie’s example has empowered brands to understand the importance of redefining themselves for sales and revenue growth. This has inspired brands to become more ambitious because they now have a sense of how investment and returns for entertainment projects can be measured through diversified revenue streams.
Brands who will thrive will authentically define themselves through entertainment projects and find partners who will help them find their version of 'Barbie'.
Audiences crave genuine connection, whether in personal relationships or with brands, which requires honesty and vulnerability. Mattel’s willingness to be honest, self-reflect and even humorously self-deprecate its efforts as a brand, as a marketing entity and even as a historically controversial product, gave 'Barbie' the humility it required for audiences to connect with. This has set the standard for how audiences engage with brands, pushing brands to be more authentic. 'Barbie' has changed the game in how audiences want to interact with brands and they now have to step up to that challenge because it's what audiences expect. Brands should focus on discovering their unique story to build this authenticity and connection.
In conclusion, the potential for branded entertainment is immense. 'Barbie' has caused a paradigm shift and moving forward, brands must embrace this change. It's not about replicating or competing against 'Barbie', it's about participating and elevating the content landscape as a whole. As producers, we’re witnessing this shift in conversations, as we guide clients to create authentic and impactful entertainment projects.
Dave Billing
Executive creative director at Fold7
The success of Barbie has shown us is the importance of not taking your brand too seriously. Brands that are self-important, that are inflexible, inevitably fossilise and die. In the end, brands are not that different to people. We don’t tend to admire those that get set in their ways, who are defensive, rigid, humourless, and closed to new adventures. Mattel shows us that that the best brands play. Because they come from an assured, confident core, these brands have the courage to laugh at themselves. They recognise that you can flex with the times, try on different outfits if you like, without losing their core identity.
The one thing Mattel took seriously, and here’s a lesson for us all, is the audience. Respect their intelligence, cultural smarts, and critical eye; they know a phoney when they see one.
Marc Simons
Co-founder at Giant Spoon
Barbie's evolution from iconic toy to branded entertainment supernova symbolises a historic shift in consumer culture and marketing. With her cinematic smash this past summer, culminating in eight Oscar nominations, 'Barbie' serves as a case study for redefining the interplay between brand and fan – and other marketers are seeking to replicate the magic for themselves.
The moment 'Barbie' is enjoying signals a departure from traditional ad strategy toward a more immersive, narrative-driven approach. By marrying a legendary, all-American heroine with sharp storytelling and expert brand promotion, Mattel and Warner Bros. managed to generate the deep consumer connection every marketer craves; that’s becoming more ephemeral all the time with unprecedented media fragmentation.
'Barbie's success transcends mere commercialism and marketing, and isn’t just about nostalgia; it reflects a keen understanding of contemporary issues and audiences, resonating with diverse demographics and transcending gender norms. It also establishes an imperative for all brands to embrace authenticity and inclusivity, aligning their legacies and narratives with current social values and aspirations.
'Barbie' should serve to inspire other consumer brands to recalibrate their creative strategies and elevate their storytelling standards. In our content-flooded landscape, brands realise they’ve got to be more innovative to grab the audience’s attention and hook emotions. The narrative sophistication and cultural relevance that mark 'Barbie'’s success set a whole new standard for how to make some noise in a teeming crowd of branded entertainment franchises. The boom 'Barbie' has achieved is most definitely a model – an enduring one, I believe – of modern branding, where the possibilities are limitless.
Laura Jones
Chief strategy officer at BAV Group
The Barbie movie's commercial success highlighted the importance of partnerships as part of the 21st-century brand playbook. Clients considering branded entertainment take note: the stakes have been raised and now more than ever, it’s a team sport.
By embracing the values of inclusivity and collaboration, the Barbie brand opened its doors to seemingly everyone and saw a significant lift in key imagery for the brand that spilled over to its partners. At the height of the film’s success it was hard to find a product that didn’t do a 'Barbie' collab – from less-expected categories like home furnishings brand JoyBird, to the more obvious film tie-ins like 'Barbie'-branded inline skates from Impala Skate – the partnerships were inclusive, diverse, unmissable, and on brand (well, maybe except for the one CPG brand partnership which shall go unnamed that was selling a $99 pink pasta bundle for the holidays – that one was a head scratcher). The Barbie movie serves as a reminder that culturally relevant storytelling combined with strategic partnerships are a powerful tool for fuelling growth and creating meaningful connections to multi-generational audiences.
David Edwards
Chief customer officer at AMV BBDO
'Barbie' has set a new benchmark for marketing, not just branded entertainment. What was once ‘we want our version of Burger King or John Lewis’ has become ‘we want our version of 'Barbie'.’
What’s less clear is whether they want to reproduce the promotional formula or just want the resulting fame – 'Barbie' as a proxy for fame rather than a desire for genuinely imaginative marketing. It will be hard to replicate for most.
The sheer scale, ambition and cultural resonance made it so impressive, but few brands have access to that level of talent, cultural cache, and, of course, money.
The product, the movie content, and the promotional content were so intrinsically and flawlessly intertwined. It’s not surprising that it’s mainly toy and game franchises that have managed to reach that level of integration and scale. Perhaps because the product is the protagonist, and it has intrinsic entertainment and nostalgic value.
It’s easy to overlook the groundwork that had already been laid by Mattel long before the movie was commissioned. That happened 10 years before with a new brand strategy developed by the wonderful AMV alumni, Alaina Crystal. Alaina led the shift from Barbie the outmoded ‘bimbo’, to Barbie the modern inspiration for girls. The resulting ‘Imagine the Possibilities’ campaign went viral despite its relatively small media budget. Viral partly because it ignited nostalgia among mums of more innocent times when their imaginations of what they could become was unsullied by the realities of modern womanhood. The Barbie movie and promotional activity touched the same nerve. One wonders if Mattel would have been quite so brave with the movie had this foundation not first been in place. Proof of concept in relatively low-budget advertising before high-budget, high-risk entertainment.
Like Lego before them, Mattel is starting to realise the commercial and entertainment value of their toy and game franchises. 'Barbie' first, then, presumably, Barney and Hot Wheels.
The promotion of the Barbie movie whiffs of the freedom and experimentation that comes from a movie studio rather than the navel gazing and self-imposed restrictions that come with product or service marketing.
It’s brand-building and product promotion with the brakes off. Every client is asking for social-first thinking, but social-first is culture-first. That’s what Warner Bros understood.
There’s a lot we can learn from how 'Barbie' was promoted, even if we might not have the budget or talent to do it at the same scale.
Personally, it’s got me thinking more about teasers as a tactic, imaginative partnerships, the contextual placement of content to signify positioning, and incomplete communication. The teasers, which started a year out, managed to hold attention and anticipation by drip-feeding incomplete content. Over time, the pieces of the puzzle manifested and merged in our minds and in our feeds. Concept closure was used as social currency.
Matt Blong
SVP, global entertainment insights at NRG
Barbie’s enormous success has certainly caused a stir among companies looking to adapt their IP, but we shouldn’t be so quick to draw a universal playbook out of 'Barbie's achievement. Mattel greenlit a vision for the Barbie movie that completely disrupted audience expectations for their flagship brand, and they should be commended for taking that risk. But not all brands are ripe for that kind of bold disruption.
While 'Barbie' was the number-one box office hit of 2023, number two was another adaptation of a universally-known IP (‘The Super Mario Bros. Movie’). It took a different tack, aiming to stay true to the tenets of Nintendo’s leading brand, and convey the same sense of fun that you have when you play the game. What they had in common, and what I believe is the most important consideration when adapting any IP, is that there is a clear strategic vision for how the adaptation would impact franchise perceptions–whether that be cementing or upending them.
Another thing that ‘Barbie’ and ‘The Super Mario Bros. Movie’ had in common, is that they felt fresh and fun. Film franchises remain a safer bet than a wholly original concept, both for the producer and the consumer, as they build upon existing awareness and perceptions.
That said, it’s critical for long-running franchises to demonstrate something different in each new instalment, and we saw some high-profile misses in that area last year. That is where adaptations like ‘Barbie’ and ‘The Super Mario Bros. Movie’ can succeed. Adaptations offer a fresh take, leveraging original IP recognition while introducing novelty through a new form of engagement. In this era of growing franchise fatigue, I expect the industry to lean into adaptations and look for material in new places, like video games and anime – both of which are meaningfully growing in popularity among an all-important gen-z audience.
Karim Jaafar
Brand experience manager at Cheil UAE
A pink unicorn
In a time where trends rise and fall within a few days, the sheer sustainability of the Barbie trend in terms of longevity was an impressive feat to say the least.
Whilst every brand is trying to get a split second of attention, all eyes were on Barbie for what seemed like an eternity in modern times, and for good reason.
But let’s take a step back and look at the macro setting for this excitement build.
A dry landscape offered fertile ground
Firstly, in the past few years, very few films have had such a collective anticipation and build up, having a varied audience excited to watch.
The reason? Barbie is a cultural icon. It is not only a doll, it’s a whole lifetime of memories, and an almost global phenomenon that little children (and some adults) have interacted with, from small towns in Wisconsin to the mountains of Chiang Mai.
But beyond that, very few films in the past few years have had audiences truly look out for, as the perils of modern day Hollywood wrestles with content dryness and competition from streamers.
This sets up the scene to the background as to why, in general, there was a thirst for seeing what the film would be about.
More is more
But it was the grandeur employed in the build-up that truly stood out. Traditionally, releases and teasers resorted to either video work, fake websites (How can one forget the “Missing person” websites that were created for ‘The Blair Witch Project’ that had everyone in fear at the start of the millennium?) but more recently, stunts, to announce an upcoming release. Some examples include ‘The Lego Movie’ and ‘Narcos’.
Relating back to the theme of the film, where the comedic and self-depreciating undertones were the underlying spirit of the storyline, a no holds barred approach was employed.
Mattel decided to incorporate all these elements in its strategy, and then some.
It seemed as if the ethos was to go big, and go large, while engaging and inviting the audiences to partake and amplify.
A total new take on UGC
A true masterclass in UGC, not only did the brand self-publish content to start it off, it took advantage of the current creator culture to push its hype further.
And this is where we saw the braveness in accepting a push to showcase even more: though copyrights, likeness, and other legal issues usually arise when everyday creators decide to make their own twist on elements, Mattel gave total and utter freedom for the everyperson to create and get inspired.
Instead of guarding the marketing and sticking to “guidelines” and “best practices”, we saw a rebellion by their brave custodians through trusting the end consumer with hyping what they will eventually consume.
A pink new world
The post-Barbie era is now defined as such, as its success indicated how sound that strategy truly was, and how what worked in the past does not translate to modern times.
Marketers and agencies are now truly grasping this reality: Social media and entertainment is about people, not their business. And if the brands provide for the people, then the people will provide for the brands.
This has changed the conversation with clients as they now see this clearer, and bringing up the Barbie phenomena is as easy to reach as opposed to having to explain how UGC should work with giving freedom to the world to play with the brand.
Not an easy transition to make, we will see some resistance in adopting such strategies from the most rigid brands out there, but those who witnessed the value and results this created will be on a plane to success town, with brands being Barbie, and the people being their Ken.
