Living in a “Barbie” world? Here’s what Warner Bros.’ highest-grossing film ever did RIGHT in its marketing! [Monday: Marketing Marvels]
Miles Everson’s The Business Builder speaks to the heart of what great marketers, business leaders, and other professionals need to succeed in advertising, communications, managing their investments, career strategy, and more.
A Note from Miles Everson:
Happy Monday!
We hope you’re starting the week with fueled minds.
Let’s begin the day with inspirational knowledge from the “Marvels” of the marketing world. These are the people who have excellent experiences and mastery of the marketing and business fields.
Today, we’ll introduce the person behind the marketing success of this hit 2023 film.
Keep reading to discover how simple efforts can make a HUGE difference in advertising a brand.
Miles Everson
CEO, MBO Partners
Chairman of the Advisory Board, The I Institute
Marketing Marvels
“Humans only have one ending. Ideas live forever.”
Today’s “Marvel” introduced marketing ideas that can be done with simple effort and smooth execution. These strategies led to billion-dollar revenues for the highly anticipated 2023 movie, “Barbie,” which became a big hit not only in cinemas but also in viewers’ hearts.
Are you curious about who managed the marketing strategies for this movie?
It’s Josh Goldstine!
Photo from variety
Goldstine is the President of Global Marketing at Warner Bros. He spearheaded the execution of the promotion for the “Barbie” movie from beginning to end. He has an excellent track record in turning movie masterpieces into a success.
Goldstine worked in two big entertainment industries before joining Warner Bros. He initially served at Sony Pictures for over 20 years as the President of Creative Advertising. Following his tenure at Sony, he held the position of President of Worldwide Marketing at Universal Pictures. There, he supervised campaigns for movies such as “Jurassic World,” “The Secret Life of Pets,” “Despicable Me,” and “Fifty Shades of Grey.”
In his decades as a marketer, Goldstine has received awards for his excellence. These include the Clio Key Art awards and gold medals from the New York and London Advertising Festivals.
All these show that Goldstine is truly a “Marvel” in marketing! With his laudable accomplishments and experiences, it’s no surprise that marketing a childhood treasure was a piece of cake for him.
Fun fact: Did you know the “Barbie” movie promotion generated buzz worldwide, but its marketing team did not really spend so much on it compared to other movies? The budget for the film’s marketing and production were USD 150 million and USD 145 million respectively, which paid off shortly after the release of “Barbie” in cinemas. In fact, the movie grossed USD 1 billion in just 17 days!
So… how did today’s “Marvel” make the “Barbie” movie such a hit?
One of the best tactics that Goldstine and his team used was the breadcrumb strategy. That plan positively affected the anticipation for the show. How?
Goldstine and his team systematically discussed the release of the materials before the premiere date. Once the marketing collaterals, teasers, and images were released, they generated excitement for the film and helped audience anticipation grow organically.
The promotion efforts didn’t stop there. The team continued with their next marketing strategies by applying the “imagination, life is your creation” line from the “Barbie Girl” song. Here’s what we can learn from them:
Photo from: People
- Capitalizing on the “Pink Theme.”
The “pink theme” generated buzz worldwide, with people unleashing their inner pink fashionistas, painting places pink, and making pink the color of the movie’s season! This expanded the capitalization of the color pink worldwide, especially among brands and promotion masterminds.
Furthermore, this strategy allowed audiences to take part in the movement and also opened doors for brand collaborations.
- Taking advantage of nostalgia marketing.
Since the target audience of the movie were adults and most of them have loved “Barbie” films and dolls since their childhood, Goldstine and his team showed different angles that still resonate with adults’ lives. The film reflected lessons on life’s purposes and the challenges of being a woman, which many can relate to.
This strategy allowed the marketing team to appeal to lots of audiences’ emotions.
- Using the “If you love Barbie, if you hate Barbie, this movie is for you” tagline.
Part of Goldstine’s idea was to shake and provoke people—whether “Barbie” fans or not. Using the tagline allowed the marketing team to attract more individuals to watch the movie. The tagline also turned non-fans into viewers since it evoked interest in them.
Overall, the “Barbie” marketing execution was real, and Goldstine proved that it wasn’t plastic, just fantastic!
The key takeaway here is that sometimes, adding “spice” in strategies can make a BIG difference in your promotional efforts’ results. Get people curious about what you’re going to release and tease them even more. You can also capitalize on creative strategies that will encourage consumers to become a part of your brand’s culture. All of these elements were observed and proven to be effective in Goldstine and his team’s marketing strategies.
So, what are you waiting for? This is your sign to also explore and widen your imagination and creativity!
Who knows? By applying similar marketing strategies to your own brand, you can be the next successful marketer of the decade.
Besides, “Barbie’s” slogan says “you can be anything” you want to be… so go and be your own version of a great marketer!
(This article is from The Business Builder Daily, a newsletter by The I Institute in collaboration with MBO Partners.)
About The Dynamic Marketing Communiqué’s
“Mondays: Marketing Marvels”
Too often, industry experts and the marketing press sing the praises of some brand or company’s marketing strategy.
… only for the audience to later find out that its product was a flop, or worse, that the brand or company went bankrupt.
The true ROI in marketing can’t be separated from the business as a whole.
What good is a marketing case study if one can’t prove that the company’s efforts actually paid off?
At the end of the day, either the entire business is successful or it isn’t. And the roles of marketing and communication are always paramount to that success.
Every Monday, we publish a case study that highlights the world’s greatest marketing strategies, marketers, and communicators.
However, the difference between our articles and the numerous ones out there is that we will always make certain that the firm really did generate and demonstrate earning power worthy of study in the first place (compliments of Valens Research’s finance group) in keeping with a person’s leadership skills in the area of marketing and/or communication.
We’ll also study the greatest marketing fails and analyze what they did wrong, or what they needed to improve. We all make our mistakes, but better we learn from others’ mistakes—and earlier, rather than later.
Hope you found this week’s marketing marvel interesting and helpful.
Stay tuned for next Monday’s “Marketing Marvels!”
Cheers,
Kyle Yu
Head of Marketing
Valens Dynamic Marketing Capabilities
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