Barbie: Escape the Dreamhouse is a lighthearted and inclusive immersive escape room experience, that invites Barbie fans of all ages to celebrate the release of the highly-anticipated Barbie live action movie. Guests will have the opportunity to visit a recreation of Barbie’s iconic Malibu Dreamhouse at their local cinema and bring different parts of the house to life using handheld tablets with AR technology. The tablets will give guests the power to choose their own path within the dollhouse, while they ask different characters for clues to find out where Barbie is hiding. Warner Bros and Mattel have the perfect opportunity to embrace the exciting prospects of AR in the entertainment industry, which market experts say can “revolutionise the way we interact with…the world around us” (Sharma, 2023). This would also allow them to take advantage of the booming immersive technology industry, which has generated around £1.4 billion in the UK so far (Immerse UK, 2022).
Although this is projected to be a high scale campaign, Barbie: Escape the Dreamhouse will allow Warner Bros to pioneer the use of immersive technology to enhance the traditional cinema experience. This is also the perfect chance for Warner Bros to invest in fandom culture once again and excite their audiences with a new and engaging immersive experience – especially given their track record of successfully bringing fictional universes, like Harry Potter, to life. Not only will we be working with an expert design team to ensure that the replicas of Barbie’s Dreamhouse are precise and realistic, but we will be keeping the secrets behind the ‘ AR magic’ hidden, so that fans can suspend their disbelief and fully immerse themselves in Barbie’s universe (Muckler, 2017). At the end of the experience we will be surprising guests with a digital feature from the film’s starring actress Margot Robbie, as well as offering several photo opportunities – which will help us generate organic social media buzz about the experience and new film.
During their visit, we hope that guests will fondly reminisce about their childhood and find themselves laughing along with the fun Barbie characters they interact with, as well as their fellow guests.
