Lego Movie is the best piece of marketing ever

IF YOU’VE just seen The Lego Movie this may be true but it almost doesn’t matter because the flick could be the best piece of marketing ever.

WALKING out of a Sunday morning session of The Lego Movie I was struck by one neon-lit question, “Did I just pay $20 to watch a two-hour ad?”

Having written about advertising, media and marketing for several years, I’m now trained to see the world in the ways companies and brands embed themselves in our lives through sometimes clever, but mostly silly, marketing ploys.

Brands are ubiquitous, you can’t escape them. They’re on the back of the toilet stall door, they’re on the tables you’re eating on in the food court, they’re in pretty much every TV show or movie through product placement and they’re in your social media feed.

Like I said, you can’t escape. You shouldn’t even try.

So why would we all willingly subject ourselves to a two-hour brand feast where every single frame involves the brand? And pay for the privilege?

Because it was brilliant.

News_Image_File: The Lego Movie raked in $5.7 million at the Australian box office on its first weekend.

Movie-goers and critics alike agreed. It stormed the US box office, taking $250 million already while locally, it raked in $5.7 million in box office receipts during the first weekend. Pretty swish for a movie with a $60 million budget. On Rotten Tomatoes, The Lego Movie is currently scoring a rare 96%.

When the credits rolled at the end of my session, the throngs of kids in the cinema (the perils of a Sunday morning session) looked like they were about to unleash the full force of pester power on their parents.

And you know what? Those parents would’ve happily obliged, keen to tear their kids away from the digital allure of Angry Birds. Because The Lego Movie managed to tap into the creativity and imagination of the kids and the nostalgia of all the adults in the room.

The entire plot (and I’m not giving anything away here) is centred around creativity, which is exactly ‘on brand’. At a top level, the synthesis was seamless as the movie cleverly positioned the Lego product as being synonymous with the brand values it lists on its corporate website — imagination, creativity, fun, learning, caring and quality.

News_Image_File: Batman, a staple of the DC Comics brand, is one of the main characters.

At a deeper level, the movie was replete with commercial nods. Many characters to feature in the movie are ones that belong to separate brands. Batman and his other DC Comics gang (Wonder Woman, Superman and the Green Lantern) make appearances, along with characters from the Harry Potter, Star Wars and Lord of the Rings franchises.

Just in case you missed it, these brands all have commercial partnerships with Lego where those worlds are extended in brick form at your local toy store. It was very meta. Warner Bros, which made The Lego Movie, also holds the rights to DC Comics and Harry Potter.

Another tongue-in-cheek reference to the ‘real world’ of Lego products revolve around parallel universes including the Wild West, which just so happens to correspond with Lego products you can buy. Nicely done. And of course, you can buy many of the Lego characters and sets from the film, ranging from the Getaway Glider to Lord Business’ Evil Lair.

News_Image_File: Lord Business’ Evil Lair retails for $99 in Australia.

That the villain of the piece was named Lord Business was not lost on the adults in the audience, but because the irony was so cheekily obvious, I forgave it and a whole lot more for one simple reason — despite the blatant ‘Yay, Lego!’, it was an incredibly entertaining film in itself.

The plot was plausible and well-scripted, it had high calibre voice actors (Morgan Freeman, Elizabeth Banks, Liam Neeson, Will Ferrell, Will Arnett and Chris Pratt), first-rate and engaging animation, and it was very, very funny. I would even pay to see it again, or at least buy the digital download off iTunes in a few months.

News_Image_File: Elizabeth Banks was the voice of Wyldstyle.

In trying to reconcile the fact that I was actually copacetic with having paid money to watch an extended marketing exercise, I enlisted the wisdom of The One Centre’s content marketing manager and my former editor at AdNews, Danielle Long.

She said: “It’s not a two-hour ad, it’s pure entertainment. Instead of making a blockbuster film, they used the product and made it the medium, so it becomes the source of entertainment. Entertainment as only limited by your imagination.

“It’s a compelling storyline and it was made by people who know what they’re doing. I don’t think it would’ve been legitimate if they didn’t have experienced storytellers [including Australia’s Animal Logic].

“It’s so smart. It’s also unique in that there are not a lot of brands that capture people’s imaginations in the same way, both young and old. The movie has messaging that goes through the ages. I’d struggle to think of another brand that could legitimately do it.”

News_Image_File: Long: “It wasn’t a two-hour ad, it was pure entertainment.”

The Lego Movie also managed to do what other ‘toy-based’ movies such as Transformers or Battleship failed to do — resonate with the audience that will actually buy the product. Not many 16-year old teenage boys went to pick up a Bumblebee toy after three hours of oogling Megan Fox.

Ms Long added: “The film aligns perfectly with Lego’s brand positioning of creative play. Having just seen it, I’m now convinced this is a marketing masterpiece.”

The Lego Movie is the ultimate content marketing ploy — brands getting into the content game to ‘add value’ to their customer’s lives so said customer will reward that brand with loyalty and money — even if it didn’t mean to be.

News_Rich_Media: With The Lego Movie out, its creators gave fans a tongue-in-cheek look at what went down 'behind the bricks' when the cameras weren't rolling. Courtesy: Roadshow Films

The movie wasn’t conceived by an advertising agency or a marketing team at Lego head office. It was pitched to the Danish company by producer Dan Lin. A statement from Lego company also said it wasn’t in its ambition to become an entertainment company, preferring to stick to toy bricks instead.

But there’s no doubt Lego sales are about to go through the roof for the privately-owned Danish company who started it over 80 years ago.

Lego Australia wouldn’t comment on whether it expected a sales boost off the success of the movie or whether it had organised extra stock in anticipation of increased demand. But a statement from the company did say: “The movie celebrates the Lego brand and we may see a halo effect across the Lego portfolio.”

Understatement.

What did you think of The Lego Movie? Was it genuinely entertaining or just a giant marketing ploy? Sound off in the comments below or on Twitter @newscomauhq or @wenleima