The Lego Movie: Marketing

Monday 12th March 2018
Lo: To explore marketing and promotion of the Lego movie.

Ways to promote a movie:

• Trailers -
• Teaser (Really short, builds hype, early on)             
• Theatrical (Longer, story plot given, few months before the films released)
• Posters
• Social Media Pages
• Magazine 
• Newspaper 
• Merchandise- Clothes/Toys
• Billboards on Buses/Trains/Outside cinemas
• Tie in ride at theme park
• Pop up ads
• Website
• Computer Games
• CD or Soundtrack
• Collab with other brands

Synergy is the simultaneous release of different products to boost both.

The Lego Movie merchandise-

• 17 Lego World sets
• 16 Collectable Mini Figures
• Video Game
• Range of school supplies (Stationary, lunch boxes, bags etc)
• Sticker and activity books
• T shirts
• Cushions
• Bags
• Device cases
• Mugs 
• Canvas

Methods used to promote the film:

• A website- trailers, short movie
• Character posters- Each week in Jan 2014, a new one was released

• Events- 

The Lego Movie Premiere 14th February 2014

Various events at different Lego stores

4th Feb Video game released

7th Feb McDonalds released collectible 3D cups with happy meals

• Movie poster

                      

Horizontal and Vertical Integration

The advantages for a parent company of each type of ownership is that they can share the profit instead of paying other companies.

Guardian article: 

What are the building blocks of success?

The Lego Movie is a ripping adventure for kids, but is also great fun for adults.A common theme is that a brand will create useful or entertaining content targeted at consumers that will soon be in a position to pay for the company's services/products

What did Lego do right?

Created a genuinely funny and clever movie.

The limit of the story is the limit of your imagination.

How has it laid out the foundations for future success?

As the child grows up, they will inevitably feel nostalgic about the films they watched as a mite and watch them again in adulthood, perhaps even showing it to a young relative and beginning the cycle again.

Zesty Article:

How has it got heart?

Lego offers a story thats relevant both inside and outside the product universe its built for itself.

How is it all about 'you'?
We mentioned above the core theme of the movie: the difference between those who create and those who build, the difference between those who lead and who follow, and the difference between those who choose to be themselves or a part of something bigger.

How does it show that it knows its audience?

The Lego Movie has a very clear idea of who it’s speaking to – or, in harsher terms, its target market – as it bids to increase its standing among kids (the players), parents (the buyers) and other adults (the nostalgists).

The marketing of the LEGO movie conducts an effective marketing campaign and it exploits a range of platforms. Print is a popular one, they produced 6 Movie posters, four were the main characters, and had a picture the character name and actor name on it. These posters were included in newspapers, magazines, billaboards. This helped to construct a good marketing campaign because it helped to get the attention of the people who wanted to watch the film. It targets kids because they get an image of the characters in the film, not so much but the posters did also target adults by putting the actor names on the posters, as the adults may see the name of an actor/ they like and want to see their part in The Lego Movie. They also printed on Merchandise, school supplies, sticker and activity books, t shirts etc. The movie also uses film to produce a marketing campaign. The Lego Movie had trailers that were advertised to make people aware that the movie was being   released. Before films shown in cinemas, a theatrical trailer was likely to be shown. There would have been Teaser trailers that were also shown in the adverts of family programmes, which would draw families into watching the film.