UPDATE: Saw the below at Toys’rUs with my daughter yesterday.
You all know that Ken and Barbie, “Were made for each other” as Ken says in Toy Story 3. Their story actually goes back to 1961 when they first met. They met doing a commercial. The story starts to build from there for the next 43 years their relationship blossomed. But on Valentine’s Day 2004, Barbie dumped Ken for Blain®. Poor Ken, what was he to do? But Ken was okay, he was back on the prowl as American’s more eligible bachelor. He hit social media like a storm with new profiles on Facebook, Twitter and Foursquare. Now Ken will fight to win the heart of his one true love. You can follow the excitement on Twitter: @BarbieStyle and @OfficialKen
By the way, stop by and help a guy out poor Ken only has 32,562 followers, and Barbie has over 1.7 million.
Mattel is using all the elements of storytelling. The message is hey remember Ken, yeah that guy in Toy Story, they are reminding consumers of the great American love story that is Ken and Barbie. The plot is the story of Barbie and Ken and will they get back together again. The conflict is that Barbie dumped Ken and may turn his advances down. The characters we know: Barbie and Ken. The narrative is very successful it is one that all Americans know. It includes consumers in the narrative as consumers get to vote for whether or not Barbie should accept Ken back into her life. Consumers can vote by texting thumbs up or thumbs down to 51684 or they can vote at http://barbieandken.com/, then post about it on Twitter or Facebook.
I think this campaign is doing well, it has already increased the number of Twitter followers for Barbie and Ken. Hopefully, Mashable or someone else will follow up and let us know if the sales of Barbie and Ken dolls (or action-figure in Ken’s case) went up, revenue being the only silver bullet. By next week, we should know if Barbie took Ken back or not. If you haven’t already read the article on Mashable I encourage you to do so.
