It’s a Barbie world!

Barbie opens in theaters this weekend. The build-up for the movie represents something increasingly rare – what one expert calls a “ubiquitous cultural moment.”

Barbie is everywhere.  The movie reportedly is supported by a $100M marketing budget, and it shows. There is a Barbie-themed Xbox console, a real life Barbie Dreamhouse in Malibu, Barbie frozen yogurt at Pinkberry, Barbie scented candles, a pop-up Barbie café in Chicago, a Barbie pool float….and on and on and on…. 

An article on WARC (behind the subscription wall) points out that Barbie is a great example of how an old, stale brand can successfully regain relevance. 

It wasn’t long ago that Barbie was seen as a sexist and elitist symbol of a bygone era. But then Mattel switched things up.  It introduced a more diverse selection of dolls – dolls with different skin and hair colors, dolls with wheelchairs, etc – to make its brand feel more inclusive and modern. They tapped into culture by, for example, releasing seven dolls modeled after members of the band BTS.  And now, of course, the movie, with countless brand partnerships and activations.

Consumers don’t avoid brands because they are old; they avoid brands that are irrelevant. Brands can maintain or regain relevance through clever marketing and innovation. Oreo, LEGO, and M&M’s are just a few examples of very old brands that are as cool as ever.

• Oreo boasts a seemingly never-ending pipeline of new flavors and a witty social media persona that often features interactions with other brands.

• M&M’s has long built its marketing efforts around its most distinctive asset – the many colors within each bag. It also is constantly churning out line extensions.

• Lego was pretty far down the road of becoming outdated before it began engaging its fans, crowdsourcing ideas for new sets, and appealing to new audiences with lines like LEGO Architecture and Lego Friends. 

As Barbie also is showing, an old brand can stay relevant by doing new things that keep it relevant – while still retaining the core of what made it popular in the first place.