Breaking the dimensional wall, "Barbie" becomes the new traffic code

Barbie will conduct joint marketing and promotion activities with other brands to attract more consumers' attention and purchases, breaking the dimensional wall. Barbie has become a new traffic code. This article describes the relevant content and I hope it will be helpful to you.

The North American weekend box office was roughly $155 million, the mainland box office was $65.771 million, and the Douban score was 8.7 points; the first-day screening accounted for 2.5%, the golden period accounted for 1.7%, and the attendance rate was 22%; the number of readings of the #Barbie# topic on Weibo has reached 600 million times, and the number of readings of related topics on Xiaohongshu has reached 10 million times.

Undoubtedly, Barbie has once again become a phenomenal movie. "No offense, just for myself", the film's extremely restored Barbie scenes, coupled with the "sense and attitude" lines, can't help but give this "first-generation idol" that only exists in the virtual world a bit of realism.

At the same time, the representative color "Barbie pink" with great appeal and impact also attracted a large number of audiences to "pursue". For a time, the joint name with "Barbie" became a hot "hot commodity". Morketing took a quick look and found that brands such as MINISO, Zara, and Keep have all collaborated with "Barbie", and they were all "sold out" as expected.

A Barbie fan even said, "I went to several Miniso stores in Beijing, but all the products, such as slippers, bags, phone cases, bracelets, etc., were sold out. I couldn't get any at all."

It can be seen that the "pink storm" is coming strongly.

1. Super IP: Crazy "Barbie"

Before we begin the discussion, we must first clarify one issue: this "life-like toy" that was born in the 1950s and was once controversial has never been out of fashion. On the contrary, it is precisely an idealistic utopia that represents reality and courage in this era.

Under such social conditions, the release of the live-action remake of "Barbie" based on the "Barbie doll" is undoubtedly an "awakening" of the most primitive values ​​of "girls" and a reappearance of the return of the "queen posture".

Therefore, the "pink marketing" wave, led by the "Barbie" movie, accurately hit the "bull's eye" of "girls". Those brands that have co-branded products at the right time also seem to be consistent with the values ​​of female consumers and satisfy their "girlish hearts".

In addition to the above-mentioned collaboration between MINISO and Barbie, the Spanish fast fashion brand Zara has also launched a Barbie collaboration series, which not only adds Barbie's representative elements such as pink, gold plating and sequins to women's clothing, but also uses "Ken" packaging for men's clothing. Currently, most styles are out of stock and sold out.

Another example is the Crocs, a pair of hole shoes that have become extremely popular this year. They combine classic Barbie elements with plastic shoes. They not only launched a Barbie pink style based on the bright pink color that Barbie loves, but also combined elements such as Barbie's jacket, pink car, and silhouette logos of the movie's main creators in the "shoe pattern" to satisfy consumers' "Barbie dream".

Of course, there is also Burger King launching pink meal overseas, Xbox co-branded with Barbie launched pink controller, Holiland and Barbie co-branded pink gift boxes, Keep co-branded medals, NYX co-branded cosmetics, etc. Basically, these brands co-branded with "Barbie" have at least ushered in a small peak in exposure and sales.

"Barbie", as one of the most popular movies in recent years, is actually not an isolated example of brand collaboration. But why did it set off a "pink storm" this time and became popular all the way from overseas to China?

In essence, it still comes from the super IP of "Barbie" itself.

The Barbie doll, which was created in 1959, has a distinct sense of reality and rebellion since its inception. At that time, children's toys in the United States were mostly in the form of babies, which were very "maternal".

However, children’s toys should not be based on the perspective and mentality of adults, but should be based on the children themselves, “letting them choose what kind of people they want to become.”

With such values, Barbie's "subversive" image has made it one of the best-selling toys in the world. According to Business Insider, more than 1 billion Barbie dolls have been sold since their debut. In 2022 alone, the Barbie brand generated nearly $1.5 billion in sales for toy manufacturer Mattel.

However, Barbie's "unusual" body proportions of 90cm, 62cm and 89cm have also caused dissatisfaction among some parents. In their view, Barbie dolls have led the aesthetic taste of girls to a certain extent, but this may also lead them to excessively pursue body shapes and affect their physical health.

Therefore, in order to cater to mainstream consumption trends while ensuring the main theme of the product, Mattel Toys, the parent company of Barbie dolls, began to break the original stereotyped image of Barbie dolls and gradually launched Barbie dolls that are more in line with the "normal human body shape" to replace the dolls with curvy figure, long legs, and perfect to the point of distortion.

"Our goal is to enable all children to see themselves in Barbie dolls, while also encouraging them to play with Barbie dolls that look different from themselves. Growing up with Barbie dolls that don't belong to their everyday world can cultivate children's understanding and empathy for differences, thereby building a more tolerant society," said McKnight, executive vice president and global head of Mattel Barbie.

Whether it is Barbie's identity or life, she has never been defined. What she represents is often a positive attitude towards life and the positive values ​​of constantly pursuing oneself.

2. Immersive pink feast under traffic fission

On top of this super IP, the 1:1 reproduction of the film's dream scenes and the reappearance of classic lines created an almost immersive experience that once again won the audience's resonance.

Unlike completely virtual IP images, to a certain extent, "Barbie" can find its prototype in the real world, that is, the Barbie series of toys, so how to present the "texture" of the toys in the movie is crucial.

The creative team of "Barbie" once said that they hope to let the audience feel that the world of Barbie dolls has a concrete form. Therefore, during the film production process, the creative team built a real-life version of Barbie's dream house almost brick by brick. Whether it is the clothes of "Barbie" and "Ken" in the movie, or the overall scene of Barbie, or even the various details of Barbie's dream house, walls, furniture, etc., they are almost enlarged in proportion.

After watching the movie, Morketing also intuitively felt several details, as if breaking the dimensional wall between virtuality and reality.

For example, Barbie is invisible when taking a bath or eating, flies downstairs, and every "woman" in the Barbie world is Barbie... Of course, in addition to the scene experience of the movie itself, before the movie was released, Mattel has launched limited-time flash events in various cities in China in cooperation with different brands, providing space for taking photos and checking in. In China, some cinemas will also set up a "Barbie" check-in wall for the audience to experience immersive photo-taking and checking in.

At the same time, the "full screen of Barbie pink" and the use of color to "attract attention" and do marketing are also one of the main reasons for the popularity of "Barbie". Generally speaking, the brighter and more monotonous the color, the more it can attract the audience's attention and increase the recognition of the brand or product. For example, McDonald's classic red and yellow color, Coca-Cola's red and white color, and "Barbie" classic Barbie pink, etc.

Therefore, pink almost dominated the screen during the entire production and promotion of the film. In addition to the "Barbie pink" that can be seen everywhere in the movie, Warner only used the pure color of Barbie pink in offline outdoor advertising when promoting the movie "Barbie", and online, it carried out the "minimalist style" to the end, leaving only a "pure pink poster" and some viewing information.

Furthermore, like the collaborations of various brands we mentioned above, no matter what category or product, the iconic "Barbie pink" is the most symbolic and characteristic element.

In Barbie, pink is no longer just an abstract existence. In the long-term development, pink has become an inseparable part of the brand. When the audience mentions pink, they will unconsciously equate it with "Barbie". In other words, pink has given "Barbie" a symbolic color, and "Barbie" has also given pink a concrete value.

Well, under this "public consensus", the design of simplifying things undoubtedly highlights the value of the "Barbie" movie itself.

If the "Barbie" movie is compared to a banquet, then the fission on social media has undoubtedly intensified the spread of "Barbie's" influence.

Statistics show that on the day Barbie was released, the hashtag #Barbiecore# was viewed over 500 million times on Tik Tok. The so-called "Barbiecore" is a girlish aesthetic style centered on the "Barbie doll", which originated in the United States in the late 20th century and is essentially not much different from Y2K.

Taking advantage of the "Barbie" craze, many overseas netizens have set off a wave of Barbiecore on foreign social media. Bright Barbie pink, blonde hair and "sky-high" high heels make everyone want to be a "Barbie" in the real world. The search volume for related golden hair dye, Barbie-style platform shoes, pink fashion, etc. has also doubled.

In addition, a website that can create a Barbie-style poster generator has been launched overseas. Here, you only need to upload a photo to automatically generate a unique ID poster. Coincidentally, in China, a small program that can automatically generate Barbie photos has also quickly become popular on the Internet.

Let’s not discuss whether this behavior poses a risk of privacy leakage, but with the support of social platforms such as Xiaohongshu and Douyin, the "Barbie" trend will undoubtedly last longer.

Well, with official publicity, the massive topic fission on social media, and the "meme-making" operations of many fans and joke makers, "Barbie" has become a "carnival feast" for people of all ages at home and abroad, online and offline.

3. Conclusion

After the movie, many people on the Internet believed that Barbie was a new era movie with a strong feminist color. Of course, there were also some voices of "gender opposition". Morketing did not comment on this. But it cannot be denied that Barbie is more like a "bond" between the real world and the virtual world. Here, everyone can be "Barbie". When faced with choices, it is often more important to stick to yourself.

Author: Morketing, WeChat public account: Morketing