Grill’d eyes more partnerships after high sales in Barbie collab

Grill’d’s recent Barbie Dreamburger has helped the restaurant achieve its dreams.

Grill’d, known for its innovative marketing approaches, is targeting more brand collaborations after their recent partnership with Barbie resulted in an unexpectedly high demand and sales success.

Jessica Moodie, Grill’d Partnerships Manager, said that the primary challenge for Grill'd in the Barbie collaboration was the overwhelming success of the campaign.

“We just had no idea that Barbie was going to be as big as it was. So we ran out of stock within five days of launching our campaign, which meant that we had to rapidly speak to all of our suppliers, not just food, but packaging as well, to get products back into our restaurants,” she said.

Moodie mentioned that the team also struggled with limited creative inspiration as they were working with a vague film synopsis, but clarified that she has no regrets that Grill’d joined the campaign.

The Barbie collaboration exceeded expectations, quadrupling their original sales target. Moodie said that at their Galeries restaurant in Australia, sales of Barbie products accounted for about 30% of the total volume.

“Collaborations like this are important for us. I think collaborations like this give us an edge. It makes us relevant on quite a large scale. I mean, in a local market, it can be hard to put your name to search big brands like this. And this is a really effective and successful way to do it,” she said.

Looking to the future, Moodie revealed that Grill’d is always on the lookout for the next big brand collaboration.

“We love working with other businesses, we love working with partners, so it's always something that's going to be a priority to us. We haven't quite figured out what the next big one is yet, but I'm sure many competitors are looking for the same so it'll be tough to get the next big one but we're excited to find out what that is too,” she finished.