Reuters Insider - Playing together: Brands unite for Lego’s commercial break
06/03/2014 14:54
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Description: To promote The Lego Movie, popular brands had
their TV ads remade in Lego’s iconic bricks. The
ad agency behind the commercial break, PHD,
explains the risks and rewards of big name
collaborations.
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Transcript (May be auto-generated)
The Lego ads break, Confused.com, Premier Inn, BT, and the British Heart
Foundation adverts remade in iconic bricks to promote Lego's feature-length
film. CEO Joergen Vig Knudstorp. It is such a massive idea to make a movie that
is animated out of Lego bricks and so I thought it was important to find new
ways of putting it in the market. It's a world first and a complex collaboration
that needed approval from three brands: Warner Bros. and the creative agencies
behind the original ads. PHD's David Wilding planned the stunt. So there were a
number of factors that we had to consider and there are probably more
considerations to think about than we realized when we recently set off. But we
knew we had to work with brands that were kind of family-friendly and would be
appropriate for Lego and for The Lego Movie. And we also wanted ads that people
would instantly recognize, and then there was all sorts of complexity around
things like production, so the more scenes that were in the ad, the longer it
will take to be able to build every single set in Lego and what have you.
Brands are increasingly teaming up to grab the customer's attention and fashion
has led the way with joint ventures, including H&M's Isabel Marant collection
and Diet Coke's bottles designed by Karl Lagerfeld and Jean Paul Gaultier. Some
collaborations though are more contentious. When Mattel's Barbie posed in a
swimsuit for the cover of Sports Illustrated, she had to write an open letter
defending her decision. But though they might be tricky to pull off, brands are
increasingly keen to work together. I think in probably modern world of
communications, the need to create something that's perfect and finished and
polished is probably reduced and actually brands are prepared to take more
risks, if you like and kind of do stuff for the greater good that isn't quite so
controlled and finished, but is more rewarding for the people who are watching
it. And with a million YouTube views, it seems those imperfections haven't
disappointed Lego's fans. Amy Gardner, Reuters