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A NEW KIND OF PRESS JUNKET
The “Barbie” premiere event tour launched with an immersive press junket on June 24 that transformed the 14th floor of the Four Seasons Hotel in Beverly Hills into a bona fide Barbie Dream Hotel. From the moment members of the media stepped out of the elevator, they were enveloped in a vivid branded environment that was a far cry from the standard press event.
“Even though we were at our usual ‘junket hotel,’ we completely changed the entire 14th floor,” says Wendy Robino, svp-marketing events and regional publicity at Warner Bros. “When I say ‘changed,’ I mean we laid pink carpet, we covered the walls with low-tack wallpaper, all with the same aesthetic and PMS paint color that was done for the [Los Angeles] premiere and the party… It was something that was just for press, and the whole plan was to make everything feel extremely special and tailored to this title.”
Following the junket in Beverly Hills, talent, media, influencers and fans attended premieres in four other countries. But it was the larger-than-life “pink-carpet” experience, screening and afterparty for 2,400 people at the Shrine in L.A.—Warner Bros.’ biggest premiere event to date—that took the cake.
“It was a whole storyline, starting off with that experiential press junket,” says Robino. “The talent went to Australia, South Korea, Mexico City and then they finally came to L.A., which was the first time the film was shown to the public. And from there, they went to London. So it was a global storyline with all of these events.”
Planning for the July 9 premiere in L.A. began four months out, and like the overarching marketing campaign for the “Barbie” movie, the experience was designed to position Mattel’s Barbie brand as fresh and inclusive while paying homage to the themes and aesthetic of the Greta Gerwig-directed film. From soup to nuts, the affair was like Barbie herself: high-energy, glamorous and very, very colorful.
Each segment of the event was meant to cohesively flow into the next. It all kicked off on the branded pink carpet outside the Shrine, where influencers were invited to grab content for two hours before talent appeared, to help amplify the experience. And there were plenty of touchpoints to capture—all expertly designed to mimic key scenes from the movie, and peppered with Easter eggs.
PHOTO-WORTHY FABRICATION
“The biggest challenge we had was just pink,” says Craig Waldman, president and chief creative officer at 15|40 Productions (lead partner on this leg of the experience). “There are so many pinks that were used within the film that our paint department was mixing and sending paints over to the [Warner Bros.] team to look through. It was a matter of being able to use pink, but being able to have different tones and use of the same colors where it made sense—so it was pink at its finest.”
Attendees’ first pink-carpet photo moment was next to Barbie’s (real) pink Corvette, which was used on the set of the film in the U.K. and brought in from overseas. Then it was on to the fan-favorite: Stars, press and creators alike went wild for an eye-catching, two-level replica of Barbie’s Dream House featuring the twirly slide (“We had to have that slide,” says Robino.), space for a dj to spin tracks and talent to conduct interviews, and a 2D fabricated pool out front, complete with a pink flamingo float.
From there, attendees strolled by a massive Barbie “B” logo
installation and dreamy cityscape before arriving at the “beach,” which encompassed a real-deal lifeguard station, surfboards, faux palm trees and a 3D ocean wave featuring shifting carpet colors that imitated sand. The final stop was at the Chevrolet “Barbie Dream Blazer EV” encased in a classic, oversized Barbie doll box.
“The ‘Barbie’ [premiere] was over the top—over-the-top pink explosion, over-the-top builds, over-the-top environmental, and then into the party was 2,000-plus people,” says Robino. “And we leaned in hard with creators and influencers, so we wanted to make sure that it had that immersive feeling so when the influencers were on the carpet, they were able to capture and create content that would travel and was perfect for their particular channels.”
After the pink-carpet arrivals and official screening, it was time for a dazzling technicolor afterparty presented in partnership with Mattel and a handful of partner brands.
AN AFTERPARTY FOR THE AGES
The Shrine’s interior was completely transformed into a glittering “Barbie” playscape that served as a montage of “Barbie” scenes and spanned a 36-foot-high by 56-foot-wide inflatable “Barbie Land” installation and corresponding cul-de-sac scene, a replica of Weird Barbie’s house, a “Kendom” man cave vignette, an elegant bar anchored by another giant, spinning “B” installation and interactive partner activations.
Another key touchpoint: A glittering, 12-foot-diameter disco ball that invited plenty of photo ops on its tinsel-covered exterior, while the interior included a six-foot-tall Barbie Dream House built proportionally to the Mattel dolls’ scale and populated with new dolls featured in the “Barbie” movie. There were also more than a dozen mini disco balls and three film vignettes inside featuring real set builds from Mattel’s corporate headquarters.
Partner activations were designed to align with the afterparty vibe and the film itself, like an OPI nail salon and an Xbox Forza gaming station (in Forza Horizon 5, players can drive two electric General Motors vehicles from the film, Barbie’s Corvette and Ken’s Hummer).
“Creating vignettes that celebrated partners like General Motors without giving General Motors the afterparty, having an Xbox gaming station without it becoming an Xbox party, is a very unique way that you’ve got to cross over real, human, earth-world things with the crazy textures that are ‘Barbie’ and create a true-to-form film,” says Austin Johnston, ceo and founder at AKJOHNSTON Group, agency partner along with Mirrored Media for the afterparty experience. “So when you walk in there, it feels like an afterparty, not a trade show.”
Meanwhile, Dolby stepped in to transform part of the Shrine into a proper theater for the screening with a 140-foot screen and Dolby Atmos sound, and American Express offered select cardmembers a “money-can’t-buy” experience that entailed a walk down the pink carpet, the chance to watch arrivals and a brief meet-and-greet with Gerwig and Kate McKinnon, who plays Weird Barbie in the movie.
“The overall marketing campaign for the film was about making the Barbie brand feel new and fresh again, especially from the mind and the vision of our filmmaker, Greta,” says Robino. “And with the events that we did, particularly the premiere and the [after] party, we wanted it to feel hip, fresh, exciting. We just didn’t want anything to feel old—instead we worked to ensure all things ‘Barbie’ felt fresh and fun. I think the entire campaign in general, beyond even events, was able to do that.”
A global event storyline that somehow felt accessible. Unapologetically playful design tactics. Mixed audiences and formats. As both a cultural phenomenon and landmark campaign, the real beauty of “Barbie” was that even though the whole world was invited to her hot-pink party, everyone felt like a VIP. Everyone felt like Kenough.
Agencies: 15|40 Productions (pink carpet event); AKJOHNSTON Group and Mirrored Media (afterparty).
Photo credit: Line 8 Photography
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