blockbuster film<\/a>, is marketing to multiple generations this year.<\/p>\n\u201cWe think of Barbie as so much more than a toy\u2014she\u2019s a cultural icon,\u201d Nathan Baynard, VP and global head of Barbie for Mattel, told us. \u201cThis is yet another way for us to show up in a culturally relevant space and continue to connect with the next generation.\u201d<\/p>\n
The activation drew nearly 12,000 visitors over the course of the festival\u2019s two weekends, according to the brand\u2019s PR team, which also shared that Barbie invited 16 creators including reality star Olandria Carthen\u202fand four members of the press on a Barbie brand trip to the festival. Influencer content from the first weekend totalled 533 posts and brought in 132 million views; social posts from the brand\u2019s channels, meanwhile, saw 13.5 million video views and roughly 604,000 organic engagements, the company said.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s likely Coachella won\u2019t be the only experiential effort from Barbie this year. \u201cExperiential will continue to be a key part of our strategy,\u201d Baynard said. \u201cWe believe in continuing to connect with the multiple generations that Barbie has relationships with\u2026You have my commitment and the tease that more will be coming.\u201d<\/p>\n
Growth potential: While Baynard was coy about where Barbie may show up next, the effort may very well target adult fans. \u201cFrom an industry perspective, there\u2019s growth potential with our adult audience, and so that\u2019s absolutely informing our marketing mix and strategy,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Recognizing that audience may be an effort to boost overall brand performance. Throughout 2025, the doll category declined 7% for Barbie\u2019s parent company Mattel, which Ynon Kreiz, executive chairman and CEO, noted during Q4 earnings was \u201cprimarily due to Barbie and Polly Pocket.\u201d During the same call, Kriez also said that the company expects Barbie to \u201creturn to growth in 2027.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Influencer Ken: Aside from showing up at Coachella, Barbie\u2019s male counterpart, Ken, was featured in a Super Bowl commercial this year in an ad for Expedia. Using Barbie characters in collaborations and partnerships is another strategy the brand plans to lean more on this year.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve been treating Barbie as talent herself for several years,\u201d Baynard said. \u201cShe\u2019s an influencer in her own right. She has millions of followers on social, [and] that allows her to show up in a variety of places and spaces and participate in campaigns as an influencer with all sorts of partners over the years.\u201d<\/p>\n
As for Ken, well, he\u2019s not just Ken this year. \u201cWe\u2019re in the midst of Ken\u2019s 65th anniversary,\u201d Baynard told us, adding that the doll, who was depicted by Ryan Gosling in the 2023 film, and other characters from the Barbie world \u201care powerful tools for us from a marketing perspective.\u201d<\/p>\n
Barbie movie playbook: It helps that the characters connected with audiences around the world with Greta Gerwig\u2019s Barbie starring Margot Robbie, which brought in $1.44 billion at the global box office.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was quite a journey to go on with Warner Brothers, and a really magical time as a marketer,\u201d Baynard, who was leading marketing during that time, said. \u201cIt obviously started with having an amazing product and a film that was created by amazing creators in [director] Greta and Margot and everyone involved with that film.\u201d<\/p>\n
Baynard sees the reception as a moment that \u201cbroadened the aperture\u201d for the Barbie brand, he said. Aside from the story of the film, the marketing partnership machine around it and the success of that effort are still informing strategies today.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had something like over 150 partnerships during the movie, and we know that partners can really help us amplify the overall impact of our campaign,\u201d Baynard said, noting the brand employed an amplification strategy with influencer partnerships for Coachella. \u201cThat was another key part of the Barbie movie playbook that we\u2019re still applying now and will continue to do so.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Are you a Barbie girl in a Barbie world? Coachella attendees could live out the lyrics to Aqua\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":403794,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[146,85,46],"class_list":{"0":"post-403793","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-il","10":"tag-israel"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/403793","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=403793"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/403793\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/403794"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=403793"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=403793"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=403793"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}