A NEW KIND OF PRESS JUNKET
The “Barbie” premiere occasion tour launched with an immersive press junket on June 24 that reworked the 14th flooring of the 4 Seasons Lodge in Beverly Hills right into a bona fide Barbie Dream Lodge. From the second members of the media stepped out of the elevator, they had been enveloped in a vivid branded surroundings that was a far cry from the usual press occasion.
“Though we had been at our standard ‘junket resort,’ we fully modified all the 14th flooring,” says Wendy Robino, svp-marketing occasions and regional publicity at Warner Bros. “After I say ‘modified,’ I imply we laid pink carpet, we coated the partitions with low-tack wallpaper, all with the identical aesthetic and PMS paint shade that was carried out for the [Los Angeles] premiere and the occasion… It was one thing that was only for press, and the entire plan was to make every part really feel extraordinarily particular and tailor-made to this title.”
Following the junket in Beverly Hills, expertise, media, influencers and followers attended premieres in 4 different nations. But it surely was the larger-than-life “pink-carpet” expertise, screening and afterparty for two,400 individuals on the Shrine in L.A.—Warner Bros.’ greatest premiere occasion so far—that took the cake.
“It was a complete storyline, beginning off with that experiential press junket,” says Robino. “The expertise went to Australia, South Korea, Mexico Metropolis after which they lastly got here to L.A., which was the primary time the movie was proven to the general public. And from there, they went to London. So it was a worldwide storyline with all of those occasions.”
Planning for the July 9 premiere in L.A. started 4 months out, and just like the overarching advertising marketing campaign for the “Barbie” film, the expertise was designed to place Mattel’s Barbie model as contemporary and inclusive whereas paying homage to the themes and aesthetic of the Greta Gerwig-directed movie. From soup to nuts, the affair was like Barbie herself: high-energy, glamorous and really, very colourful.
Every section of the occasion was meant to cohesively circulation into the following. All of it kicked off on the branded pink carpet exterior the Shrine, the place influencers had been invited to seize content material for 2 hours earlier than expertise appeared, to assist amplify the expertise. And there have been loads of touchpoints to seize—all expertly designed to imitate key scenes from the film, and peppered with Easter eggs.
PHOTO-WORTHY FABRICATION
“The most important problem we had was simply pink,” says Craig Waldman, president and chief artistic officer at 15|40 Productions (lead accomplice on this leg of the expertise). “There are such a lot of pinks that had been used throughout the movie that our paint division was mixing and sending paints over to the [Warner Bros.] staff to look by way of. It was a matter of with the ability to use pink, however with the ability to have totally different tones and use of the identical colours the place it made sense—so it was pink at its most interesting.”
Attendees’ first pink-carpet picture second was subsequent to Barbie’s (actual) pink Corvette, which was used on the set of the movie within the U.Ok. and introduced in from abroad. Then it was on to the fan-favorite: Stars, press and creators alike went wild for an eye catching, two-level duplicate of Barbie’s Dream Home that includes the twirly slide (“We needed to have that slide,” says Robino.), area for a dj to spin tracks and expertise to conduct interviews, and a 2D fabricated pool out entrance, full with a pink flamingo float.
From there, attendees strolled by a large Barbie “B” emblem set up and dreamy cityscape earlier than arriving on the “seaside,” which encompassed a real-deal lifeguard station, surfboards, fake palm bushes and a 3D ocean wave that includes shifting carpet colours that imitated sand. The ultimate cease was on the Chevrolet “Barbie Dream Blazer EV” encased in a traditional, outsized Barbie doll field.
“The ‘Barbie’ [premiere] was excessive—over-the-top pink explosion, over-the-top builds, over-the-top environmental, after which into the occasion was 2,000-plus individuals,” says Robino. “And we leaned in onerous with creators and influencers, so we needed to ensure that it had that immersive feeling so when the influencers had been on the carpet, they had been in a position to seize and create content material that might journey and was excellent for his or her specific channels.”
After the pink-carpet arrivals and official screening, it was time for a stunning technicolor afterparty offered in partnership with Mattel and a handful of accomplice manufacturers.
AN AFTERPARTY FOR THE AGES
The Shrine’s inside was fully reworked right 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” set up and corresponding cul-de-sac scene, a reproduction of Bizarre Barbie’s home, a “Kendom” man cave vignette, a sublime bar anchored by one other big, spinning “B” set up and interactive accomplice activations.
One other key touchpoint: A glittering, 12-foot-diameter disco ball that invited loads of picture ops on its tinsel-covered exterior, whereas the inside included a six-foot-tall Barbie Dream Home constructed proportionally to the Mattel dolls’ scale and populated with new dolls featured within the “Barbie” film. There have been additionally greater than a dozen mini disco balls and three movie vignettes inside that includes actual set builds from Mattel’s company headquarters.
Companion activations had been designed to align with the afterparty vibe and the movie itself, like an OPI nail salon and an Xbox Forza gaming station (in Forza Horizon 5, gamers can drive two electrical Basic Motors automobiles from the movie, Barbie’s Corvette and Ken’s Hummer).
“Creating vignettes that celebrated companions like Basic Motors with out giving Basic Motors the afterparty, having an Xbox gaming station with out it turning into an Xbox occasion, is a really distinctive means that you simply’ve acquired to cross over actual, human, earth-world issues with the loopy textures which can be ‘Barbie’ and create a true-to-form movie,” says Austin Johnston, ceo and founder at AKJOHNSTON Group, company accomplice together with Mirrored Media for the afterparty expertise. “So whenever you stroll in there, it seems like an afterparty, not a commerce present.”
In the meantime, Dolby stepped in to remodel a part of the Shrine into a correct theater for the screening with a 140-foot display screen and Dolby Atmos sound, and American Specific provided choose cardmembers a “money-can’t-buy” expertise that entailed a stroll down the pink carpet, the possibility to look at arrivals and a quick meet-and-greet with Gerwig and Kate McKinnon, who performs Bizarre Barbie within the film.
“The general advertising marketing campaign for the movie was about making the Barbie model really feel new and contemporary once more, particularly from the thoughts and the imaginative and prescient of our filmmaker, Greta,” says Robino. “And with the occasions that we did, notably the premiere and the [after] occasion, we needed it to really feel hip, contemporary, thrilling. We simply didn’t need something to really feel previous—as a substitute we labored to make sure all issues ‘Barbie’ felt contemporary and enjoyable. I believe all the marketing campaign usually, past even occasions, was in a position to try this.”
A world occasion storyline that in some way felt accessible. Unapologetically playful design techniques. Blended audiences and codecs. As each a cultural phenomenon and landmark marketing campaign, the true fantastic thing about “Barbie” was that although the entire world was invited to her hot-pink occasion, everybody felt like a VIP. Everybody felt like Kenough.
Businesses: 15|40 Productions (pink carpet occasion); AKJOHNSTON Group and Mirrored Media (afterparty).
Photograph credit score: Line 8 Pictures
