Barbenheimer mania overtook cineplexes to close out July, with Barbie alone grossing well over over $500 million worldwide at the boxoffice in its first week of release. The film’s ubiquity is such that it’s no surprise that Barbie’s impact can be seen in mobile advertising, but what are some of the insights examples you can discover through MobileAction?

Filtering top creatives for “barbie” via the MobileAction platform is a simple way to view a plethora of Barbie ads.
Filtering top creatives for “barbie” via the MobileAction platform is a simple way to view a plethora of Barbie ads.

We often talk about the importance of capitalizing on events with hyper-contextual advertising, and the biggest film opening of the year is surely something you’d want to strategize for. While it’s best to plan ahead before a film’s launch for tie-ins, it’s not too late to see which UA opportunities are available for your own app. Looking at the top Barbie-named creatives by ad impressions reveals how much AI and photo-based apps strategized for the film’s release. Breakout AI photo app Remini has several variations of ads that show how their Barbie filter can transport your photos into the world of the movie.

You can also make a custom creative collection within the MobileAction platform so that you can easily look back at any ads that stood out to you as you browsed the creative gallery, saving you time from having to manually relocate the same ads repeatedly.

Barbie-named ads included creatives for AI photos & video, shopping, and gaming.
Barbie-named ads included creatives for AI photos & video, shopping, and gaming.

There were other ads heavily featuring Barbie content in their creatives as well, including for apparel and glassware. Candy Crush Saga even had a creative leading up to the film’s launch featuring avatars of (a) Barbie and (a) Ken from the movie.

Retailer Flip also showed off pink-laden champagne glasses to capitalize on the film’s release.

With Barbie’s place in the Zeitgeist likely to last well through Halloween and awards season, it’s important to leverage additional interest you can easily gain from incorporating some element of immersion into your own app’s advertising. Even if you don’t have the ability to include the IP itself into your app, it’s easy to think of ways to channel the vibes into an experience. A tower defense game could incorporate some inspired buildings to defend just as well as a paint by numbers art app could have more pink on the palate than usual. Recreating dances, karaoke, or a fitness ad putting you at ease after watching the stars in the movie are all ways to ride the wave of the film’s marketing magic. Not everything has to be as big as a restaurant tie-in. And with executives planning a Mattel Cinematic Universe, there will be other opportunities to apply this strategy in the future. IP partnerships and adjacent theming can help bring in new audiences while also serving as re-engagement campaigns. While some integration requires in-app updates, it’s also important to stay up to date on the ways industry leaders are setting themselves up for success with themed ad creatives.

Next Steps for Upleveling Your Own Marketing Strategy

Keeping up to date on mobile advertising trends can help you learn a lot about what’s going on in the market and how to use that information to improve your own mobile UA strategy. That way you won’t miss out on the next Barbenheimer. For other mobile marketing tips and tricks, check out some of our other related content:

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