I went to see Barbie the other day.

Now, going to the cinema is a military operation for me and my wife these days because we’ve got a 6-month-old.

It meant packing the car up, taking him over to my mother in law’s and then heading off to the cinema for a rare afternoon of child-free time together.

I headed in with my sharing bag of sweets (to myself) and got comfy for 2 hours of pink-laden entertainment.

The film itself was fine, I’ll leave the reviews to Mark Kermode and those more qualified than me.

Although I enjoyed every moment of Ryan Gosling’s Ken.

The thing that stood out to me, though, was how many people had turned up in pink.

Because for all the strength of the Barbie brand, that doesn’t happen without a concerted push.

In fact, Barbie’s marketing budget was actually larger than the budget for the entire film, $150 million in total.

It’s worked, too.

The snowball effect of the film being released on the same day as Nolan’s Oppenheimer has captured the imagination too, with the polar opposite tones and styles being nothing if not amusing.

Warner Bros. knew that while they had a good film in Barbie with bankable stars, the right marketing could take it to a whole new level.

Marketing is often about being in the right place at the right time… but the best way you can do that is by being consistent.

You don’t need to be Mattel or Warner Bros. to get the right message to the right people, you just need to be you.

Speak soon,

Ken Calum