I’d like to think that the title gave it away, in case it didn’t, I’m making my Barbie debut.
Let me start with some numbers. The production budget for the Barbie movie was $145 million, the marketing budget for the Barbie movie: ‘estimated to be over $150 million’.
So first things first, marketing is important. And marketing budgets are as important. You want to cause a stir, then budget for it. Budgets coupled with plans, they’ll get you on the map.
Companies tend to forget that you need to spend to reach people, reach your target audience or to be visible worldwide. And this is what the Barbie phenomenon has come to remind us all with its impressive spend on a marketing campaign that spread out over a year.
What’s beautiful about marketing efforts right now is that they’ve stretched beyond traditional and non- traditional marketing, they’re inclusive of media that surrounds us, media that’s part of our daily lives. It’s not just outdoors and digital, it’s in stores you like, it’s product development and product placement, it’s exclusive lines with brands that the target market reacts with,
digital trends and social memes, it’s bigger than getting ‘viral’.
It wasn’t enough to have A-list celebrities being part of the Barbie movie; surely Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling have a huge fandom, a number of celebrities are also part of the movie, but this was only one factor of advertising this movie, a marketing budget and a plan were still the heart of the campaign, there was no dependency on celebrities only pushing theatrical marketing.
And wrapping up the 3rd weekend of its debut in the box office, Barbie is less than $100 million away from hitting $ 1 billion.
Trailers, teasers, Burger King special burger, Prada, Zara and Crocs collabs, an Airbnb special Barbie house, the plan was extensive and reflected on a larger scale phenomena, marketing for more than a movie.
Theatrical marketing campaigns are actually a thing, and one movie that did it successfully was Deadpool. At a much smaller budget (production and marketing), Deadpool’s marketing strategy was one of the most prominent in the industry, backed up by Ryan Reynolds.
Could Barbie have done with a $50 million marketing budget? They could have.
Did they need that much of a budget to spend? Maybe. I’m reminded by John Wanamaker’s famous saying: ‘half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is, I don’t know which half’.
Dee xx
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Links used:
https://www.insider.com/barbie-had-150-million-marketing-budget-2023-7
https://www.cnbc.com/2023/08/04/barbie-box-office-nears-1-billion-heading-into-third-weekend.html
Image usage through:
https://www.adweek.com/brand-marketing/you-think-we-live-in-a-barbie-world-now-just-wait/
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