Barbie: Imagine the Possibilities

Mattel, a toy manufacturer, changed the perception of Barbie among millennial mothers to something their children could be inspired by with its Imagine the Possibilities film and introduction of Tall, Curvy and Petite Barbies in the US.

Advertiser: MattelBrand: BarbieAgency: BBDO New YorkCountry: United States

Objectives

The context: Unrealistic. Too blonde. Vain.

For 58 years, Barbie was an unmissable icon with over a billion dolls sold.1

Its parent company, Mattel, is one of the largest toy companies in the world, and Barbie, its flagship brand, was one of its most popular – occupying almost 30% of Mattel's total revenues and 40% of profit.2 Before 2014, it was estimated that one Barbie doll was sold every three seconds.3

Figure 1: Barbie quarterly sales, Q4 2013 - Q3 2015...

Not a subscriber?

Schedule your live demo with our team today

WARC helps you to plan, create and deliver more effective marketing

  • Prove your case and back-up your idea

  • Get expert guidance on strategic challenges

  • Tackle current and emerging marketing themes

We’re long-term subscribers to WARC and it’s a tool we use extensively. We use it to source case studies and best practice for the purposes of internal training, as well as for putting persuasive cases to clients. In compiling a recent case for long-term, sustained investment in brand, we were able to support key marketing principles with numerous case studies sourced from WARC. It helped bring what could have been a relatively dry deck to life with recognisable brand successes from across a broad number of categories. It’s incredibly efficient to have such a wealth of insight in one place.

Insights Team
Bray Leino

You’re in good company

We work with 80% of Forbes' most valuable brands* and 80% of the world's top top-of-the-class agencies.

* Top 10 brands