case study: barbie and ken, together again


Ken™ was introduced in 1961 to accompany America’s favourite fashion doll – Barbie®. Officially, he was “Barbie’s boyfriend” until 2004 when they had a much publicized breakup. From 2004 until February 14, 2011, Barbie® and Ken™ were “just friends. In late 2010/early 2011, Ken™ made a big play in pop culture, showing the world that he is the “ultimate boyfriend for every occasion” (e.g. Toy Story 3, “Genuine Ken®: The Search for the Great American Boyfriend,” Toronto LG Fashion Week, “Barbie, I want you back” advertisements, etc.).

Starting in January 2011, Ken™ started to miss his famous ex-girlfriend and had come to the realization that he wanted her back.  From billboards and bus shelter ads, to professing his love for Barbie® on TV and in malls, Ken™ let it be known that he wanted to be Barbie’s “ultimate boyfriend” once again.  Ken™ also asked for Canadians to support in his quest to win Barbie® back by going to Barbieandken.com and clicking ‘yes’ to the question: “Should Barbie take Ken back?”
GCI was tasked with creating a program to build awareness about Ken’s affection for Barbie ® and his desire to win her back. The objective was to position Ken™ as Barbie’s “ultimate boyfriend” through a series of media relations activities and celebrate Ken’s desire to win Barbie® back by highlighting key products in 2011 including the newest Ken doll on store shelves - Sweet Talkin’ Ken™.

GCI built a multi-pronged program that included media relations, activations and social media tactics that positioned Barbie® and Ken™ as the ultimate “IT” couple.

In order to seed the ultimate boyfriend messaging  and set the stage for Barbie® and Ken’s reunion, GCI sent a “mis-directed” love letter, pink rose and Sweet Talkin’ Ken™ doll (with a Sweet Talkin’ Ken™ pre-recorded message) to a targeted list of  lifestyle/consumer reporters, producers and editors across the country. GCI then followed-up with the media as “Ken’s publicists” to apologize for the mistaken rose/letter delivery, plead for their help to win Barbie® back, and encourage interviews with a real-life “Ken” in person, via Skype or on the phone. We conducted media training with the main spokesperson, “Ken,” and accompanied him to media interviews. This created an opportunity to seed the Ken™ and Barbie® messaging to media first-hand, promote priority Mattel products and encourage media to get involved in Ken’s quest to win Barbie® back.

Finally, after weeks of anticipation, Barbie® and Ken™ reunited on Valentine’s Day, 2011. Through a series of media relations activities (press release, interviews, press photos, etc.)  GCI helped publicize the Barbie® and Ken™ reunion by generating buzz across the country.  GCI disseminated a Canadian press release at 12:01 a.m. on February 14, 2011 on Canada NewsWire, announcing Barbie® and Ken’s official reunion and on Valentine’s Day, 10 Ken™ look-alike models also “took over” Union Station, handing out roses and “I love Barbie” pins to the public on the concourse level, professing their love for Barbie® and announcing that Ken™ and Barbie® were back together. GCI leveraged the Union Station “take-over” activation to garner media coverage about the reunion and also pitched media interviews with “Ken” after the reunion was announced in order to seed the Barbie® and Ken™ messaging even longer and share with Canada that the infamous couple was indeed, back together.

Results

  • Through GCI’s media outreach for the program, interviews with “Ken” were secured on various media outlets including: CityTV News,   AOL Canada,  Proud FM (103.9), A- Morning Ottawa, TheVarsity.ca, CP24 Breakfast, The Scott Thompson Show, CHED 680, Eye Weekly,  MooseFM - Parry Sound, MooseFm - Haliburton and Rogers Daytime London.
  • GCI arranged a live-eye interview at the Union Station “take-over” activation with CP24 Breakfast and four of the real-life Kens, seeding the messaging that Barbie® and Ken just got back together on the most romantic day of the year – Valentine’s Day
  • The lead-up to Barbie® and Ken’s reunion and the news about their “back together” status garnered attention from several television, radio, print and online outlets across the country including: all Sun Media outlets, 24 Hours (National), CANADA AM, Snap Downtown Toronto, Toronto Star, Canada.com, Everythingmom.com, Nationalpost.com, Leaderpost.com and much more.

 

 

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awards & recognition

3M Privacy Filters, "Canadians Love to Spy"
 2009 Ovation Award of Merit for Brand Communications, IABC

3M Command Campus Tour, "Save the Walls"
 2008 Award of Excellence, CPRS

Belkin, "A Streetcar Named Inspire"
 2008, Silver Award of Excellence, Special Events Category, CPRS