Barbie movie had something for everybody, whether already a Barbie admirer or a skeptic, and showing this was key to hit our ambitious box office goal.

As we needed a deeper understanding of how to best harness the passion of these ardent advocates, and yet how to convert non-fans, the first step was a thorough analysis of our main target audience and we found that 53% of our prototypical audience had a love for nostalgic content.

With nostalgia being a constant element in contemporary culture, we could leverage the fact that Barbie has been an icon-doll for over six decades: anyone from each of those generations would be able to relate

The mission: converting the enthusiasm for Barbie’s plastic heritage into engagement from our main target audience while also inspiring intrigue from non-Barbie fans, for unprecedented levels of excitement making Barbie movie a defining pop-culture moment.

With plenty of fun nostalgic elements to play with - the Dreamhouse, the Corvette, the Fashion, the Pink - we brought each of them to life with a modern, creative twist.

While core fans were excited from the first photo release, we needed a deeper understanding of how to best harness the passion of these ardent advocates, and yet how to convert non-fans, creating excitement for the release and an ongoing buzz on both ends.

We decided to revert the typical movie marketing approach and provide the core Barbie fanbase the tools they needed to shout our message, amplifying the FUN and convert broader audiences.

Instead of talking to little girls playing with the Barbie Dreamhouse, we went for their Moms and other proud Millennials and Gen Xers, speaking directly to their inner child.

We aimed to create an UNMISSABLE cinematic event, activating an army of fans to make Barbie the cross-generational cultural moment of the summer via these key steps:

• Unlock more accessibility beyond our core audience, playing in media intersections where we could put a contemporary spin on personal reference points, particularly those with high affinities amongst the Barbie fans (pop culture, social, streaming, and tech).

• Inspiring massive opening weekend turnout through contemporized nostalgia.

• Use a cross-channel media approach to stand out, especially on social. We activated a movement among the Barbie faithful, amplifying our media dollars and fueling excitement for a true zeitgeist moment.

• Trigger FOMO among non-fans audiences. Our OOH installations, experiential activations, and linear tie-ins would be so good our fans won’t be able to stop themselves from playing along on social.

During Prime Week and opening week, Amazon was all pink with a custom Alexa Barbie theme and matching homepage.

Pinterest had a fully-explorable 3D Dreamhouse with hidden movie unlockables, while a breakthrough Snap lens let fans turn iconic landmarks into Barbieland versions.

Pre-streaming nostalgic had their Roku City screensaver turning to Barbieland, plus 24-hour themed takeover of the Roku Home Screen.

We took over 18 minutes of The Bachelorette - an unprecedented on-air integration - with a Barbie-themed group date, complete with Bachelors feeling the Kenergy in iconic Ken outfits, a talent intro by Simu Liu, and a stylish custom Barbie Movie trailer.

On the opening weekend we turned the world pink with takeovers across all Conde Nast and iHeart Media digital and social properties, plus life-size Barbie Boxes in theaters and malls anywhere, giving everybody a chance to step into (and post about) Barbie’s world.

With the help of our campaign, Barbie fans turned up and created a FOMO moment for the ages. The $162M pulled in was the biggest opening weekend of any film in 2023. It was also the first movie solo-directed by a woman to break the $1B Box Office threshold.

Barbie’s takeover of Amazon scored over 2 BILLION impressions and the custom Alexa theme had 4.5m interactions—the largest custom Alexa theme.

Our Pinterest Virtual Dream Home became the largest Pin Extension ever.

Snap Users were obsessed with the lenses, racking up 4x the share rate of any other entertainment integration ever.

Our Roku partnership scored 173MM impressions across key audiences.

Our Bachelorette integration enchanted fans, surpassing other linear airings in search engagement by 60x.

Finally, our shimmering OOH boxes became part of ~*~the culture ~*~ as The Barbie Movie tallied the largest grossing domestic opening week in Warner Bros. herstory.