\n
The summer of girlhood may be over, but gal-oween is right around the corner.<\/p>\n
Nearly three months after the release of the hit film \u201cBarbie,\u201d Halloween costumes from the movie are almost entirely sold out, Mattel EVP and chief brand officer Lisa McKnight said at Advertising Week New York.<\/p>\n
In a conversation with Time correspondent Eliana Dockterman, McKnight looked back at Mattel\u2019s marketing efforts before and after the movie and shared insights into what has ultimately been a successful product push for the brand, with Barbie sales jumping 25% year over year in July and August.<\/p>\n
Time for a rebrand: <\/strong>About 10 years ago, McKnight said \u201cthe Barbie brand had hit a low point,\u201d with parents no longer seeing the doll as a role model or feeling a connection with her. In 2015, Mattel started working with BBDO to try to associate the doll more with empowerment, which came as the toy company opted to release dolls that were representative of more diverse shapes, sizes, and looks.<\/p>\n\u201cThe minute people stopped focusing on Barbie the doll and thought of her as an idea and a point of inspiration is when we really started to connect with people,\u201d McKnight said.<\/p>\n
Releasing (some) creative control: <\/strong>As Mattel was pushing back on the perception that Barbie was strictly blonde-haired and blue-eyed, it was also in the midst of talks with the blonde-haired, blue-eyed Margot Robbie to produce and potentially star in the movie.<\/p>\n\u201cWhen we found out that she wanted to play Barbie, we thought, \u2018Wow, this is a tough one because we love you and you\u2019re an amazing actress, but how are you advancing this perception issue that we have with the brand?\u2019\u201d McKnight said. Some of those concerns were alleviated when director Greta Gerwig expressed her vision of Barbieland, where many of the dolls, not just Robbie\u2019s character, go by Barbie.<\/p>\n
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Other things McKnight had to let go of? Her instinctive aversion to marketing taglines like \u201cIf you love Barbie, this movie is for you. If you hate Barbie, this movie is for you,\u201d which was used to promote the film. When it was pitched, McKnight said her reaction was, \u201cWhy would I put the word \u2018hate\u2019 out there? It was really uncomfortable\u2026but we agreed that we wanted to reach a broad audience and get people that had maybe not been associated with the brand for a while to reengage.\u201d<\/p>\n
Raking in the doll-hairs:<\/strong> McKnight looked back at the more than 165 brands that Mattel collaborated with to promote the movie, and confirmed that some partners were turned down for a variety of reasons, including brand safety. \u201cWe had to draw the line when you\u2019ve got folks rolling around under the sheets together,\u201d McKnight said of the reality dating series Love Island.<\/p>\nOverall, merchandise associated with the movie, like a tie-dye sweatshirt declaring that the wearer is \u201cKenough,\u201d which retails for $60, brought in \u201cmillions of dollars and [sold] hundreds of thousands of units in a matter of weeks,\u201d McKnight said. A \u201cWeird Barbie\u201d doll depicting Kate McKinnon\u2019s character in the movie exceeded made-to-order forecasts tenfold, she said; the doll is currently sold out on Mattel\u2019s website.<\/p>\n
The lesson? <\/strong>\u201cWork with the best talent in the respective industry that you\u2019re in and get comfortable being uncomfortable,\u201d McKnight said. \u201cIf we had thought about the commercialization of the movie in just one category, as a toy, we would have missed the mark.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\nRead the full article here<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The summer of girlhood may be over, but gal-oween is right around the corner. Nearly three months after the release of the hit film \u201cBarbie,\u201d Halloween costumes from the movie are almost entirely sold out, Mattel EVP and chief brand officer Lisa McKnight said at Advertising Week New York. In a conversation with Time correspondent […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":17912,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[78],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-17911","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-marketing"},"yoast_head":"\n
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