For 57 years Barbie has been focused on enabling girls explore their potential – she has had over 150 careers. Our inspiration was Barbie’s founder Ruth Handler: “Barbie always represented the fact that a woman has choices.”

In order to reconnect with millennial moms (who had likely played with Barbie as kids but had had their opinions changed by Barbie’s polarizing press) we knew we needed to show the brand’s true story, and evolve it from “plastic” and “perfection” to one of greater purpose and meaning.

Our idea was to unlock for the world Barbie’s true purpose: that it nurtures the potential in girls. We needed to remind people that when girls play with Barbie, they imagine all the possibilities their futures hold.

The film "Imagine the Possibilities" was created to bring Barbie's purpose to life by showing how, when girls play with Barbie, they imagine all the possibilities their futures hold.

Hidden cameras capture the public’s reactions as five girls’ imaginations are set free for real in the adult world. We see girls improvise becoming a Professor, a Vet, a Businesswoman, a Soccer Coach and a Paleontologist; the film then cuts back to a girl’s bedroom where she’s playing with Barbie: the reveal being how when they play with Barbie they’re trying on what their futures might be.

In order to start to reverse a three-year sales decline leading up to the competitive Q4 holiday time period, we launched the video in early October, with paid media supporting it to reach Millennial moms where they’re consuming content.

The work ran on paid channels in the US, UK, Germany, Spain, Portugal, and Canada.

The campaign returned Barbie to be #1 hottest girls toy at Christmas 2015 once more.

• Drove the business: it reversed a three-year sales decline. Barbie logged 8% growth in the quarter after launch, resulting in the first revenue increase for the Mattel parent brand in over two years. Once the effect of the campaign was seen, Goldman Sachs cited it as the reason to recommend buying Mattel stock after a 9.7% rise in stock price.

• Drove earned reach globally: it was picked up in over 150 publications globally, reaching far beyond its media spend. The film received 1.2 Million shares and over 50 Million video views, 40 Million organic, over 700 Million PR impressions and two of the highest ever scores for attention and likeability.

• Drove a perception shift: it changed the public’s attitude. Post launch of the “Imagine the Possibilities” film, sentiment towards Barbie was over 80% positive.

Barbie’s biggest perceptual gap seemed to be with Millennial moms, who played with the doll when they were growing up, but had lost touch with why they loved it as girls. In large part, their perception had become influenced by the media narrative that focused more on Barbie’s looks than Barbie’s imaginative end benefit for young girls; as a result, these Millennial moms were turning to dolls and toys that didn’t carry this baggage and judgment from other moms.

To recapture the attention of these moms and shift the way they perceived Barbie, we looked to leverage an online video and social buy to ensure we reached them where they were consuming content relevant to their “mom-hood” the most, and perhaps more importantly where the battle against Barbie was raging.

For over 56 years, Barbie was both an icon and a lightning rod for controversy, attacked by a media accusing the brand of promoting negative body image. As a result, millennial moms who had grown up with Barbie had forgotten why they once loved it, and weren’t buying it for their children.

Our brief was to reverse three years of sales decline by transforming how the world sees Barbie.

Our objective was to turn the conversation around, and shift focus to what Barbie does for young girls, to remind our audience of the love they had for Barbie and to demonstrate the brand’s true purpose.