5 Lessons we Can Learn From the Barbie Movie about E-Commerce Marketing

Every kid had or played with a Barbie as a child, whether they liked it or not. The familiarity and relevance are already there.

The film has been praised for its positive portrayal of women and girls, and it has also been seen as a commentary on gender roles and expectations. Both are topics that are relevant in the political and economic climate, worldwide.

To tap into a cultural zeitgeist, you need to understand what is trending and what people are talking about. You can do this by following social media trends, reading industry publications, and talking to your target audience. This enables you to create content that is relevant and resonates with your audience on a deeper level.

For example, if you are selling products for children, you could create content that is related to the latest trends in children’s entertainment, like videos, tutorials, articles, or interactive content. By creating content that is relevant to your audience, you can help to ensure that your marketing efforts are more engaging.

Mattel has collaborated with a number of influencers and partners to amplify the reach of the Barbie movie and create additional hype.

When you collaborate with influencers, you are essentially tapping into their existing audience. This can be a great way to reach people who may not have heard of your brand before.

For example, if you’re selling beauty products, you could collaborate with a beauty blogger who has an engaged following on social media, allowing you to introduce your products to her audience, via her.

A great example is how Jouer Cosmetics, one of buywith’s clients, partnered with celebrity makeup artist Stephen Moleski to host a live shopping event on which they recreated the #BarbieCore look.

The session was highly popular as it gave audiences specific tips on how to recreate the look, step by step, knowing that the audience was looking to do this at this very moment. This also connects with our first tip in this article ????

Mattel has released a number of previews and teasers for the Barbie movie, which has helped to build excitement and anticipation for the film.

When you release previews, you are giving people a taste of what is to come. This can help to generate excitement and anticipation, and it can also help to build demand for your product or event. For example, if you are releasing a new album, you could release a few singles before the album is released. This would give customers a taste of what is to come and help to build excitement for the album release.

You can also use previews to Previews like this also generate social media engagement when they are shared and repurposed online.

Another way to extend your audience is to collaborate with partners who have complementary businesses.

Mattel partnered with a record-breaking 100+ brands which is why pink is so prominent in all our feeds, which contributed to its success. If you are selling clothing, you could collaborate with a shoe brand or a jewelry brand.

The psychology here is that a shopper of your brand is likely shopping for complementary products too, so this allows you to make their search job easier. If you’re a brand selling in retail stores or a retailer’s website, you can collaborate with the retailer for a win-win as sales will impact both revenue streams. This would allow you to cross-promote each other’s products and reach a wider audience.

Ulta Beauty, for example, is enabling brands who sell on Ulta to host Livestream shopping events on Ulta’s website using buywith’s platform. Brands like It Cosmetics and Too Faced have already activated this partnership opportunity, and were able to tap into Ulta’s user base for Live sessions hosted on Ulta’s website, with La Roche Posay being a popular one for summer.

Mattel has created a number of easily repeatable content pieces, such as the #TikTokMadeMeBuyIt hashtag, which has helped to drive engagement and sales. This is a great way to get your audience involved via shareability and co-creation.

When you create easily repeatable content, you are making it easy for people to share your content with their friends. This can help to generate social media engagement and drive traffic to your website. For example, you could create a short video that shows how to use your product or a funny meme that features your brand, which by its nature, is shareable and reshareable with audiences.

A great example is this meme created by Sourabh Sharma, buywith’s Head of Social media:

(he actually created many more, I think he couldn’t stop himself from doing more and more! But I loved this one the most). 

I love how this meme taps into the Barbie trend (tip #1!) and shows the strengths of Livestream Shopping vs. traditional e-commerce in such an engaging and shareable way.

By following these tips, you can learn from the success of the new Barbie movie and create your own e-commerce marketing success story.