If there’s one thing marketers today are clamoring for, it’s some honest-to-goodness consumer engagement. Not so easy to achieve in our multi-screen, skippable, transactional world, though.
About a year ago, Lego embarked on the unthinkable. Forget a 60-second spot; it boldly launched an effort clocking in at a staggering 101 minutes.
“The Lego Movie,” with a star cast and the legendary toy company’s name front and center was a massive success. The Warner Brothers animated comedy buoyed an underwhelming year at the box office (U.S. was down 5% over 2013) and grossed a staggering $257 million domestically. It has raked in $468 million worldwide since its release.
The movie was a critical hit too. It scored a BAFTA Award for best animated film, was nominated for a Golden Globe for best animated feature film and it even had an Oscar-nominated, huge hit song “Everything is Awesome.” It’s no stretch to call “The Lego Movie” the ultimate branded entertainment coup.
However, it’s not the kind of thing just any brand could go out and replicate. Lego enthusiasts span children to senior citizens. Many have grown up with the toys and been patrons their whole lives. Lego’s famous for its engagement with fans, via scores of homegrown blogs and conventions.
Still, Lego is hardly the only beloved brand in the world. It only takes a little imagination to see how others could try and follow in Lego’s footsteps. Here are five brands—and five different genres of movies—that could score big at the box office.
- “Soulmate” Picture a romcom set largely in SoulCycle SoHo, starring Drew Barrymore (I mean, who else can you picture with that sideways talking out the mouth cuteness, and the faces she would make as she struggled to ‘tap back’ and master other moves for the first time?). The lights go down, the music starts thumping and she’s a goner. She becomes a cult devotee just like she turned into a Red Sox fan for Jimmy Fallon in that guilty pleasure “Fever Pitch.” One problem: a love story blossoms between her and a gorgeous FlyWheel instructor she meets at a juice bar. How will they uncross their stars?
- “Cry Me a River” This flick would be backed and produced by Kleenex. Think of it as a wink and a nod to those among us who enjoy sitting at home with a tub of ice cream and blubbering at the boob tube. I see this as a parody mashup, along the lines of the “Scary Movie” series, where “Steel Magnolias,” “StepMom” and “Marley and Me” are completely overacted and poked fun at.
- “Going Pro.” This film is an exhilarating documentary, told through the tale of a single athlete’s eyes. If you haven’t ever taken a spin through GoPro’s YouTube channel you are missing out; it’s exhilarating to watch footage consumers have captured via these incredible devices as they surf massive waves, free dive in the ocean and scale mountains. A great film could be based around just one of those amateur stars as he/she went pro, and the journey was documented throughout. GoPro could even tap its legions of fans to have them vote on the protaganist, making the movie totally consumer generated from conception to the person who stars in the film. (This format could certainly be used for other brands such as the Sony, or Apple’s iPhone).
- “Pantone: Celebrate Color” Pantone celebrated its 50th year in 2012, so an ode to this tastemaker is well overdue. This one-hour film will be shot in IMAX, and be completely silent, solely based on visual imagery. We will be taken on a journey through time that highlights the use of color in key moments in world history. It’s not hard to envision how a franchise could develop, with color used to highlight different natural environments like the ocean, the forests, deserts or cities.
- “Red Zone” This action-packed adventure is the making of Old Spice (and carries in the title the name of the men’s grooming brand’s high-end line of products). The hero is muscular spokesman Terry Crews, a swashbuckling character who is the personification of the Old Spice brand. His trusty companion Wolfdog (from the ads) joins him on a journey across the planet as he, sustained by beef jerky and corndogs, travels in search of the ultimate man cave. Kanye West will play the part of the suave villain who wields as his weapon of choice an “Axe”.
Some might argue Lego had a first mover advantage and it’s futile for another brand to try and emulate what it pulled off with “The Lego Movie.” On the contrary, any CMO, and their agencies, should find the precedent set by Lego encouraging. It enables other brands to point to try a similar approach with the knowledge that audiences want great content period, and aren’t going to walk away feeling like the movie was merely a long commercial.
There’s a huge untapped opportunity with branded movies. Future marketers dabbling in the film space could try and take the experience one step further with clever and fun in-theater branded experiences.
Why not hand out Kleenex packs to every viewer at the theater at all showings of the Drew romcom? You could give discount passes for groups of SoulCycle friends who go to a movie after class—and mine the brand for any real life love stories that have taken place (and see if you can do a fun story about it). The possibilities are endless, as long as you are creative and get the right minds and scripts to the set.
Rob Donnell is the founder and CEO of BrandArc. He can be reached at [email protected].
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