Clemenger BBDO Melbourne

Client: Mattel, Australia/New Zealand
Product: Barbie
Title: Never Before Barbie
Media: N/A
Country: Australia
Date Of Campaign: 28/02/18

Background: Barbie is an icon. Since she was debuted in 1959 she has been at the forefront fashion, career, and social movements. She was the staple of every little girls toy box. Whilst forever popular amongst girls, she’s less popular with Australian mums. 40% are neutral towards the brand, and 17% dislike it. This sentiment stems from the fact that 1 in 4 Mums believe that Barbie can send the wrong message to young girls. Such attitude translates into behaviour, with 43% only buying Barbie if asked. They won’t actively go out of their way to include it in their child’s life. Our brief was to build back respect with Mum and prove that Barbie plays a positive role in girls lives.However, we had to do this with an incredibly limited budget of under AU$300,000. We had to find a way to grab attention without broadcast media.

Idea: As the saying goes: you can’t be what you can’t see.Our solution to this societal problem and to Barbie’s reputational issues was to create Never Before Barbie - a bespoke, limited-edition range of dolls aimed at inspiring Australian girls to believe they can be anything. These Barbies were visible demonstrations of change and could become a role model for girls to aspire to once again.The dolls were based on six high profile roles that had never been occupied by a woman, shining a light on the lack of gender diversity in leadership positions across the country and allowing young girls to visualise themselves in these roles. The 6 roles included: Chairperson of the AFL Barbie, Commissioner of the Australian Federal Police Barbie, Governor of the Australian Reserve Bank Barbie, Head of ASIO Barbie, President of the Australian Olympic Committee Barbie, and First Woman on the Moon Barbie.

Results: Our six special Never Before Barbie dolls started a vital conversation Australians needed to have. Following launch, targeted media and influencer engagement resulted in coverage across all major free to air network’s breakfast TV programs (Sunrise, TODAY and Studio 10), and significant coverage across TV news, press, online and radio.These news stories all commented on the initiative of ‘you can’t be what you can’t see’, and helped to fuel positive and important conversations across news panels and as editorials.In total, the campaign achieved: - 100 pieces of media and social coverage and 224 syndications- Cumulative reach of 28,093,041 (Australian population 24.13m)- 97% of content was on-message- Significant social discussion, resulting in 44,486 total engagements (comments, shares) at a positive sentiment rate of 98% - Equivalent ad value totalling $1,159,371All achieved on a total campaign budget of $221,818, providing Mattel with an ROI of 5:1.