Barbie’s $150 Million Marketing Budget
Episode 766: Show Notes
Have you seen the Barbie movie yet? Today we are talking all things Barbie; specifically, the marketing budget which is the biggest marketing budget we have seen for a movie in a long time! This company has taken a brand we all know and love and made it more relevant decades later. So what will this massive budget mean for entertainment moving forward and what can we learn from it as small businesses?
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The Barbie movie team spent $150 million on marketing on top of the $145 million they spent on the actual production, and the ROI is there, as the production already made the entire amount back in the first weekend alone! There are hundreds of collaborations, and this is absolutely incredible! There have recently been loads of discussions about the profitability of femininity, and any nay-sayers have been proven wrong time and time again. Amazing things happen when women are supported; this movie is more proof!
There has been a very interesting shift in toys recently, and Barbie has seen some controversy for not being diverse and inclusive enough, representing enough of a variety of jobs, and being body positive. This movie helps us remember what Barbie felt like when we were children, before all of this stuff mattered to us! This age-old brand has the heart of many women, and the movie, which was produced for millennial women and not children, reawakens this nostalgia. The movie is even fairly satirical and makes fun of the Barbie world in many ways. There is a lot of power in looking at totally different industries from your own to find things you can learn from!
The One Thing Barbie Did Differently with Their Marketing
We’ve all heard people say that making a tiny change to something people already know and love, instead of trying to reinvent the wheel, is more effective. The Barbie movie is a true testimony to that! When we think of big movies like Harry Potter and Avengers, their marketing isn’t so different from Barbie’s, but many of those collaborations happened after the movies were released. So much of Barbie’s marketing happened in the lead-up to its release and while the movie is showing at the cinema. Barbie may have had the same or even fewer collaborations than other movies, but the difference is that it’s coming out before and during rather than after, which reminds us of the impact of the brand.
The head of marketing for the Barbie movie said that people think they spent so much because it impacts so many areas when, in fact, they spent a reasonable amount on marketing. $150 million on marketing isn’t that crazy, and most of the brands that collaborated actually paid the company to participate. Brands wanted to be part of it because they found that the film was finding its way into culture dynamically. This kind of success in the entertainment industry is also so positive to see post-pandemic. Maybe all we need to do in our businesses is shift something people already know and love by just a fraction to make it new and exciting!
How Small Businesses Can Learn from Barbie’s Marketing Strategy
It’s really great to look at what bigger businesses are doing to see what the scaled-down, realistic version of that could be for your own business. We can learn from Barbie’s ability to create a hype squad by trying to build our own for our small businesses! Think outside the circle a little bit and consider how you can make the hype of your business so big that a sense of FOMO is created, which ultimately makes other people want to be involved in it as well. This cycle fuels itself once it’s started. We know that it may seem overwhelming, and sometimes it’s difficult to know what will work and how. But you can find a group of businesses to exchange clients with and communicate with consistently to start this cycle.
Put an emphasis on collaboration, just as the movie has, because it will reduce ad costs and give you the opportunity to get in front of new people. The potential reward from collaborating is far more fulfilling than the time it takes for social media marketing to pay off. Community and people are worth your time, and this can be ingrained in collaboration! We want you to understand what ROI you want, what time you’re willing to put into working for something even with no reward, and what you don’t want to spend your time on.
Does Slow and Steady Win the Race?
We also wonder how much of this movie’s success is about slowing down. When we look at the timeline of this film release, we are just amazed! The film was originally announced in 2009! Development began in 2014 with multiple writer, director, and cast changes. The rights were transferred in 2018, and the current cast wasn’t confirmed until 2021. Most of the filming took place last year, so we are wondering when the marketing part of this was even put into place! We are not suggesting that you take more than a decade to figure out how you’re going to put your thing out into the world, but we are wondering what it looks like to wait, curate, work on, and create a community around you.
That’s not to say that your business should shut down completely in moments of creation but taking your time with a smaller piece of the puzzle may just pay off. Sometimes we put so much pressure on a strategy by expending all of our energy on one thing, pushing it out very quickly, and expecting a certain level of performance from it within a specific time frame. For the past six years on this podcast, we have emphasized the narrative that things take time to build! We want you to have patience and respect for the time it takes to build the business of your dreams. Imagine how different Barbie would’ve been if it had come out according to its original filming schedule. We want you to find opportunities to make the thing that you already have work more for you today!
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When you’re so up close and personal to the options and opportunities in your business, it can be difficult to clearly see which changes you should make. We help our clients navigate decision-making in a way that’s respectful of their individual goals and the kind of life they want. Curious how your business could benefit from working with us? Fill out this super quick form and book a (no pressure) time to chat with us today!
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Highlights
The One Thing Barbie Did Differently with Their Marketing. [0:06:03]
How Small Businesses Can Learn from Barbie’s Marketing Strategy. [0:13:07]
Does Slow and Steady Win the Race? [0:19:21]
Today’s Guest:
Abagail Pumphrey & Emylee Williams
The Strategy Hour Podcast
The Strategy Hour Podcast is a twice weekly show hosted by Abagail Pumphrey and Emylee Williams, the founders of Boss Project. Join us for semi-ranty biz conversations for service providers looking to ethically grow their agency businesses. Episodes cover everything from lead generation to leadership mindset to team culture and beyond.
Key Topics:
Barbie Movie, Barbie, Marketing, Pop Culture, Strategy, Collaboration, Branding, Strategic Partnerships
