Barbie® Opens ths Pink Doors to Her Dream Closet in a Global New Brand Campaign

Feb 29, 2012 World’s Most Popular Doll Invites Fans to “See What Happens” When Imaginations Get Dressed Up AUSTRALIA, FEBRUARY 23, 2012 – This year, Barbie® invites girls to play with fashion and dress up their imaginations with a new global brand campaign – “See What Happens When You Play with Barbie®”. For more than 50 years Barbie® has been the world’s most popular fashion doll, inspiring girls to ‘try on’ different roles and encouraging them to play out their dreams. Launching in Australia on February 26, campaign activations include TV, online, augmented reality experiential, transit, in store and PR. Barbie’s world comes alive in new global brand TVC The global Barbie® TVC was created by Minneapolis agency Peterson Milla Hooks and directed by Floria Sigismondi, best known for the popular music videos of artists such as Katy Perry and Christina Aguilera. The TVC showcases that same whimsical art direction through Barbie’s pink lens. The ad will run in Australia from February 26, as well as in the United States, France, Brazil, Mexico and Germany. The US campaign commenced February 9, and the TVC was named Ad of the Day on Adweek. Travel in style – Barbie® puts the pink in “PT” Melbourne commuters will be able to ride the hot pink, glitterised number 96 Barbie® tram week commencing March 4. Step inside the sparkly doors and inside her fantastical wardrobe complete with iconic outfits and career paths that have been accessorising imaginations for more than five decades. Sydneysiders will be invited to board the bright pink Barbie® bus in early September. The Barbie® Dream Closet – it’s your turn to try on the style icon’s wardrobe! A series of augmented reality experiential events will be rolled out along the east coast of Australia from April, where Aussie fashionistas and fans are invited to step inside her fantastical wardrobe, complete with augmented reality “mirrors”, and get doll’d up in the style queen’s most iconic, playful and glamorous outfits from the past five decades. The Barbie® Dream Closet will launch at an exclusive VIP event in Sydney in April, followed by a series of public events at Westfield centres in NSW, VIC and QLD during school holiday periods from April through to September. The Barbie® Dream Closet has been created by Melbourne agency Gun Communications and comprises a custom built 4m2 set, and a bespoke digital application using the Xbox Kinect platform. Gun is responsible for strategy and creative direction, application design, project management and PR. Gun engaged the Perth based developer Adapptor – members of the official SDK group – to build the application. The Kinect camera uses skeletal mapping to track users as they stand in front of the “mirror”, making hand gestures to select their outfit, have their photo taken and shared to a bespoke gallery on facebook (users aged 13+ only). The Microsoft XNA platform has been used to integrate videos and sound. BarbieWow.com: a global fashion destination for fans of all ages An online destination has been created for the “See What Happens” campaign at www.barbieWOW.com - the brand’s first single, global digital destination. The pink portal will transport fans in more than 30 countries inside Barbie’s Dream Closet with unique brand integrations and new media channels of “sharing and trending” that will turn raiding Barbie’s wardrobe into real-time, globally-shared experiences. Once inside her online Dream Closet, girls of all ages can explore a world of endless fashion, accessories and imaginative play, through interactive activities such as a design studio to dress up Barbie® and augmented-reality “mirrors” to dress up themselves using the doll’s favorite fashions. “In Barbie’s world, role play often leads to real life. Barbie™ gives girls the opportunity to be anything they want to be from a princess to a president,” said Tracey Hutson, Marketing Manager, Mattel® – Girls Brands. “The new global campaign celebrates the ‘wow’ girls experience when they play with Barbie™. After all, the only thing bigger than Barbie’s world is a girl’s imagination. “We are especially excited about giving girls the opportunity to try on Barbie’s clothes for the very first time, courtesy of the BARBIE® DREAM CLOSET augmented reality events. Girls of all ages will want to raid Barbie’s closet – we’ve included some of her cult outfits and careers from the 80’s right through to today,” Tracey elaborated.