The Lego Movie: Video Game

Thursday 22nd March 
LO: To explain how vertical integration benefits companies; to analyse using Uses and Gratification
theory

5 Video game/Film releases at the same time

• Mortal Kombat Annihilation
• Resident Evil
• The original spiderman
• Harry Potter and the order of Phoenix
• Alice and wonderland

Simultaneous reasons

• Profit maximised
• Familiarity
• Extends the pleasure of the film
• The game promotes the film, the film promotes the game

The Lego Movie: TV Advertising

Thursday 22nd March
LO: To evaluate the methods used to market The Lego Movie; to link the methods to the target
audience

The opening week's box office for any movie can make or break it's lifetime commercial performance. To generate the hype they required they needed to advertise to as many people as possible, which is why they advertised to ITV as they were able to reach their target audience. To grab everyone's attention, ITV allowed them to create an all Lego advertising break. They made every advert that was meant to be aired out of Lego to replace the normal ones.

In Dancing on Ice at 7:27 pm on Sunday the 9th of February, five days before the film launched. ITV broadcasted the world's first all Lego advertising break.

The adverts included:

• British Heart Foundation
• Confused.com
• BT Infinity 
• Premier Inn

The adverts were separated by 2 second stings which showed different characters from the movie. The same time it was shown live, they released the ad break on YouTube. Nearly 6 million people watched it live, then an extra 1.1 million searched it up on YouTube the following week. The press talked about it in 60 different publications. Then not only was it number 1 in the UK box office charts at the end of 2014, it was the best performing movie of any kind.

How did The Lego Movie break boundaries with branded marketing, how did it target different parts of the target audience and was it successful?

They broke new boundaries with branded marketing by creating a TV advert made out of Lego, it was a world's first. The reason its broke new boundaries is because no one had seen it before or thought about creating an ad break based around the product your movie features. The amount of people that saw it live was 6.1 million and a further 1.1 million searched it up on YouTube in the following week. The adverts included adverts for the British Heart Foundation, Confused.com, BT Infinity and Premier Inn.

It targeted all three of the target audiences for the film. The way it targeted parents and children is because it was aired during a popular show, dancing on ice, at peak time for views, 7:30 pm. They specifically case this time as they knew parents and children would be watching dancing on ice so they would all see it. It targeted young cinema goers through the use of uploading the ad break onto YouTube as soon as it went live. Many people tweeted asking followers whether they saw the world's first Lego ad break and because it was uploaded onto YouTube everyone searched it up, gaining more interest. The hashtags #THE LEGO MOVIE and #BLOCKPARTY went up by five times the use when the ad break was aired. 

The Lego Movie: Marketing

Monday 12th March

LO: To explore marketing and promotion of The Lego Movie; to link the methods to the target audience

Ways of marketing

• Trailers (Teaser and Theatrical)
• Magazine covers
• Billboards
• Merchandise (T-shirts, mugs, etc..)
• Bus adverts
• Toys
• Films posters in shops and commercial places
• TV adverts
• YouTube advertising 
• Pop up ads
• Social Media accounts (Twitter, Instagram and Facebook)
• Websites
• Video games
• Soundtracks 
• Brand deals

Synergy is the simultaneous release of different products to boost both

The Lego Movie tie-in merchandise

• A video game
• Collectibles from McDonalds 
• Character posters from Lego shops
• 17 Lego world sets
• 16 Collectable minifigures
• Range of school supplies
• Sticker and activity books

What methods were used to promote the film?

On their website, they have both trailers (Theatrical and Teaser) and a short film called The Emmet Awards. They released one big poster, however every week in the January before the release they released one character poster per week. There were various events at various Lego stores around the country and if you created something in the store you could get various Lego accessories. Also, they created a website which allowed you to create a mini-figure of yourself. The video game is and age rating of a 7.

Horizontal and Vertical Integration 

What are the advantages for a parent company of each type of ownership?

You do not have to share the profits with other companies and you do not have to out source the work from other companies.

What are the building blocks of success?

Making the product appeal to as many target audiences as possible.

What did Lego do right?

They brought in people that could create a funny and clever movie.

How has it laid down the foundations for future success?

They have made a film that was highly anticipated, and that can be watched several times over without it getting boring. Also, because of how clever the movie is, it will stay in many DVD collections for a while.

Guardian

How has it got heart?

It does what it needs to do. It makes people laugh, cry and feel many different emotions. It has has clever moral and storyline which gives a strong message together.

How is it all about 'you'?

Not only does it make you ask questions about the characters and the plot, it makes you ask questions about yourself. There are that people that create new things, and there are the people that build the things. There are the people who lead others and the people who follow. It makes you question which category you fit into.

How does it show it knows its audience?

It knows it's target audience very well. It targets kids (they play with Lego), parents (people who will buy the Lego) and the adults (for nostalgia). It has a healthy dose of comedy for the kids, cheesy comedy for adults and it knows the culture for teens.

5-reasons-why-the-lego-movie-is-content-marketing-at-its-very-best

They E-Media to create an effective marketing campaign through platforms like social media and websites. They created several social media accounts to promote their film online. The social media accounts targeted people that would go see the movie for nostalgia, so younger adults. They also created a website which holds all the trailers for people to see if they come across the movie. This is aimed at the same audience as it is more likely for them to come across the website compared to adults or young children.

The Lego Movie: Target Audience

Thursday 8th March
LO: To identify the target audience using demographics and psychographics

The target audience targets a FAMILY audience. The audience can be split into the following groups:

• Young kids who play with Lego
• Parents who played with it when they were young too
• Young adult cinema goers 

How the movie appeals to each part of the target audience (also both genders)

• It appeals to young kids who play with Lego because of the vivid colours and use the use of Lego. They also use songs such as 'Everything is awesome' and humour which is catchy and obviously aimed at younger children. They also included references to other films like Batman and Green Lantern which they will understand.
• The film appeals to parents who played with it are younger as they use a lot of references to older lego like Benny the spaceman. They will also get references to older films like the Matrix and more adult films like Lord Of The Rings. Parents could also take their children to see the movie to show what they experienced when they were younger. The concept of going between reality and the Lego world is there for parents to convince imagination in their children.
• For young adult cinema goers, the use of big names like Morgan Freeman or younger actors like Chris Pratt attract cinema goers. Again, similar to adults, the use of references to other films and other characters like Batman and Gandalf they will get.
• It would appeal to both genders through having a male and female main character.   

The Lego Movie: Intertextuality and TA

Monday 5th March
LO: To explore the intertextuality of The Lego Movie and the Target Audience; to apply Propp's narrative theory 

Postmodernism

Postmodern films contain characteristics that remind you that you are watching a film. For example in the film Deadpool he breaks the fourth wall and talks to the audience to remind you that you are watching a film. It may contain many genres and doesn't follow typical character roles. Sometimes it imitates other texts or make fun of culture or society.

'Postmodernism questions what is real and what is absolute' Explain how this is true for the Lego Movie

The Lego Movie is a postmodern film as it breaks typical character roles, is more than one genre, imitates other texts and makes fun of society and culture. It breaks typical character roles as Emmet is meant to be the hero, however he doesn't have her characteristics. Wildstyle, who is female, has more hero characteristics and because she is seen as a female sidekick breaks character roles as the female sidekick tends to be the weaker character. The genres, fantasy, action-adventure, sci-fi and comedy. It imitates the film of matrix as it has a similar storyline, and both the films are set in a hyper-reality which break ht fourth wall. It makes fun society and culture as it shows you don't have to fit into society to be successful.

Intertextuality

An ordinary lego character who always follows the rules becomes 'the chosen one' to save the world from Lord Business who on Taco Tuesday will cover the world in the Kragel. The main characters are Emmet, Wildstyle, Vitruvius and Lord Business.

Themes are that you don't have to be a hero to be a hero, or that you don't have to fit into society to be successful. Another is to show the importance of imagination and creativity.

References to other Warner Brothers films or products:

• Batman 
• Green Latern
• Wonder Woman
• Superman
• Matrix

References to Lego products 

• Lego Ninjago
• Lego Duplo
• Different Lego worlds
• Star Wars

Propp's Spheres of Action