LeAnne Hackmann, Sr. Director Global Content Strategy & Activation, Mattel and Julia Pistor, Executive Producer, Playground Productions, Mattel, discuss Barbies vlogging debut with Heather Vernon, Director, Client Service, Ayzenberg. The focus of this case-study is on incorporating YouTube prevailing trends to re-imagine Barbie as a vlogger to drive brand awareness and engage our fans in a manner that was native to channel.
“Giving Barbie a voice on YouTube seemed the most authentic thing we had ever done,” said Hackmann. “How do we really deliver the first animated character in this form ” asked Pistor. “It scared us.” Hackmann noted that she runs everything by her 16-year-old daughter to help make sure the Barbie voice is talking about things a teenager would talk about.
“We’ve created what is for us a really new animation model,” said Hackmann. “It’s not scripted a long time in advance. It’s done in real-time as much as possible and mo-capped.” “You get that instant feedback from the audience,” said Pistor. “We can change things in real time, that’s what’s so great about this platform.”
The channel launched three months ago and already has over one million subscribers. “Getting the likes we see is one important KPI for use,” said Pistor. “Engagement is also critical. For us it’s a global brand, so we’re considering how this content resonates with our fans. Last but not least, how are our fans discovering this content It’s a mixture of all of those things we’re looking at, but engagement is really important.”
“We deliver content long form to short form across a variety of platforms,” said Pistor. “It’s really about the right content on the right platform. The vlogger is so appropriate for YouTube, I think that’s where it remains.”
Vernon wanted to know what’s next will we see Skipper or Ken “We’ll see all the sisters,” Hackmann said. Ken may have to wait a while, until they’ve built that asset, Hackmann noted. Other platforms will someday enter in. “Barbie’s really into Vine, Hackmann said. “We’ll see her on Vine someday.”
