I had the pleasure of recording a podcast on the Good Marketing Unplugged show hosted by Noah Barnett last week. Much to my delight I managed to squeeze in a reference to Barbie – truly feels like it was her year. And Taylor and Travis’ to be fair.

The zeitgeist moment of Barbie is likely the exception rather than a soon-to-be norm. Brand marketers should breathe a sigh of relief. There’s no realistic pressure to execute your Org’s Barbie moment in 2024! As I’ve bopped around on trains and planes this past week though I’ve wrestled with the different kinds of marketing approaches that learn from different parts of the Barbie strategy.

Storytelling

I saw the power of Brand IP when I managed the product marketing of UNICEF Kid Power. We leveraged the StarWars IP, gymnast Aly Raisman and soccer player Alex Morgan’s IP too as part of our Go-to-Market. It allowed us to surround our product with powerful and relatable storytelling, which helped propel us to being Target’s best selling wearable and in turn deliver considerable impact (more below).

Another way to say Brand IP is “Strategic Partnerships”. UNICEF also has a partnership with Paddington Bear and is looking to double down on their collab next year using it as part of their Pledge offering. Do you know any other good examples of Org’s powerfully leveraging brand IP and especially for Pledge? Email them over. I’m intrigued.

False Starts

Mattel (manufacturer) didn’t give up. They had a plan. They had some false starts. They took it back to the drawing board a few times and they re-built it. Over the last decade many people were linked to the project, including Amy Schumer at one time and Anne Hathaway, before each iteration petered out. It took years of investment and effort to carve out the right approach, people and resources to land Barbie’s massive cultural moment. 

The lesson for nonprofit’s is not to hinder the potential of your growth by only promoting a short term focus. Easier said than done. Yet similar to carving out 10% of your budget for testing and experimentation – commit to a path, shout about progress (forwards AND backwards) and bring people along for the ride.

Multi-Generational Appeal

UNICEF Kid Power worked because it appealed to children, their parents and their grandparents. Every generation could wear the band. Whether they chose to walk, run, jump, skip, or play, it would count their steps and everyone could participate in transforming their activity into impact. If you got to 10k steps in a day UNICEF would donate a packet of Plumpy’Nut, a peanut-based paste administered to children with severe acute malnutrition.

Any multi-generational appeal is powerful because your marketing works so much harder. Barbie understood what it needed to say, to whom it was talking and how it wanted to go about saying it. 

To do Brand IP or Strategic Partnerships well, a nonprofit needs to know and understand itself – where it sits, what its relative strength is, and really get firmly rooted in its values in what it wants to bring about.

Comfort Zone

Barbie showed an inspired willingness to break the mold. This is where thinking and conversations need to start.

When we think about how to partner with IP-holders, nonprofits need to bring those partnerships to life in interesting ways and not be afraid to push the limits of “what we would normally do”.

Brand IP doesn’t have to be done in any one way. Channel belief in the power of fandom, which pinpoints focus on your audience. If you feel there’s an interesting connection between a brand and your nonprofit then step in the door, explore and know that the idea needs to be built in collaboration.Or like Noah and I talked about on the podcast, if you want to engage Gen Z ask them to help shape your presence and ideation. Because the minute you do, the minute they do, they’re far more bought into whatever it is your nonprofit is saying or fundraising for.