After an extraordinary surge in demand, Lego announced last Autumn that they may “not be able to deliver all customers’ orders in the remainder of the year”.
The Danish company, which in 2014 overtook Mattel to become the world’s largest toymaker by sales, saw huge successes in 2015, in part thanks to partnerships with top box office movies such as Star Wars, Jurassic Park and the Lego Movie.
The company saw saw a further 18 per cent global sales growth in the first half of 2015, this success has demonstrated a clear understanding of the changing marketing landscape, consumer behaviour and an almost unrivalled ability to position the brand in the forefront of people’s minds wherever an opportunity arises.
The future of marketing lies with a brand’s ability to make in-the-moment, data-driven decisions based on real time insights on consumer behaviour, brand perception, product analysis, trends and sentiment. Lego experimented with its campaigns during 2015, making the most of existing partnerships and by trialing innovative digital strategies and tactics to capture the attention of today’s consumer.
Key to its campaigns throughout the year was a focus on ensuring marketing is not a one-sided effort, creating real-time relationships with consumers, and using advances in technology to take advantage of moments to authentically engage with audiences.
While not abandoning traditional media planning tactics of using demographic and behavioural data to target potential customers, Lego was savvy enough to expand their marketing and audience targeting strategies, driving more engagement and better results through combining traditional targeting with real-time moments to broaden the audience, increasing brand engagement, awareness and loyalty.
A prime example of taking advantage of a cultural moment saw the company “lego-ize” the newly expanded royal family last April, generating 2,925 Tweets in the first 6 hours after royal birth.
Just three days after the much-anticipated arrival of Princess Charlotte of Cambridge, the Legoland Windsor Resort also welcomed the new Royal baby into the Lego Royal family at its world famous Miniland attraction, seeing widespread conversation in the press and across social media.
David Barker is SVP & MD EMEA at Amobee