Barbie Unboxed: Behind the Scenes of Mattel’s First Foray into Feature Film with EVP of Corp Comms, Catherine Frymark

Following our interview with the 2024 Page and IPR Case Study Competition winners, we bring you an extended conversation between the students and Katherine Frymark, EVP of Corporate Communications at Mattel, getting an insider perspective on the success behind Barbie’s brand transformation. The insightful conversation, led by IPR President Tina McCorkindale, covered brand authenticity, risk-taking and how iconic brands can reinvent themselves.

The episode covers Mattel’s bold decision to make itself a character in the film, the strategic partnerships behind the Barbie movie, and the unexpected "Barbenheimer" phenomenon. Frymark offers insider perspectives on navigating challenges, managing stakeholders, and working with creative partners like Greta Gerwig and Margot Robbie. The students reflect on their case study, highlighting how Mattel embraced its past to connect with new generations.

Transcript

[00:00:00] Eliot Mizrachi (Host): In our last episode, we brought you a conversation with the grand prize winners of the 2024 Page and IPR Case Study Competition. We talked about their case study on how Mattel successfully transformed Barbie and recontextualized the brand for future generations of fans.

Today's episode brings an insider's perspective on this blockbuster success, with the four winning students chatting with Catherine Frymark. EVP of Corporate Communications at Mattel, in a conversation that was led by IPR President and CEO Tina McCorkindale. The discussion touched on how page principles, like remaining calm, patient, and good humored, helped them successfully navigate Barbie's cinematic debut, as well as how Catherine navigated those difficult conversations with stakeholders who needed some convincing to see the value of self deprecation for a historic brand trying to reshape its corporate identity.

I'm Elliot Mizrahi, and this is the new CCO.

[00:00:59] Tina McCorkindale: So Page and IPR, we conduct an annual case study competition, and college students submit original case studies that Best contribute to the profession's body of knowledge and also provide practical suggestions for improving corporate confidence of function.

[00:01:12] Eliot Mizrachi (Host): That was IPR President Tina McCorkindale, kicking the conversation off.

[00:01:17] Tina McCorkindale: The 2024 Jack Koten Page Principles case study grand prize winners are four students from University of Florida, go Gators, I feel like you have to say that, who are joining us here today. Rebecca Wolfe, Mariela Dothe-Marcial, Chloe Oaks, and Katrina White. And their advisor is Page member and IPR trustee, the amazing Pat Ford.

Their submissions analyzed how Mattel regained control over Barbie's cultural narrative and pivoted the doll into a feminist figure and the impact of the campaign on its stakeholders. I think everyone has seen the Barbie movie, and if you haven't, at least watch it once or twice or ten times.

[00:01:55] Rebecca Wolff: Yeah, hi, my name's Rebecca. Thank you guys so much especially to those of you who took the time to read our work. It's something that genuinely became a passion project for all of us.

I also want to extend a huge thank you to Pat Ford, our amazing faculty advisor. His guidance and unique perspective on corporate reputation inspired us to think about things differently and helped us to showcase a holistic view of corporate communications and reputation management.

Through our case study.

[00:02:24] Tina McCorkindale: congrats. To the four of you, so I'm also thrilled to introduce fellow page member, Catherine Frymark.

She's the EVP of corporate comms at Mattel.

[00:02:32] Catherine Frymark: Hi, Barbies. Hi, Ken.

[00:02:38] Mariela Dothe-Marcial: Hi, Katherine. I'm Mariela. Again, thank you so much for being here. Like, this really does mean the world for us. Like, as Rebecca was saying, this has truly been a passion project that we've taken on the last couple of months.

[00:02:48] Catherine Frymark: Of course, And I just want to congratulate you.

But first, when I found out that there was a case study on the movie, then I found out it was a grand prize winner and then I panicked because I was like, well, what did they conclude? And so it was a good result, for Mattel and for us and just, you know, kudos, kudos to you all for the depth of research and work and analysis that went into it.

It was pretty amazing.

[00:03:15] Mariela Dothe-Marcial: Thank you. through our research we gathered that there was a lot of different parties involved in like the making of the film. So how would you describe your role in crafting the storytelling and messaging for the Barbie movie?

[00:03:26] Catherine Frymark: Well, sure. And you're absolutely right. We had, you know, Mattel, this was our first theatrical film, you know, and for an 80 year old company it took us a while to bring Barbie to life on the big screen. And that takes, that takes a lot of partners. And and even for me, as far along as I am in my career, I hadn't worked at a company that had launched its first film.

And so it was lifelong learning at its best and we're not a studio. Mattel is not a studio. We are and have been a toy company. And so we work with a lot of partners. We worked with Warner Brothers Pictures, a masterful film marketers that distributed the film. Lucky Chap Productions, which is owned by Margot Robbie and her husband and business partner who helped co produce the film.

And from my point of view, previously, Mattel had gone through quite a journey.

At the time that our current CEO took the role, he was the fourth CEO in four years. Mattel was in a pretty tough spot and had never really commercialized its IP outside the toy aisle. And it's not a new invention, you know, Marvel started as a comic book publisher. Hasbro made Transformers. Lego makes a movie out of bricks, but for whatever reason Mattel had not.

And so starting with Barbie was the most complex of all. Our biggest brand, our most lucrative brand, and one with one with quite a history as you wrote in your case study. So for me, this was the opportunity. We, we knew we had a good film on our hands.

But how could we create a cultural event and how from a corporate communications lens, could we tell the story of our transformation through this incredible proof point? And so that was, that was my focus. Certainly our partners at Warner brothers were promoting the actors and putting Margo and Ryan on Kimmel and Fallon and, you know, publicity tour.

But for me, it was more of a. A message about Mattel's vision for films. The purpose behind our brands, the evolution of Barbie as a brand, which we can get into and and really their toys resonate and other mediums beyond the physical toy.

[00:05:40] Chloe Oaks: My name is Chloe Oaks. So something that caught our attention when working on the case Was that Mattel itself was a character in the movie and this was definitely a risky move as far as reputation management goes Especially with the joking and sometimes villainous ways that Mattel was portrayed How did you come to the decision to include Mattel as a character in the film?

And what was the strategy behind portraying the company in a less than favorable light?

[00:06:06] Catherine Frymark: Yeah, it's a great observation and question and Chloe, honestly, I don't think we realized Mattel would be a third main character in the film until Greta Gerwig and Noah Baumbach's, like, unbelievable script landed in inboxes and our CEO likes to tell the story, you know, this was deep in COVID and,The script lands in an inbox, usually you get a treatment, and in Hollywood, the studio and the filmmaker agreed, you know, the writer submits a treatment, you get a sense of the story, and Greta submitted a poem, and then went off and wrote a full script.

That very much ended up the movie that you saw. And so that lands in our CEO's inbox, and it's just words on a page, and you see that Barbie's a fascist. Your company is the worst in corporate America, and the CEO is a chauvinist buffoon. And so to say that it took a leap of faith and trust, is an understatement.

But that's what we wanted to do. You know, a lot of people ask us, how did you let them make this movie? You're making a, you know, a mockery of yourself. Well, We wanted them to make this movie. You, when you get someone like Greta Gerwig who loves Barbie and Margot Robbie, they, we wanted them to break convention because Barbie is your, your case study smartly went into the history, you know, has some past, We had done a lot of work about 10 years ago. We started on a journey to evolve Barbie to become, a toy and a brand that every girl could see themselves in. And now, she is the most diverse doll line on the market. A hundred different body shapes and styles and hair colors. And this is all, all stuff that you know.

And so for us, We wanted to do something bold and unique because we knew that was the only way we were going to break through and it was a script that you can't just read, you have to read through it because the vision, in Greta's mind you, you know, you, you couldn't see that. You had to trust it.

And also, you know, we embraced our history, but also our boardroom doesn't look like that.

As you know 50 percent of our independent directors are, women. And so we are a company made of women. And so for us, it was we didn't, I don't think I appreciated how big of a character Mattel would be and how well we would be perceived for just going with the flow and embracing, embracing the self deprecation.

[00:08:49] Mariela Dothe-Marcial: And it's been, that's been one of the great outcomes of the, of the whole process. Something else we talked about in the case was the massive number of brand partnerships and collaborations that the Barbie movie had a part of its promotional campaign. So given the excitement for the film and how iconic Barbie is in pop culture, I'm sure there were even more brands who wanted to be a part of this campaign that didn't make the cut.

So what was that process like for choosing which partnerships to engage with?

[00:09:16] Catherine Frymark: Right, that, that was a huge part of this and I think certainly led to the amplification and the ultimate, you know, success and box office success and consumer products success of the film. So, there was a mix just like we talked about all the partners and collaborators we had on the project.

Barbie. 65 years old this year and we've have a long history before the movie ever came along of a lot of consumer products partnerships. We've done a ton of work with Bloomingdale's in the past. We've done a ton of other collaborations with with different, you know, apparel and health and beauty partners.

And Warner Brothers is a master at this as well. And so they brought to the table some other partners that were new to us, which were by and large, I'll give an example of one, though, that was a little bit beyond our wheelhouse. So Warner Brothers brought us Bumble And we have to have a think about that because Barbie is primarily and has been a children's brand. Every new partner that we looked at, we had to look for, you know, does it align to our brand values? Is it so far outside the scope of, of what Barbie stands for? Is it jarring to the consumer or the parents of a, of a child to have the brand associated there?

And ultimately, we came up with a program that was a win win win for everyone. You know, similarly, Airbnb was not a partner before and Warner Brothers brought that to us. So it, it broadened the aperture both for, The viewer and the fan of Barbie, I think, for years to come. But also our potential partners who looked at us in a different way through the lens of the film

[00:10:53] Katrina White:

Yeah, thank you for that. Hi, my name is Katrina White. That's really insightful and awesome to hear. So, something we touched on in our case was how the Barbenheimer phenomenon occurred organically. So, we were wondering what the internal reaction was at Mattel and if stakeholders viewed this as a good thing or as something that was taking away from Barbie's success.

[00:11:16] Catherine Frymark: You know, it's a really, it was a, it was a phenomenon on its own, Katrina, it was you know, we did see it happen organically, you're 100 percent right, that was, that was consumer generated all the way, and, you know, we, we watched it happen, we then, of course, decided to, like, Get figure out an appropriate strategy to get behind it, you know And it really did start when it was announced that both films would land Their opening weekend would be the same and that's that's not.

Something that studios take lightly going head to head On an opening weekend with two huge films And so what we saw happening was excitement for viewers to go back to the theater. You know, and we, where we saw conversation, Warner Brothers was in the lead on this as well as our social team, where we saw a conversation happening that we felt was positive.

We leaned in but there were some, there were some cases where, you know, the subject matter obviously you're dealing with, with Oppenheimer is, is you know, highly sensitive historically. So so we leaned in where we felt like we could and then sort of sat back and watched where we did. But.

But the the great thing about Barbenheimer was, was that return to the theaters because you hadn't, 20 percent of theater goers to Barbie opening weekend hadn't been in a theater since pre pandemic. And not only were they coming to the theaters, they were coming in sort of the attire you're all wearing today, that I'm wearing today, and even more.

I mean, you, you all, many of you went to the theater. You saw people dressed up in the rollerblading outfits and just really just enjoying the experience of being together to, to watch a film. And I don't know, I didn't follow it very closely. I'm not sure if anybody who went to Oppenheimer dressed up as much as they did for the Barbie movie, but it did bring people back to the cinema.

And and for that, we were, we were glad to support the industry and, and be part of Barbenheim.

[00:13:28] Rebecca Wolff: I will say quickly, the only people I saw dressed up to go to Oppenheimer had like girlfriends with them who were going to see Barbie. So just say,

[00:13:37] Catherine Frymark: just

[00:13:37] Rebecca Wolff: say.

[00:13:38] Catherine Frymark: And there was a fair amount of revenue generated for Oppenheimer that opening weekend because the Barbie theaters were sold out.

Cinema won that weekend and that summer.

[00:13:52] Chloe Oaks: So interesting. For our last question, we want to ask about looking towards the future. So while working on our case, we learned about Mattel's plans to create movies based on other intellectual properties it holds. So what are the key lessons you learned from the Barbie movie that you're going to implement in future movies?

[00:14:11] Catherine Frymark: Yeah, you know, it's, it's also, A great question. When our CEO joined the company, one of the first calls he made was to CAA, Creative Arts Agency that represents Margot Robbie and, and, and started the conversation to bring Barbie to life. But in many ways, we didn't know that Barbie would be the first out of the gate.

We had identified that was the first that we, you know, had focused on developing, but, you know, with film schedules and actor schedules and directors, they sometimes linger on for years and years in development. But we had identified that same summer, 2018, you know, a few pages of IP that we thought could translate into films and then quickly got behind announcing films

we've announced 15 other films in various stages of development and production. And I think the lesson learned is is working with the best and trust. Our, CEO said something fairly surprising at his kickoff meeting for Barbie with Warner brothers. He said, I don't care if this movie sells one additional Barbie doll.

We're not in it. to make toys. We know how to do that. We've been doing that for almost 80 years. Make a great movie and good things will follow. And we did sell a lot of Barbies coming out of that and good things did happen. But I think what, what the movie was, was a showcase that we mean what we say when we're going to choose the best creatives, trust in them.

Not every movie we create will be a Barbie, surely, but it's the same approach as we go forward. And it's not just film, the strategy. With Mattel's transformation, it was go from just being a toy manufacturer making items to an IP company managing franchises, and that's film, that's episodic television content, that's digital gaming, that's live experiences.

And so for us, we're just getting started and the proof is, is in the Barbie movie. People want to experience our brands and engage with them outside the

physical toy.

[00:16:09] Eliot Mizrachi (Host):

Catherine then had the chance to ask the students some questions of her own.

[00:16:14] JT Conway: I don't think I ever asked, like, why you were why you chose Barbie to, to focus your work on. But, it was the phenomenon of the year, but if there was anything that you felt like, you know, You had a little glimmer of her history that you thought could make an interesting case study or what was that initial kernel of the idea to focus here?

[00:16:35] Rebecca Wolff: I know for me, I wasn't allowed to play with Barbies when I was younger. My mom was very anti Barbie and it was something that I, I mean I never really thought much about it growing up and then obviously it was a huge thing last summer. And everyone was like, Oh, Barbie's great. Barbie's great. And then I saw the movie and it's genuinely one of the best movies I've ever seen.

and I was like, thinking about how it just completely switched the way that people were thinking about the brand. And that was really compelling. I think to me and to all of us. So I think that's one of the driving reasons. I know that I thought this would be a great topic.

[00:17:14] Catherine Frymark: You know, hearing that, you know, it hurts a little bit to hear you weren't allowed to play with Barbies, but it, it's, it's, we learned that in our research as you know, going back 10 years, we did some, some research and it was playing back to us that mothers were not proud or comfortable buying Barbie as a birthday party gift.

I mean, Ruth Handler created a doll to inspire the limitless potential in every girl. Barbie went to the moon had careers. And so Ruth Handler was onto something and to, and to think that. The perception of the brand was such that you're, you know, you weren't allowed to play with them was, you know, the reason that we went on the journey we did 10 years ago to evolve, to evolve the doll and, and also, To make parents and children really embrace what Barbie stands for and to make Barbie look like the world, world around her.

And that was, you know, also part of the, the journey with Warner Brothers. They came up with the brilliant marketing tagline, If you love Barbie, this movie's for you. If you hate Barbie, This movie's for you. And of course, the old Mattel would have been like, nobody hates Barbie. You can't say you hate Barbie.

But we know it's true. We know that there were perceptions and old perceptions and we wanted to address those head on. And, and so for you, having seen the movie and having that new view, that was everything. That was, that was why we did it and what we wanted to make in

this film.

[00:18:41] Rebecca Wolff: I have a quick thoughtI think just the the sheer fact that Mattel was so open to being poked fun of says wonders about if you hate us, that's fine like We're okay to hate. Like, it was just very, like, good humored. And I feel like if you're trying to take that approach of, if you hate us, this is also for you.

Like, you kind of need to be good humored about it and not take things too seriously. And I think that's something that I kind of took away from that part of that campaign.

[00:19:15] Katrina White: Yeah. And to add on to that, I think just Mattel's authenticity really shined through in that moment. And by By recognizing its past flaws and things they've done wrong, I think it proves that Mattel as a company is evolving with the times and it shows their audience that we hear you, we hear your complaints and your worries and we're working on fixing them.

And then also just adding that humorous layer to it of saying like, yeah, it was ridiculous the way we were. Creating Barbie back in the day, but that's not who Barbie is anymore. Barbie is also an astronaut, a teacher, and she can be so much more than that. And I think that's what made the film very

[00:19:58] Catherine Frymark: powerful.

I think that's what sort of shined our halo, I guess, in the whole thing. And, and, you know, we knew that Greta was coming from a place of, of love. She loved Barbie. I mean, she talked about playing with Barbie far longer than, than all of her friends had in her youth. And, and she was a great student of the history and certainlyeasier for us to take it on the chin because we've evolved.

But Margot and Greta had both said they wouldn't have made this movie had we not evolved the brand. And so, you're right. I think for, for other brands, if you're going to poke fun at yourself, yeah, you got to be able to take it. And, and, and it is, it does have to be authentic. And it worked

You should tell us if you're going to do a sequel, Catherine. We won't tell

[00:20:47] Tina McCorkindale: anybody. Just, just this group. Nice

[00:20:50] Catherine Frymark: try, Tina.

But I will say, you know, the, the whole goal with Mattel Films is, you know, we want to, we want to create franchises. And and we're really just. It's starting to launch our cinematic universe such that it is so with 15 other announced films in development and many more that we haven't announced, and proof of Barbie,

we're pretty excited about the future. I

[00:21:17] Tina McCorkindale: will ask what were some of your big

challenges like so far, everything has been very positive, but what do you think were some of the big challenges when you were trying to do this from a calm standpoint?

[00:21:27] Catherine Frymark: number of partners. I think I learned, we learned so, so much, you know, we, we had the benefit of working obviously with Warner Brothers and I had worked at Discovery, which was now Warner Brothers Discovery.

So I, I, at least when we embarked on the film, I had some, Some familiarity with some of the players and partners at the in this new capacity there, but identifying swim lanes, constant communication. I think I had probably on average six Barbie themed Barbie movie themed meetings a day.

For at least an eight month period. it was so big and so bold and, and it was, it was a film that obviously it meant a lot to us, it could have easily failed if we didn't have the right partners and things didn't go right. And, and could have damaged the Barbie brand after all that work we we'd done.

So, so for me, it was trying to anticipate issues was hard on this one because there were so many different messages. There were so many points of interest. There were such big stars. I mean, this was the first, you know, Greta is a brilliant director and writer, but this was her first big commercial film.

There was a lot of focus on that, on Margot, on Ryan, on the cast. We also, We're very supportive of trying to keep it under wraps because how do you describe this movie, right? Look back now and how do you describe what it's going to be? Greta, she wanted to keep the diverse cast behind Margot and Ryan a secret until a little bit later when they were ready to show the trailer.

So keeping a lid on that, knowing what we had, the magic that we had in the casting and the messages and, you know, all the positives about the film. but. Holding back, so that people didn't get pink fatigue. And that was really, Warner Brothers was a master at that as well. So just swim lanes and

so many different partners.

[00:23:35] Pat Ford: I know the students point of view. I have a question for Catherine. Catherine as you I'm sure know better than I one of the great things about the page society are the page principles and the page model.

And as you're describing your, your 8 months of 6. Barbie themed things a day and so on. What brought to mind was the importance of the CCO as catalyst in many corporations and as both the the sort of facilitating the conscience of the corporation, but also, that notion of connecting different parts of the organization to get behind an initiative that the CEO and the, and the, the leadership is moving toward.

the students were, we're looking at this through that prism of the page principles and the page model were you is that was that something very conscious for you as you were going through this.

[00:24:29] Catherine Frymark: You know, it, it, it was, I guess, conscious and unconscious, I think, because you're right, it is the role of, of the CCO to sort of bring all of that together and anticipate issues.

I mean, you know, the, we had decided obviously that Greta Gerwig was going to have creative freedom, but that didn't mean that we didn't have control and a say in the film. And, and so for me, it was, it was an interesting point because we, we all got this script and I was not in a position really to. You know, we're, we, we didn't want to, we gave suggestions on Greta's script.

She's very kindly would talk about how, you know, Mattel was so collaborative and, and when, even when we provided input, it would be in the form of a question And one of the questions in the script that, you know, got out. in the press with, does the Mattel executive need to get shot? Question mark. And so, you know, those are those sorts of things that we anticipated and tried to prepare for. And for me, it really was, you know, Pat, just knowing that this was our moment.

This was our Moment. And, I don't think our partners really knew going into it, how interested the world would be in the Mattel story, not just You know, the history of Ruth Handler in the history, but the history of Barbie and her evolution and Mattel's challenges along the way.

And then it was also a moment to emphasize the fact that we are a company with purpose. and all of our brands are rooted in purpose and also, I was very proud to be part of the group that pulled together a philanthropy initiative.

we worked with Save the Children. It was a win win win because Warner Brothers, Mattel, and CAA. We're all strong partners of Save the Children. And so we got behind a text to donate campaign for their girls empowerment initiatives globally. And that was a particular point of pride, but it was, it was pulling all of those things together and knowing, you know, you're going to give creative freedom to your filmmaker.

what do you have to prepare for? You know, lots of conversations about patriarchy and feminism and, and Mattel's comfortability with, with, embracing the fun and being poked fun at. And so, I'd like to say I anticipated them all. I didn't, but it was a lot of pulling together of different constituents, for sure.

[00:26:52] Pat Ford: Just one follow up, in your company, as they were watching the movie, did they leap to their feet like people in the movie theaters when when America Ferrara's soliloquy was finished?

[00:27:06] Catherine Frymark: Yeah, that was, that was pretty powerful, and you know, we, we were seeing the film all along the way,

to see it take shape, certainly on the page, it was brilliant. But the way America brought it to life, and I, I forget Greta's told me how many takes she did of that. 'cause she is a perfectionist. But, it really became an anthem, in a movement. Over the summer, and we did leap to our feet. our headquarters is based in El Segundo, California here, and we closed the offices and at least in for the local employees.

We did a premiere a week out and all of our employees showed up in pink and all sorts of, you know, ball gowns and etc. And just the joy on employees faces. Some who've been here 25, 30 years that we've finally taken this brand and put it on the big screen was just an incredible moment of pride. And we did that around the world and our regional offices around the world.

So we all leapt

with joy.

[00:28:08] Speaker 13: ​

[00:28:08] Eliot Mizrachi (Host): Whether you were allowed to play with Barbies as a kid or not, we hope you enjoyed this open, honest, and insightful discussion with Catherine Frymark and the future communicators from the University of Florida.

We hope you took away the power of strategic patience and how even the most established brands can find new ground to inspire and connect with audiences if they're confident enough to be in on the joke.

I'm Eliot Mizrachi, and we'll see you next time on the new CCO.