Lego is sharpening its editorial state of mind to reach parents
The Lego movie is arguably the most successful piece of branded content to date but the toy maker wants future efforts to mean more to more people and is adapting its editorial approach to reach parents.
The toy maker’s marketing has traditionally talked to kids because if they’re not putting it on their wishlists then they will not be bought. That’s changing now, with Lego’s renaissance ten years on from the brink of capitulation affording it the space to address new audiences. It’s moving closer to parents, caregivers and adult fans as a result, focusing initially on the social media space where it can bring like-minded fans together.
“That connection between one customer and another is just as important to us as what we can deliver to them directly,” said Conny Kalcher, vice president of marketing and consumer experiences, at the Content Marketing Association’s conference yesterday (3 December). “Social media is mainly for parents and our owned channels are more for kids.”
While the commercial benefits of reaching more people are clear, Kalcher said its driven by a natural evolution of a business model that’s gone from being about “engineering and precision modelling” to a “human focus”.
There’s more drive now to harness the "power of recommendation” that’s seeing it take on an editorial mindset to commercialise those interactions quicker. While Lego’s communication plans are prepped 12 months in advance, monthly editorial meetings are held where it highlights the tactical opportunities around those plans as well as what’s being missed. One such area was Star Wars, with the Lego team realising during a recent catch-up that it had far too little content to chime with the latest movie's launch this month and needed to reach out to Lucasfilm for help. And it’s not just monthly meetings taking place; they're happening weekly too at a localised level and there’s even a plan to have editorial catch-ups once a day similar to an actual newsroom.
“We realise that marketing is going more live and its about responsive to what happens with your consumer base and not just delivering branded messages [from us] to them,” said Lego’s senior marketer.
“That’s why the editorial mindset is very important so that we stay nimble. We’re getting more diverse at realising that people want different things and we’re also getting better at understanding what they want and where they want it so our data becomes stronger.”
That data is informing what’s internally known as the “nudging strategy”, whereby fans are “nudged” from one experience to another, across both owned and user-generated channels. It’s how the business sees personalisation informing the online part of its expansion, using better-targeted content to convert detractors and passive followers of the brand into more valuable fans and advocates – who spend 36 per cent more, according to the company.
“It’s about having that cadence of constantly listening to the consumer and actually taking action on it, added Kalcher. “That’s key to how we operate.”
Lego has made no secret of its bid to become a media brand but unlike some of its contemporaries expressed a stubbornness to eschew the broadcast mentality traditionally associated with it. Kalcher summed this up succinctly when she said: “Go on Google and you’ll get at least 200 million hits. Our marketing department has not done that. All the people who are crazy about Lego have done that and share their passion for the brand. The more we can do to stimulate that the better.”