Barbie Turning the Big Five-Oh



I'm completely obsessed with well thought-out, creatively integrated marketing plans, so imagine my excitement when I came across this press release on the Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week web site detailing the entire marketing plan for the year-long celebration of Barbie's 50th Anniversary. The plan includes "Pink-Carpet" Events (love it), fashion shows, a birthday party at her "Real" Malibu Dream House, launching the first Barbie flagship store in Shanghai, a retail event at Bloomingdale's, partnerships with complimenting brands, a adorable 50th Anniversary web site with all sorts of fun features, a Facebook profile, and - naturally - a whole slew of special collectible Barbie products.

It all kicked off with an over-the-top Barbie Runway Show at Fashion Week this past Valentine's Day.



If you have the time to read the entire press release (you have to scroll down a little bit), I would recommend it. This campaign is just plain fun.

2 comments:

Carol Phillips said...

Thanks for bringing this integrated effort to my attention. I got my first (and only) Barbie in 1959 so this has special meaning for me. She looks so hip, and you are right, the campaign is fun. Just wondering who is the target?

Adrienne Waldo said...

Because it's Barbie the knee-jerk reaction would be to assume that they would target kids, but I don't think that's what they're doing at all. It looks to me like they're targeting women ages 18-40. I think they're hoping to inspire feelings of nostalgia for the 50th anniversary, so they're reaching out to the crowd that's grown up with Barbie. The fashion show, the parties, the partnerships (Bloomingdales, Sephora, Fred Segal, etc), and even the website are clearly geared toward a more mature demographic. It's interesting to compare the 50th Anniversary website (http://barbiestyle.barbie.com/) to the official Barbie website (http://barbie.everythinggirl.com/). It makes the difference very apparent. Also, just discovered the blog: http://alldolldup.typepad.com/. Pretty cute!