Ready for Barbie? Take a Look at Some of Our Favorite Barbie Events, Activations, and Campaigns

Margot Robbie fills the iconic doll's shoes in the new Greta Gerwig-directed movie, coming out July 21.

Sarah Kloepple

July 18, 2023

It seems like every brand on our social feeds has gone pink. From Airbnb to Pinkberry to the card game brand UNO, brands are going all in on Barbie in anticipation of the live-action movie—starring Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling as Barbie and Ken—hitting theaters this Friday, July 21. That's right, more than 100 brands have partnered with parent company Mattel to engage consumers with the iconic doll and her glamorous, carefree lifestyle. 

To celebrate the movie's release, and the abundance of Barbiecore hitting the news cycle, we've rounded up some of our favorite Barbie-themed experiences and campaigns (including the movie's LA premiere and after-party)...

'Barbie' LA Premiere

The Barbie LA premiere rolled out the pink carpet on July 9 at Shrine Auditorium and Expo Hall in Los Angeles.

Photo: Line 8 Photography

The event was designed by 15|40 Productions, and Warner Brothers' goal was to "create 'Barbie Land' by bringing the worlds and environments you see in the film into a format that would work and fit on an arrivals carpet," said Gillian Deeds, senior producer at 15|40.\ \ The guest flow and experience were extremely important to the success of the event, Deeds said. "Warner Bros. wanted to ensure that the 400 fans fit in view areas on the carpet and were provided some of the best viewpoints to see the action as it unfolded once the night started," she explained. "Additionally, we spent time with the scenic team and our partners and collaborators at Warner Bros. to ensure that the pinks were correct, and if they needed to be custom, we made them custom."

Photo: Line 8 Photography

"We worked to bring [Warner Brothers'] vision to life by ensuring every detail was represented from the film, even down to matching paint colors from set, provided by the film’s production designer," Deeds said. Here, star Margot Robbie poses for a premiere snap.

Photo: Line 8 Photography

The pink slide and pool were some of Deeds' favorite touchpoints. Her takeaway for other planners: "Embrace the nuances and details, so that the guests and fans take away a memory by enjoying an experience that translates something that is nostalgic, such as Barbie, to an environment that is tactile and filled with life and eye candy."

Photo: Line 8 Photography

'Barbie' Premiere After-Party

The theme for the after-party, produced by AKJOHNSTON Group, was "Barbie’s Blowout Disco Party." The goal was to pay "homage to some of the iconic locations that we knew the audience had just seen, while allowing guests to create content in some of the scenes," said Austin Johnston, CEO at AKJOHNSTON Group.

Photo: Line 8 Photography

The central bar featured an 11-foot-tall signature "B" in all of its "pink-glittered glory," and it rotated slowly under a 5-foot disco ball.

Photo: Line 8 Photography

The AKJOHNSTON team also backdropped the space with a 36-foot-tall inflatable that created a collage of iconic locations from Barbie Land and surrounded the room with sets inspired by the movie.

Photo: Line 8 Photography

A unique challenge in producing this particular event? The discretion. "On a feature of this magnitude, only a few members were able to screen the film at the Warner Bros. lot," Johnston said. "As a result, and with the security of sharing assets, our design and production team had to rely on direction by Warner Bros. events team, along with our team members who were able to see the film, to dream up the vision of the party."

Photo: Line 8 Photography

"We loved grabbing scenes from the film that only appeared for a brief time and turning them into photo moments that were revisited after the premiere," Johnston explained. "When you can lace the entire movie together with the static 'scenes' within the after-party, you can really give every guest something that is special to them, and the sheer scale of the party allowed us to do just that!"\ \ For Wendy Kupsis-Robino, SVP of marketing events and regional publicity for Warner Bros., working on a film like Barbie and its world premiere and after-party was a career highlight. "The film offered our team so much (pink) inspiration and creativity, we were determined to bring as much of it as possible to life," she said. "Along with my co-workers at Warner Bros., some of the best events people in the biz, 15|40 Productions and AKJOHNSTON, we made all our Barbie premiere dreams come true!”

Photo: Line 8 Photography

Inspired by the disco party, the team at Mirrored Media partnered with Mattel to created this 12-foot pink disco ball at the after-party. "Guests entered the large disco ball and found themselves transported into Barbie Land surrounded by gold and silver streamers and over a dozen pink disco balls inspired by scenes from the film," said Justin Lefkovitch, CEO of Mirrored Media.

Photo: Courtesy of Mirrored Media

"We created a replica of the Barbie Dreamhouse set with vignettes featuring the 'Barbie The Movie' doll collection, her iconic Corvette, and two custom Barbie disco ball logos," Lefkovitch said.

Photo: Courtesy of Mirrored Media