How Mattel worked with Warner Bros. to market ‘Barbie’

When “Barbie” hit screens earlier this year, it did not have just one marketing powerhouse behind it. The film, which took two decades to get to the silver screen, had the marketing heft of both Barbie owner Mattel and movie studio Warner Bros. That collaborative effort helped result in the film’s $1.4 billion global box office haul, according to Nathan Baynard, VP of global brand marketing at Mattel. Check out the latest Ad Age events and award programs “When we sat down with Warner a couple years ago, it was a really cool process of Mattel had really never made a movie like this before and Warner, I don’t think, had ever worked with a brand like Barbie before,” Baynard said, speaking at the Ad Age Media Summit in New York earlier this month. “They taught us what film marketing was and then we got to really collaborate and think about how we could maximize both of our strengths in the marketing.” Part of that strategy involved laying breadcrumbs early on to tease the movie months before its July release. In the early part of the year, when Mattel and Warner Bros. released a few images of the movie, they led to multiple memes on social media. “We were very careful about just how much we showed of the film too soon because it just felt like it was building so much in hype,” said Baynard. He noted that Director Greta Gerwig was “very involved” in the marketing pieces that were released as well. Mattel also worked with 165 partners on brand collaborations and deals and those “mini product drops” helped contribute to the marketing might, Baynard said. Such partnerships include working with Gap on an apparel collection and Impala on roller skates. Mattel even worked with unlikely partners for a toy marketer such as Bumble, the dating service. Warner’s promotional team helped build media partnerships and campaigns to drive the movie, while Mattel worked with its licensed merchants to maximize marketing on that side. Sign up for Ad Age newsletters From influencer marketing to agencies, get the latest news and analysis delivered to your inbox Click here Now, Mattel is working to continue its “Barbie” momentum. The film was recently released in IMAX theaters, and Baynard and his team are working to encourage viewers to see the movie more than once. New work supporting the brand will also emerge in the mobile gaming space, he said. “We have additional content coming in that space and obviously a whole host of all of our investments that we normally make during this time because it's obviously a critical moment from a seasonality perspective for us,” said Baynard.

How Mattel worked with Warner Bros. to market ‘Barbie’

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