Barbie is fifty, fashionable and on facebook!

Barbie will have her 50th anniversary in March, and there will be the launch of establishing Barbie as a ‘symbol of fashion and pop culture’ and reaching out to three generations of Barbie lovers.

In this new marketing campaign, Mattel is hoping to create awareness that Barbie is still around and as fashion savvy as ever. The campaign will include everything from getting the Mercedes Benz Fashion Week to include a fashion show with 50 Barbie inspired looks to creating a Barbie Facebook page to promoting their message on a national morning show.

Today it seems we can’t just do one thing. If you only get a Facebook group and do nothing else your cause will have little credibility and nobody will know to go to that page or what it’s all about. At the same time, if you do everything but you don’t have a Facebook page you missed out on an opportunity to take the campaign to a new interactive level. While the old ways of PR, such as press releases, morning shows or fashion shows, are a great foundation, it is crucial to build on that with the new technology and the new ways to interact with people and get information to them quickly. A commercial or a slot on a talk show is great to get people aware, then when they have the option go to that Facebook page and add their friends it is only spreading the word about the campaign and you have achieved a level of awareness that wasn’t available not too long ago.

I think Mattel has done well in covering all its bases and I will definitely keep an eye out to see if Barbie starts popping up on my radar more often. http://www.prweekus.com/Mattel-hopes-Barbies-50th-resonates-with-three-generations/article/126843/