1. Christian Louboutin's Barbie:
I made the mistake of asking my 5 year old fashionista niece, Sophie, what she wanted for her birthday. The answer was simple: 'The Christian Louboutin Barbie!' yet the quest was not. I was in Paris at the time and although I searched every toy store, none of them had the Louboutin Barbie. Thanks to a bit of research online, I found a website that sold it so I ordered the doll online and after a week, we recieved the super glamorous Louboutin Barbie. The complimentary letter from the seller read: 'For adult collectors.' I got into thinking: when did Barbie stop being just a toy and turned into a collector's item? Ok, yes, I was behind collectors trends, now I know.
To the eye that has no background info on Mattel's innovative marketing efforts, this seems like a subtle collaboration between a shoe designer and a toy brand. But it's more than that. Mattel has a website dedicated to collectors called Barbie Collector. Under the category 'Designers', you see that there are brands like Versace, Christian Dior, Juicy Couture, Oscar de la Renta, Ralph Lauren, Vera Wang, etc. who have collaborated with Mattel in the past to create one-of-a-kind dolls.
But what's more interesting is the series of dolls created by smaller brands like The Blonds, Philipp Plein, tokidoki, Tarina Tarantino that are sold out but can still be viewed on the website. This can be an interesting way for smaller, newer brands to reach new client segments, increase brand recognition and widen a brand's appeal online. An emerging brand has to keep in mind that it is not always easy to increase fans and followers in short spans of time but by doing these kinds of special collaborations, they can speed up the process. Barbie has 6.5 million fans on Facebook, 146k followers on Twitter and 57k subscribers on Youtube. You can see the Philipp Plein doll's pictures in this album back when it was first launched.
Some of the brands that should consider such a collaboration are Rebecca Minkoff, Charlotte Olympia, Paula Cademartori, MSGM, Mary Katrantzou and Erdem.
PS: There's an album that is dedicated to Dolce & Gabbana's fashion show on Barbie's Facebook that you can view here.
2. Frankie Morello loves Barbie:
I was in London when I saw the invitation in my mailbox so sadly, I couldn't make it to this instore event but I had a chance to see the pictures from the night Frankie Morello organized in collaboration with Barbie to celebrate Christmas. The doll was created Magia 2000 founded by the artistic duo, Mario Paglioni & Gianni Grossi.
I had a professor from HEC for marketing who had once shared a very interesting tip with us in means of product innovation: 'Don't reinvent the wheel. Take any product and pick of the operations: add, subtract, multiply or divide.' In this case, Frankie Morello enlarged the Barbie and dressed the doll in one of their creations for the occasion.
3. Barbie Suitcase by The Blonds:
I already discussed the Barbie doll they created for Barbie Collector above. This time, I want to underline how Mattel did product placement & cross-channel marketing using The Blonds fashion show.
There was a Barbie Suitcase in The Blonds' Spring 2011 fashion show. So not only The Blonds created an exclusive doll for Barbie's 50th Anniversary to be sold on Barbie Collector but Mattel made sure to include their signature dolls in The Blonds' glamorous fashion show. (Please note that I'm commenting on these marketing initiatives from an outsider's POV so if it wasn't Mattel to include these dolls in the show, I'm not to know. This is what it seems like to me, #thatsall.)
Oh, and I'm not even starting on how they dressed Katy Perry in an exact Barbie outfit in collaboration with The Blonds. See for yourself here.
4. Dolce & Gabbana's Madonna Barbie for Swide.com:
Does anyone remember 'The Doll Who Wanted To Be Madonna' articles on Swide.com? With the new design of Dolce & Gabbana's online magazine, it's not possible to reach the archives but hopefully they'll fix the bug and I'll be able to show some of these images to you.
From what I can remember, they had asked Magia 2000 to customize a Barbie doll in a sequined Dolce & Gabbana dress. Then Swide team had used the doll to write weekly articles about a doll who was obsessed with Madonna and who moved to Milan to become like her. There's still an in depth article on this marketing initiative on Luxury Daily which you can read here.
5. Barbie's Fiat 500:
It's not only fashion brands that get in line to collaborate with Mattel for Barbie but also brands from the automotive industry. Fiat 500 had created a life-style Barbie car, a customized Fiat 500, to celebrate Barbie's 50th Anniversary. Mattel, in return, had added created a toy version of this car to add to Barbie's lifestyle product offerings.
I remember, always thanks to my niece Sophie, that this toy was quite a big success as I had to include my name in a waiting list back in 2009 to get my hands on one.
6. Colette for Barbie:
I'm including this in order to show you that collaborations with Barbie aren't limited to creating products. Colette's special event for Barbie's 50th Anniversary is a good example of how retailers can collaborate with brands of this sort in a creative manner.
For the occasion, Colette created a 'Barbie Room' showcasing Jeremy Scott's collection of Barbie clothing, MP3 players, Margaux Lange accessories, Stila make-up, Dylan's Candy Bar sweets as well as limited items by Married to Mob, Uslu Airlines, Bless, Linda Farrow, Alexis Mabille and Goyard.
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