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Margot Robbie poses on the pink carpet at a Barbie event in Seoul on July 2. Jung Yeon-je/AFP via Getty Images hide caption

Margot Robbie poses on the pink carpet at a Barbie event in Seoul on July 2.

In the post-COVID economic doldrums, film studios have had a tough time trying to lure people back to movie theaters: Witness the summer box office struggles of the new Indiana Jones and Joy Ride movies. So Warner Bros. studios and Mattel have set out to create a hot pink movie marketing machine to build excitement for the new Barbie movie opening July 21.

"This is a test case in how to perfectly market a movie," says Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst for Comscore, a company with expertise in box office numbers. But even before those numbers are in, he says the film has succeeded in dominating the cultural conversation with product tie-ins, viral social media buzz and meme-worthy experiences cost-effective marketing that goes beyond the traditional movie promos.

In Malibu, Airbnb has listed "Barbie's Malibu Dream House," a real-life three-story mansion painted hot pink. There's a swimming pool with a tall curvy pink slide, a glittery outdoor dance floor, disco roller rink, and lots of closets.

Then there are the 100 or more brand collaborations: from Barbiecore fashions and frozen yogurt, to home insurance policies, to the Barbie Xbox.

Lead actor Margot Robbie has been crisscrossing the globe in classic Barbie garb for the film's promotional blitz. She and the film's director Greta Gerwig lead an online tour of the movie's set for Architectural Digest during which Robbie gushes, "Even though it's fake, it's beautiful, which is like everything in Barbieland."

Online, there's an AI-powered "Barbie selfie generator" to create viral memes. And at a real-life shopping mall in Santa Monica, fans have been experiencing the "World of Barbie," an Instagram-friendly pop up with a life-sized Barbie camper van, space station and music recording studio.

Like Disney's Star Wars and Hasbro's Transformers franchises, Mattel is poised to leverage its intellectual property into a cinematic universe. The company's CEO Ynon Kreiz told Time Magazine, "My thesis was that we needed to transition from being a toy-manufacturing company, making items, to an I.P. company, managing franchises."

NPR reached out to Warner Bros. and Mattel for comment about its Barbie marketing strategy, but didn't hear back.

The conventional wisdom is that if an escapist movie about the 64-year-old Barbie doll is a hit, Mattel's Hot Wheels, Rock'Em' Sock' Em Robots and Polly Pocket could be next.

With its trailers and soundtrack (with songs by Nicki Minaj, Dua Lipa, Billie Eilish and others), Barbie's marketing plan seems to be resonating with the culture.

"The zeitgeist is a post-COVID world that seems very scary, at war, dark. And Barbie is the opposite of that," says Kevin Sandler, an associate professor of film and media studies at Arizona State University. "Everywhere you look, you see this buy-in from Barbie, whether it's on social media or through all these brands. And it probably makes you really happy."

In fact, the Barbie boom seems to be benefiting another film premiering the same weekend; Oppenheimer, about the creation of the atomic bomb. Viral memes of the doubleheader feature a bright pink mushroom cloud.

"It's Mattel versus the Manhattan Project and BarbenHeimer; It's very fun," Dergarabedian says of the mashup. "That just means that this is going viral, and that's good news for both Barbie and Oppenheimer."

But some cynics complain the surplus pink Barbie marketing "tsunami" is suffocating. "Is anyone else feeling bullied into being excited about the Barbie movie?" tweeted Succession actor J. Smith-Cameron.

The film's slogan hints at the tightrope it's walking: "If you love Barbie, this movie is for you. If you hate Barbie, this movie is for you." It could be a nostalgic love letter or an ironic wink to those of us who grew up with nonconforming feminist moms who didn't appreciate blonde, blue-eyed Barbie's impossible figure. The feel-good trailers show a more inclusive Barbie world that doesn't take itself too seriously, with the fashionista literally stopping the dance floor by asking, "You guys ever think about dying?"

Barbie's reviews aren't out yet, but the movie is expected to be No. 1 at the box office next week. So we'll soon know if pink really is the color of money.

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'Barbie' marketing goes way outside the box an indication of more ... - NPR

The Social Shake-Up today announced the winners of its 2023 Social Media Marketing Awards.

"This year's winners demonstrated a wide array of creativity and thoughtful approaches to the variety of platforms," said Erika Bradbury, editorial director at PRNEWS and the Social Shake-Up. "With so many emerging platforms on the horizon, we are eager to see the work that comes from these organizations in com."

Adam Durfee of Boncom took home top honors as social media marketer of the year for his work across transforming Instagram into a virtual classroom for suicide prevention, creating dating profiles for national parks and inventing a fire prevention TikTok rapper.

(Separately, the LiveOn Suicide Prevention Playbook, created by Boncom on behalf of the Department of Health and Human Services of Utah, received an award for best use of social media in a local campaign, as well as best use of social media in an activism/advocacy campaign.)

Telly Wong of IW Group was named digital communicator of the year for his work pitching Web3-powered campaigns to IWs clients.

IW Group also received top honors as digital agency of the year.

Northeastern University was this year's social media team of the year. The team also won for best use of social media in a rebranding campaign for its work on Northeastern Global News.

Find a full list of winners here.

Congratulations to all of this year's winners.

Excerpt from:
Winners of 2023 Social Media Marketing Awards Announced - PR News - For Smart Communicators

If you were marketing a sports drink to tweens, teens, and college kids in the 19th century, youd probably have the most success hitching your wagon to some of the eras big names in popular culture: Whitman, Emerson, Thoreau.

Those were the YouTubers of their day, says Duke University marketing professor Aaron Dinin. The popular media then, though, was essays, novels, and poetry. Thats how they grew their audiences. Those audiences, just like the ones we see on social media today, had incredible power. They were the ears and eyeballs that spread the good word on their work and cultivated writers careersones we recognize today as literary legacies.

Dinins somewhat funny but remarkably resonant observation of the cultural cachet of 19th-century poetry can be directly applied to social media phenoms Logan Paul and KSI and the blockbuster sports drink theyre marketing, Prime. Its the same, says Dinin. The only thing thats different is the technology.

The two men who front the 18-month-old brand recently reported that Prime pulled in a whopping $250 million in retail sales for fiscal year 2022. The drink is wildly popular in the UK and across the US, with tweens bartering for it in schoolyards, parents clamoring for cases at local retailers, and even the hint of a burgeoning black market for discontinued or hard-to-find flavors. (I only learned about Prime myself when my almost-12-year-old fifth grader came home with a bottle he'd acquired by trading away a pack of soccer cards.) Prime has now captured a clutch spot in the hydration beverage market, second only to Pepsi-owned Gatorade.

The drink comes in flavors such as Lemonade, Ice Pop, Meta Moon, and Tropical Punch. It also boasts healthy-seeming ingredients like coconut water, B vitamins, electrolytes, and branched-chain amino acids, which promote muscle growth. A case of Prime at GNC sells for $29.99, though there are posts on eBay of limited-edition or discontinued single bottles selling from $20 to more than $100 each. At the same time, Primes parent company, Congo Brands, is building a new $8 million headquarters in Louisville, Kentucky, and has brokered Prime sponsorship deals with both the UFC and the beloved Arsenal futbol team. Theres even a Twitter feed entirely dedicated to tracking stock levels of the drink.

Prime Ministers

Primes rise to the top of its market has been nothing shy of meteoric. Whats interesting, though, is not that tweens, teens, and twentysomethings are fixated on the brand, but that the strategy behind it wasnt born of fat marketing budgets and costly campaigns. Prime has built its following with nothing more than social marketing elbow grease and a deep understanding of its audience.

KSI and Paul are brands in and of themselves, white-collar boxers and internet personalities whove both made fortunes off of their audiences on social media. KSIs TikTok account has more than 11.5 million followers, while Pauls hovers around 18 million.

Paul, 28, had an expansive library of YouTube videos long before he started boxing. His first video was in 2008, capturing a series of school-aged prank phone calls to order takeout under the name Mike Buttski. Now, his content still aims to get laughs, but it has a subtle layer of marketing genius behind nearly every post, no matter how ridiculously backwards-hat-frat-boy his antics may seem.

Read more:
The Ultra-Viral Rise of Prime, the Internet's Favorite Sports Drink - Wired.co.uk

If normal SEO is austere classical music, social media algorithms are drunk jazz on a Saturday Nightyou never know whats coming next. The guys talk through how to play nice with The Algos and then share the next two picks for your marketing dream team.

Social media algorithms have more changes than a Thelonious Monk composition, which kinda sucks when youre just trying to get your content promoted by these fickle, two-timing, nutty formulas. Gyi and Conrad give their take on whether you really need to fight the rhythm or just go with the flow while making content that people actually like. Good idea, right? We think so too.

Later, its time for the guys next picks for your in-house marketing dream team. Conrad goes for the advertising machinethe statistics-loving, data-driven person who helps you make well-informed decisions for your business. Then Gyi goes with the perennially essential intake manager. Intake is everything, and lawyers need to understand why. Tune in for Gyis insights on what an intake manager can do for your team.

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Playing With the Social Media Algorithm || Drafting Your Marketing ... - Legal Talk Network

Global socially-led creative agency We Are Social has promoted its CEO of Singapore, Christina Chong (pictured left), to the position of CEO, Southeast Asia, with a remit to develop the agencys presence in the region and to build out new innovative offerings both locally and globally.

Chong, who joined We Are Social in 2016, will continue to oversee the agencys Singapore office, which has a team of 90 people, and which works with brands such as Samsung, Bandai Namco, Netflix, and Amazon.

She will now also be tasked with leading growth efforts in the Southeast Asia market, which is maturing at a rapid pace, according to the agency.

In her new role, Chong will report to Chris Adamson, We Are Socials global chief operating officer, and will continue to be based in Singapore.

Don't miss:We Are Social levels up with dedicated gaming and esports arm

With Singapore already being a key hub for innovation at We Are Social, Chong will also be looking to further enhance its virtual influencer creation and specialist production capabilities, extending its AI product offering, and developing XR (extended reality) products targeted specifically at brands in the media, fashion and luxury spaces.

Chong will also continue to oversee Kobe Singapore - an influencer agency acquired by We Are Social in 2022. She will work with Kobes local leadership to deliver influencer marketing strategies leveraging Kobes patented AI technology.

Before joining We Are Social, Chong was the managing director at Bates, CHI & Partners. She has held various senior positions at Bartle Bogle Hegarty Asia Pacific, as well as Ogilvy & Mather.

Southeast Asia represents a real growth opportunity. It has a huge concentration of progressive and ambitious clients, a rapidly growing consumer base, and rising digital adoption," said Chong. "My role is to capitalise upon these elements with a two-fold strategy. We will continue to deliver creative and effective social media campaigns for clients, but also to develop innovative social offerings both for this increasingly digital savvy market, and for clients all over the world, she continued.

Adding on, Nathan McDonald, co-founder, and group chief executive and We Are Social noted that Chong has had "amazing success" since she joined We Are Social. "Southeast Asia is a vital market for us, as one of the fastest growing regions in the world, with forecasts for huge growth in consumerism and digital adoption - theres a lot of untapped opportunity. Were excited to see how Chong can take our presence in Southeast Asia and our innovation offering to the next level.

Recently,We Are Social acquiredHong Kongs above-the-line agency Metta Communications, to create an integrated creative offering for clients in Hong Kong.

Under its new ownership, Metta Communications has been rebranded to Metta/We Are Social. The agencywill work alongside We Are Socials existing team in Hong Kong, witha team of 25 who collaborate to meet client demands for best-in-class creativity coupled with social media expertise.

Related articles:We Are Social opens office in Hong KongWe Are Social ventures into Middle East and Africa with Socialize acquisitionWe Are Social acquires Metta Communications in Hong Kong

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Creative agency We Are Social names new CEO of Southeast Asia - Marketing Interactive