As the much anticipated Barbie movie is set to hit theatres this Friday, the industry is in awe of how the film's team has paved the way for the future of film marketing. Brands across the world have snatched up the opportunity to colour themselves in pink and chase the GenZ crowd’s attention.

The Barbie team has, in fact, made a huge effort to market the film as they collaborated with AirBnB, opening Barbie’s Malibu dream house to the common people and tied up with several other brands like ALDO, NYX Cosmetics, Uno cards, Fossil watches, and even the dating application Bumble to spread the word for this multimillion dollar movie. Baskin Robbins has come up with a special Barbie-themed ice cream.

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The marketing for the film has gone so crazy, that even Google is breaking into pink sparkles when you search for Margot Robbie, Ryan Gosling or Greta Gerwig!

The influence that Barbie brings to young girls even after six decades of its launch, is unmatched. Hence, it is not surprising that brands would welcome this opportunity to take advantage of Barbie’s big consumer numbers.

Barbie maker Mattel Inc shares have surged more than 17% in July to date, according to Google data. Hence, the strategy to paint the town ‘Pink’ is helping them in more than one way.

Another much-awaited film, Oppenheimer by famous director Christopher Nolan is set to release on the same date, making the competition even more fierce. This has pushed Barbie to scale up its marketing efforts by collaborating with brands of different scales.

Venkat Thangi, Marketing Director at MoEngage India, Middle East and Africa says, “The consumer experiences that Barbie is building isn’t just limited to moviegoers and that is the strongest suite of the whole glitzy campaign. While fans of Nolan would definitely flock to the movies, Barbie has the added advantage of getting casual movie-goers exposed to the marketing campaigns being run by team Barbie and Mattel.”

“Fundamentally Barbie and Oppenheimer are appealing to different target segments. Barbie is aimed at all the kids and millennials who remember playing with the toy. Oppenheimer is a deeper film and I am told it is very disturbing. One is fun entertainment, the other is serious introspection on the future of mankind,” said Ambi Parameswaran, Brand Coach and Strategist.

The crossovers and memes on the two stark opposite genres of movies have lit up the social media world with humourous and bizarre content, thus adding to the movie’s word-of-mouth marketing.

Rohit Ohri, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, FCB Group analyses Mattel, the company behind the movie and the iconic doll, has good reason to invest so heavily in the film's success versus the marketing team behind the biopic Oppenheimer which has taken a more low-key approach to marketing the film.

Barbie is not in competition with Oppenheimer in any real sense, as despite some potential overlaps, they belong to completely different worlds, catering to different audiences with different sensibilities, according to Samit Sinha, Founder and Managing Director of Alchemist Brand Consulting.

How much pink is too much pink?

Barbie and Mattel have always known precisely what they were doing, Ohri believes. Such longevity necessitates clever marketing techniques. Naturally, as with any brand, they had to adapt to the times and stay up with emerging trends.

He added, “Barbie has done the perfect job of attracting the Gen-Z who I feel have really appreciated the 'Pink Fever' and connecting with the brand across platforms.”

Sandeep Goyal, Managing Director and Chairman, Rediffusion shares that the Barbie franchise is much wider and deeper. And the marketing of the movie has been in the making for at least 18-24 months. He noted that while Oppenheimer is big, Barbie is much bigger.

“Another thing that has helped the film are the posters, which people could edit themselves into and encouraged a lot of people to make their own,” Goyal said.

This is not a comparison benchmark. according to the Rediffusion executive. Barbie is a brand little girls have grown up with. The movie is selling a lifestyle, not just a doll. Many brands fit onto the canvas.

Additionally, today people consume a barrage of content. Hence, it is impossible for a particular marketing campaign to be able to saturate the consumer these days.

The Alchemist executive expressed, “In my view, they are not going overboard in terms of noticeability. The only risk could be if the actual movie does not live up to the huge expectations that the marketing campaign is generating.”

A road ahead for film marketing

With the Barbie team raising the bar, what does the future of film marketing look like?

Thangi says that although recent movies like Super Mario Bros, Air, and Flamin' Hot, which banked on legacy properties did push the marketing envelope, none of them did it at the scale of Barbie, either because of the relatability factor or because of concern over collaborating with certain brands.

“The tentative success of Barbie would push the marketing teams (of production houses) sitting on the fence over the line when it comes to such over-saturated marketing campaigns. Hollywood studios in charge of legacy properties are bound to follow suit and have a little more skin in the game with partner collaborations and essentially letting loose of the strict control over their IPs,” Thangi opines.

Barbie's brand collaborations, multichannel marketing, emphasis on diversity, digital transformation, focus on younger audiences, and adaptability all pave the way for future film marketing strategies, the FCB executive believes.

Even though brand collaborations have helped build a strong buzz,  this is not the endgame for either Barbie or the collaborating brands. The box office success will still be the third umpire to decide whether the creators were successful in creating a Marvel-like ‘Barbie world’.

By observing and learning from Barbie's success, film studios can find inspiration to innovate and engage with their audiences in more effective and impactful ways.

Sinha suggests that films have to market themselves much more aggressively than before, given the sheer number of entertainment options available to consumers today. We will see more and more instances of big-budget films spending enormous amounts of money to generate pre-launch buzz.