To further engage its digital fan base and place Barbie alongside the types of shareable online content that have become increasingly appealing to brands and advertisers, Mattel looked to The Soul Publishing and the 5-Minute Crafts’ creative team to develop a concept for Barbie-branded do-it-yourself [DIY] “hack” and craft-based content. The goal was to galvanize play, education, and DIY among kids and parents through craft-focused content and toys. The videos adapt the best and most popular DIY content from Mattel’s channel into “real-life” Barbie dolls that were repurposed for the 5-Minute Crafts YouTube channel, and shared across additional social channels and platforms.
Mattel turned to TheSoul Publishing to create a series of Barbie branded DIY “hack” and craft-based content; the exact type of content that at-home audiences have gravitated to this year in light of the pandemic. Mattel sought to leverage TheSoul Publishing’s hugely popular DIY and craft channel, 5-Minute Crafts, as well as its deep global reserve of creative talent, seeing the channel as an ideal format to drop Barbie’s favorite weekend routines and innovative crafts.
Mattel adapted Barbie’s content for the 5-Minute Crafts channel, bringing premium branded DIY content to millions of fans, and adding the flair of Mattel owned content to create a distinct look from the other videos on the channel. The merging styles of Mattel and 5-Minute Crafts led producers to insert Barbie’s likeness at the top, in the middle, and at the end of each video, as opposed to exclusively overhead shots of crafts for the length of the video. The videos also feature the official voice, music, logos, and graphic effects associated with the Barbie brand, and were localized in 13 different languages.
The videos gave Barbie a purpose for involvement in the current conversation in a light-hearted and positive way, focusing on family friendly crafts and at-home activities that parents and children could easily do together, including camping, sports, and fashion. For example, one video highlights tips to enhance Barbie’s DreamHouse with glittery DIY pink face masks, bracelets, toiletry and spa supplies.
Since launching in July 2020, the Barbie and 5-Minute Crafts collaboration has quickly become some of Mattel’s best-performing content on its YouTube channel, enabling Mattel to display its cutting-edge approach to developing branded content integrations. Within a few days of its release the first video within the series, “Barbie’s Dreamhouse Crafts” amassed more than a half a million views. Additionally, all three videos secured 38 million impressions on Instagram and 6 million on Facebook in just two weeks. One month after their release, the three YouTube videos garnered a total of more than 11.1 million views on Barbie’s YouTube channel. In 2020, the videos garnered 8.4 million views on 5-Minute Crafts’ Facebook and 500k viewers on 5-Minute Crafts’ Instagram. The campaign helped Mattel achieve its goal to inspire play and DIY among kids and parents through Barbie craft-focused content and toys, while generating purchase intent, brand lift, awareness, views, and short-term sales during COVID-19 when people are at home consuming more content.
