If you haven’t heard the buzz around The Lego Movie, you must be living on a remote island. While many were quick to criticise the film as a thinly veiled 90-minute product integration exercise, the cinema-going public quickly proved them wrong. The film is a bonafide hit, grossing $69 million in its opening weeks and prompting rave reviews from critics and audiences alike. Clearly, people do not feel like they’re being marketed at, despite what would appear to be possibly the most high profile case of branded content in movie history.
To clarify, Lego did not produce the film and is rumoured to have been cautious about the project from word go. As a phenomenally powerful global brand with positive associations spanning back generations, Lego potentially had more to lose than to gain. How then did filmmaker Dan Lin (with Lego’s support) construct a film that, while heavily branded, would be hugely engaging and loved by children and adults alike? Here follows 3 lessons in branded content as demonstrated by the Lego Movie:
1. Build a cohesive multi-platform brand experience
The crux of successful long-term marketing is managing to make the link between product, packaging and promotion across multiple channels. Integration, done well, offers users a cohesive brand experience. CNN Money writer Geoff Colvin recently described The Lego Movie’s execution of this as: “a machine that creates an extended customer experience with its brand, in multiple media and physical spaces.”
For the Lego brand, all promotions around the film had to tie in with what Lego is ultimately all about: being creative and having fun. The film itself presented a fully immersive world of Lego, populated by believable characters and supported with interrelated product spin-offs. We saw billboards, new product lines on toy shop shelves and promotional packaging come to appear interrelated, telling a true story. One point raised by a Media Week contributor was why there was no creative sell-in for 3D outdoor advertising using the bright, chunky bricks we all know and love. It does seem an obvious opportunity missed.
2. Tell a good story
There was a valid reason why Chipotle’s 2013 short film The Scarecrow resonated so well with consumers. As well as communicating Chipotle’s core values, it told a compelling story which made people care about sustainability issues (Chipotle was the first American restaurant chain to ban the use of GM foods in its kitchens)
The first rule of branded content is: don’t set out to make branded content. The Lego Movie achieved this by delivering on the classic hero quest genre, with a generous serving of humour and fast-moving plot. Any nudges regarding the much-loved role of Lego products in our lives were subtle, since they were cleverly integrated into the plot. While The Lego Movie is undoubtedly built around a brand, at its heart are brilliant storytelling and quality entertainment. For the Lego brand, this can only position it favourably as a facilitator of a fun, memorable experience.
3. Make it interactive
Anyone who has played with Lego knows that creativity and imagination are what it’s all about: who wants to follow the instructions every time?
In marketing The Lego Movie, these themes were introduced early on. The Lego Group and Warner Bros launched a competition, inviting fans to design a customised vehicle to feature in the film. As well as piquing social media interest among Lego fans, the content also gave people a hook to follow news of the film’s making in the months leading up to its launch.
Then, the companies joined forces again to add a “SigFig” creator to The Lego Movie site, encouraging interactivity as fans could virtually construct Lego figures in their own image. This ‘character’ then featured in a customised trailer, launching fans right into the heart of the story.
Not every marketer has the history and passion of the Lego brand to work with, but the concept of producing an engaging, immersive content experience is one we can all be inspired by.
