Miniature Barbies invade China, starting at McDonald's

The coming out party for the Mini-Barbies also includes a launch TVC (above).

According to Jeff Wang, general manager of Mattel Greater China, the Mini-Barbie is a range of dolls designed "to engage the preferences of Chinese girls".

Mattel said it analysed a wealth of research to determine which doll characteristics would prove most popular, and of them was "easy-to-carry". So the end product reflects the Chinese trend for all things mini.

The Mini-Barbie line also incorporates themes of the Chinese zodiac and Chinese birthdays. A total of 108 doll varieties will appear over the course of 2015.      

The brand hosted 4,350 Barbie-themed parties in 550 McDonald’s in 22 major cities between the 1st and 30th of April. In all, 50,000 Chinese children were exposed to the new product.

Taking it up a notch, Mattel transformed seven McDonald’s restaurants (in Beijing, Chongqing, Guangzhou and Qingdao) into Barbie and Hot Wheels (also under Mattel) fantasy-worlds. More than 200,000 consumers flocked to the special stores in the first week alone. They will remain in place until 2 June.

“Our goal is simple: we want to bring our [Mattel and McDonald's] unique strengths together to create something special and exciting for our customers in China in a way that brings them more value while expressing the magic and fun of our iconic brands,” Wang said.