Promoting Media Revision Wk3

Promoting Media Revision Wk3

• Explain why the TV advertising campaign for The Lego Movie was so successful:

One way that The Lego Movie TV advert was successful is because it was first aired on peak time TV on the ITV channel. This helped it become successful because people of all ages were watching the TV, so the movie could show the advert to all people of their target audience. The advert was shown 5 days before release, during Dancing on Ice at 7:27PM on Sunday 9th February 2014, where many people were watching and the movie could be advertised to all types of people.

Another way the movie's TV advert was successful was because it was a world first advert - it was entirely made of Lego. The advert was introduced with an announcement saying "We've assembled a very special ad break" - the word 'assembled' relates to the movie, as Lego is assembled to make things. The advert then started with remakes of old adverts such as the British Heart Foundation, Confused.com, BT and Premier Inn but made out of Lego. Between each remake, a 2 second sting of each character and title appeared. It then finished by playing the actual Lego Movie advert, which was a short preview of the film. This made it successful because it was a world first advert, it had never been done before and all aspects of the film's target audience would like it for different reasons; adults because they will recognise the old adverts that are now in Lego form, and children and young cinema goers because they will be interested in the new Lego Movie.

The Lego Movie was successful because of its TV advert and how 'mad' the media went for it after it was shown. The advert reached 6 million people on ITV, and was then uploaded to YouTube after its first airing, and reached 1.1 million people in 1 week. The advert was so successful, that it was written about by over 60 publications, and #TheLegoMovie tweets increased by 5x after the advert was shown. The film's advert reached Number 1 in the UK box office charts, so it was the best performing film of not only kids movies, but of any movie of any kind.

• Explain what 'synergy' is in marketing:

In marketing, synergy is the simultaneous release of different products to promote both.

• Explain how The Lego Movie used synergy to promote the movie:

The Lego Movie used synergy to promote both The Lego Movie and The Lego Movie Video Game. The Lego Movie also released clothing, bags, 16 collectible mini figures, 17 Lego world sets, sticker and activity books, school supplies and its own Happy Meal at McDonalds, however the Lego Movie Video Game is the main example. All of these help to promote the movie because it can be seen by more people who may have not seen the film yet, and when they see the products they might want to watch the film.

• Explain why a film company would want to release a video game to tie in with a film:

The release of a video game allows for the extended marketing of the film, which helps strengthen the brand image so that more people are aware of both the film and the video game. Releasing a video game along with a film offers opportunities for fans to extend their enjoyment of the film by playing the game - this also helps the hype of the film stay around for longer. Releasing a video game with a film helps to exploit the success of the film, and allows it to become a more diversified media conglomerate. 

Promoting Media Revision Wk2

Promoting Media Revision Wk2

The Lego Movie target audience: 

• kids who like Lego
• parents of kids who used to play with Lego themselves
• young cinema goers

Explain how The Lego Movie appeals to each of them using the following areas:

• Characters
• Narrative
• Settings
• Themes

Characters:

The characters of The Lego Movie appeal to kids who play with Lego because they are made of Lego so kids who like Lego will be drawn to watching the film. The characters also wear quite bright colours so children will also be drawn to that. Kids may also find characters such as Batman to be interesting, so they will want to watch the film to see him in Lego form.

The characters will appeal to parents because there are classic Lego figures that they may have played with when they were young, for example Benny. The adults may also be interested in the actors who are playing the characters, for example Morgan Freeman as they may like these actors.

The characters will appeal to young cinema goers because they will understand the references to characters from other films, for example Batman and Superman. The age of the characters in the film may also be the same age as the cinema goers, so the characters will appeal to the because they will relate to them.

Narrative:

The narrative will appeal to kids because they will enjoy the silly, childish humour that is obviously aimed at them. The children will also understand the basic narrative and will be able to follow along with that without getting confused.

Adults will be attracted to the narrative because they will find the subtle adult jokes funny. Adults will also like the references to other films and may pick up that The Lego Movie is similar to The Matrix. There is also a more complex story line that adults may pick up on about expressing yourself and your own inner creativity.

The narrative of the film may also appeal to young cinema goers because they will get the references to other films. They will also understand both the childish and adult humour, and like the story line of Emmet and Wyldstyle being in love.

Settings:

Children will enjoy the different settings of The Lego Movie because they are all different and each one will appeal to the child's certain tastes, for example if they like unicorns they will be interested in Cloud Cuckoo Land. The vivid colours and different things that happen in each realm will also appeal to young children.

The different worlds will appeal to the parents because all worlds appeal to any age and gender and the adults may find this interesting. When these adults used to play with Lego, they may have used or created worlds like in the film, so will be interested in watching when these different worlds are shown.

Young cinema goers will like the different settings because they may be interested in the different worlds and the different things that happen there. Jokes such as 'Middle Zealand' may amuse the young cinema goers and they will continue watching to see what happens there.

Themes:

The themes of The Lego Movie will appeal to children because they can follow the basic ones such as fighting evil and the love story as they will find it exciting and thrilling to follow along with.

Adults and parents may enjoy the themes because they will follow along with the more complex and moral theme of letting your own creativity show.

Young cinema goers may also like the themes of the film because they can understand both the adult and child themes such as fighting evil with good, but also the importance of creativity.

What methods did they use to PROMOTE the Lego Movie and how did it target the different parts of the target audience? You should talk about the following methods: 

• Poster Campaign
• TV Advertising
• Film Trailers
• Social Media
• Merchandise

Poster Campaign

The poster campaign of the different characters helps people looking at the poster get an understanding of what type of character they are before even watching the movie. 
They appeal to kids because they will be interested in how each character is different and the bright colours and facial expressions will interest them.
The poster campaign appeals to the adults because they include the names of the actors/actresses that these adults may be interested in, so will watch the film based on that. The adults may also recognise characters such as Benny that they used to play with when they were young.
It will appeal to young cinema goers because they may still have an interest in Lego but will also be interested in the characters and the actors/actresses that are voicing them.

TV Advertising

The TV advert was a remake of adverts such as confused.com, The British Heart Foundation, BT, and Premier Inn and finished with a preview of the actual film.
The advert was aimed at all areas of the target audience as it was shown on prime time TV and therefore, kids, young adults and adults were watching. The remakes of previous adverts would have interested adults and young people because they would have recognised the actual advert. It would have interested children because they may have an interest in Lego and want to see the film because of that and from what they've seen in the advert.

Film Trailers

The film trailers and short movies previewed what the film was going to be about.
They would have appealed to everyone because the people making it would have wanted to create a trailer that would draw all of the target audience in. The kids and young cinema goers may have an interest in lego and therefore want to go and see a new movie made of Lego. Adults would have been interested in them as they may recognise the voices of each character.

Social Media

Social media campaigns, adverts and accounts were set up to create and share posts about the film.
This would have appealed to the adults and young cinema goers because they would have seen these posts and may be interested enough by them to go and see the film. This would not have appealed to children as they most of them won't use social media so therefore won't see the posts.

Merchandise

Merchandise such as clothing, 16 Collectible Mini Figures, bags, The Lego Movie Video Game, sticker and activity books, school supplies (lunch boxes, stationary, etc), 17 Lego World Sets and a Happy Meals at McDonalds were released to help promote the film.
These would have appealed to children because they can take their merchandise to school and show their friends and use. It would also appeal to young people and adults because they might be fans of the film and would want their own pieces of merchandise to support it.