Mattel and HMD Global
A most unexpected brand partnership has given us a surprising speech sound to get excited about atMobile World Congress ( MWC ) 2024 . HMD Global , the company thatmakes phones under the Nokia name , has partnered with toymaker Mattel on the Barbie Flip Phone . Yes , thatBarbie . But do n’t worry that this is work to be little more than a pink version ofan previous Nokia phone .
“ get me put it like this , ” Adam Ferguson , HMD Global ’s head of product marketing , said with a grin as I chatted to him over Zoom during the show . “ Mattel , and Barbie in particular , is not the variety of brand you offer something off the ledge to . ”
Excitingly , the two company have far high-pitched ambitions than turn just another product tie - in to forget .
Isn’t it a bit late?
The Barbie Flip Phone has been denote at MWC 2024 , but the enormously popular , Oscar - nominatedBarbiemoviecame out in mid-2023 , so has n’t the companionship missed out on all theBarbiefever andBarbenheimerchaos that seemed like the perfect opportunity to launch such a machine ? While that ’s a bonnie stop , Barbie is not just the picture ; — far from it . In a recent interview withThe Drum , Mattel ’s president and CEO Richard Dickson said , “ Barbie manifests itself through product interpretations , but the estimation is bigger than any one product . ”
Ferguson gibe , and said that thinking the earpiece was ‘ late ’ “ missed the point of what the Barbie brand is about , the flight it ’s on , and what it think . ”
What will the phone be about , if it ’s go to be more than just another coaction ? Ferguson continued : “ It has been an absolute joy and pleasure work with the squad at Mattel , and seeing the journeying that Barbie ’s go on over the last years , and we have been capable to babble out about thing like digital detox and girls in technical school . ”
The Barbie Flip Phone wo n’t be a full smartphone , but a feature speech sound , which plays to HMD Global ’s strong suit as a manufacturer and iswhere the digital detox contact comes in . consort to research quoted by the troupe , it ’s a concern among many 16 to 24 year - olds , with many of them make attempt to restrict time on social media .
“ This particular machine will have that classical form constituent to it , and that ’s part of the draw for this particular audience , ” Ferguson sound out . “ They are extraordinarily digitally savvy and live their living online , but they are also inordinately anxious about spending too much time on social medium and on their phones . They acknowledge this . We ’re trying to facilitate with with the existent - creation challenges and issues that people present . ”
What will make the phone special?
If the Barbie Flip Phone is being made to promote thing like digital detox , what ’s it going to be like ? Ferguson was n’t about to bungle the surprise only , but sound out :
“ There ’s live to be Modern thing in the software package , and a endearing new looking and sense . There ’s going to be new stuff and nonsense in the box and the promotion . We are doing everything bespoke with Mattel in this partnership . patently , there are certain elements of historical devices , as there ’s a ground they desire to forge with us . They want to draw on the amazing inheritance we ’ve got being the the sole Godhead of Nokia twist . ”
The journey to the Barbie Flip Phone has been a highly collaborative affair , as Ferguson explained :
“ One of the great things about the partnership is that it has a huge two - manner dialog . We have been through piles of iterations of the blueprint , because Barbie is more than just the color pallet , and the overall brand stands for a lot more than that . As for what is the final version , we are n’t revealing the terminal design yet , but there has been a Brobdingnagian back - and - forth , and it has been a really collaborative design process . ”
Pixelated final design?
But do n’t expect too much departure from what Barbie is known for in the earpiece ’s design , as HMD Global state the phone will , “ embody the vintage chic of the original girl empowerment brand with a dash of pinkish and sparkle . ”
To construct our prediction for the Barbie Flip Phone , HMD Global released the unusual pixelated teaser image see above at MWC 2024 , and it does n’t give anything away asunder from the expected colour of the speech sound . There ’s a reason for such a tease though , as Ferguson explained :
“ We could have shown what the speech sound looked like , and we could have shown the features and the specs . But if you do that , a lot of the focal point goes on the phone itself and the insides of the gadget . But there ’s a story to be told here , and we will do that closer to set in motion . ”
The Barbie Flip Phone will be liberate during the summer , and just in example you were n’t sure how much campaign the two brand name were putting into making this speech sound a flick - sized success , Ferguson close down our conversation about the twist with these words : “ This is is something we are pull up out all the stops for . ”
Now , we just need the announcement of an Oppenheimer Flip Phone ( presumably with a exclusive , big , cherry push button on it ) to put us up for an unlikely , peregrine - focussed repetition of 2023 .
