Barbie's 50th Anniversary

I found an article on Barbie’s 50th anniversary coming this March. The campaign, launched by Mattel, hopes to promote Barbie as a symbol of fashion and pop culture. The Public Relations team hopes to reach three generations and increase sales using partnerships, events, and online communication. The campaign will run throughout the whole year. The Public Relations program, directed by Lauren Dougherty, plans to work with AOR Ketchum on the campaign. Dougherty said “PR extends beyond simple media relations, to everything from touching online to in-store to… partnering with the right brands.

They plan to also work with Mercedes Benz Fashion Week, which is taking place around the same time as the anniversary. The anniversary is on March 9, 2009. During Fashion Week, 50 designers will show Barbie-inspired looks. They have a lot of different promotional tactics such as live broadcast of the show on the Barbie website, media outreach, a national morning show push, and a Barbie Facebook page. They also have a 50th anniversary micro site which includes clip from events, sharable and historical elements, and old commercials. The team launched Barbiemedia.com in October 2008 that has images, press materials, old commercials, and celebrity sound bites.

They have a lot of partners that are marketing Barbie-branded products such as Stila Cosmetics, Bloomingdales, and interior designer Jonathan Adler. Alder is designing items for Barbie’s Malibu Dream House.

I think that the Public Relations Team is on the right track with this campaign. They have obviously been planning this event for a long time, with the launch of Barbiemedia.com. They are including a lot of different people and companies in their campaign as well, which I believe will help to reach out to more people. They are using the internet to help promote Barbie, with the use of the Barbie website, Facebook, and the media website.

Even though Barbie’s sales have decreased the Public Relations team is not letting this affect their campaign. I think that this is smart; by putting more money into the campaign they will have more sales. I also think that it is a good idea to bring in companies and people such as Stila Cosmetics, Bloomingdales, and Jonatham Adler.

I believe that their tactics and their smart planning will only bring success for Barbie sales.