Case Study: Barbie's Pink Phenomenon and Hemithea: An Approach to Creative Performance

Barbie is one of the most iconic toys in the world, and the release of the film of the same name has sparked a new phenomenon around the brand and partner brands such as Birkenstock, with the latter increasing its market value to $11.9 billion after the film.

The film was officially released in Greece on July 21, 2023. It has been a huge hit on social media for a year now, with the hashtag #Barbie having over 100 million views on TikTok. Mattel, the company that produces Barbie, has used this opportunity to carry out an unprecedented marketing campaign, which includes collaborations with top brands such as Crocs, Cold Stone Creamery and Xbox. This campaign has already yielded huge results, with sales of Barbie products increasing dramatically, as well as an increase in sales of products that are pink!

The success of the Barbie movie proves that the brand remains strong and relevant. The film, which is a modern and comedic look at the world of Barbie, has the opportunity to attract a new audience and renew interest in the brand.

About Hemithea

Hemithea has been following her own rhythm in fashion since 2019. Faye and Joy, two sisters and best friends from Athens, decided to pursue their dream of clothing and commerce and create something that would share their love with other consumers. Today, Hemithea is rapidly evolving in both B2C and B2B with over 60 stores in Greece and Cyprus.

Strategy & Creativity

Performance Marketing is very important for the development of a fashion e-shop. With tactics and strategies of advertising campaigns, a brand can communicate the right message at the right time to the audience to end up in the market. Social Media platforms are emerging for more creative performance campaigns!

We decided to take advantage of the Barbie trend, but not because everyone was doing it worldwide and in Greece. But because through performance marketing and changes to the eshop we could communicate an additional message to the market, that anyone can be her own hemithea girl . The truth is that the Barbie movie trend made a very good brand fit and product fit with Hemithea. The goal was to put Hemithea in a different context in the minds of consumers and to imprint this unique fashion brand in their memory.

Let's see below how we carried out this campaign.

Implementation & Tactics

The proposal included the following:

Changes to the e-shop:

Of course, pink was not missing from the Shopify store theme. The shade of pink we decided on framed all the clothes and brought a sense of diversity to Hemithea in a period when all brands were focusing on summer sales.

The main message: Be a Hemithea Girl in a Hemithea World.

Performance Marketing Campaigns:

Here we followed two tactics: one, the main banner that is also on the site so that the messages are consistent.

But the protagonists were the consumers themselves!

The next tactic was a carousel ad that would show the selected products in a Barbie style but instead of the name Barbie (Hi Barbie, Hi Ken!) it was the name of the dress where the unique personality of each dress would be highlighted.

The dress was the star here!

You can see them below:

You can find the dresses here:

Email Marketing

Of course, there was also communication via email marketing newsletters, so that we could communicate this new world to our consumers!

Results:

“BarbieThea”’s two campaigns on Meta’s platform (Facebook & Instagram) soon achieved a 14.97 ROAS, recording an increase in all other campaigns that were running, as we managed to “catch” the attention of new consumers and make them remember Hemithea. From the 2nd day of the campaigns, the other campaigns recorded an increase in ROAS from 30% to 75% with the Remarketing campaign recording an impressive increase of 192.83%!

The results didn't stop there though. In a sales period Hemithea hadn't even started yet. Barbie's campaign and all the digital marketing efforts from last year led to a sharp increase with the announcement of the summer sales! There are many consumers who either wait for the sales to buy or to repurchase another product from a favorite brand after loving it.

With the announcement of the discounts, on the first day alone, the marketing campaigns had already achieved 200 ROAS from day one and an average ROAS of 30 to 50 per day for the August period.

Insights

The world of marketing and advertising needs creativity along with data. Decisions are certainly based on data that must be collected from many platforms, but it also takes courage to communicate something different but that also fits the brand! Having pink products may not be enough sometimes! With the right building and the right creativity we can achieve a lot!

Conclusion:

Don't be afraid to dare to be different & be a business owner in an e-commerce world. We can be your Ken & Allan partners with our experience in performance marketing, e-commerce in-depth strategies and creativity !