Introducing LEGO’s ‘Making The List’.

To make Australian kids’ Christmas list, we literally made the other toys we were up against.

We identified the most popular toys of the season and created them from the LEGO bricks from our priority sets. Think My Little Pony, iPads, Drones, Games Consoles, Paw Patrol, Hatchimals and many, many more.

When parents shopped online for these toys, we hacked their search with a LEGO version.

This reminded gift-givers of the single most important benefit of LEGO - with the power of imagination, LEGO has endless possibilities and can be any toy a child wishes for.

Having a model that informed the creative assets was one thing, but we also needed to deploy the idea in a targeted away, delivering the right toy to the right person.

We partnered with one of LEGO’s key retail partners, Target. This gave us the opportunity to create a bespoke online destination featuring the products we were promoting.

It also opened up highly valuable digital shelf space on eBay via Targets eBay shop, with the execution using eBay’s search result API.

We developed listings showing the seasons most popular toys made from LEGO. When gift-givers shopped online, the LEGO version was there. They could then purchase the LEGO set that the toys were built from.

Stop-motion animations of the toys built from LEGO followed gift-givers around the internet and social, using keyword targeting relative to the users search input, ensuring the right toy was delivered to the right person.

We are not going claim that we just increased LEGO sales volume at Christmas – because there is an organic uplift at this time of the year. However, the true measure of this campaign’s success was monitoring the share of the priority LEGO products we were promoting, as shifting more of these priority products was the key objective for the retail partner.

The LEGO products featured in the campaign increased their share of total LEGO sales from 2.2% in October (non-campaign period) to 10% in December (campaign period). A 4X share increase, with a media spend of just $55,000.

In addition, the campaign opened up valuable physical availability with our retail partners with both eBay and Target featuring the campaign with dedicated LEGO environments within their eCommerce experience.

The campaign proved that LEGO isn’t just one toy on a Christmas list, it can be every toy.

Feedback from retailers suggested a backlog of LEGO products in the lead up to Christmas. We overlaid these products with margin, and six priority products were selected to feature in the campaign.

With only $55,000 in media spend, we had to outsmart other toy brands with targeted and precise retail activity.

This wasn’t about targeting key demographics or segments. We were going after individuals who were in market for toys.

Our strategy was simple: take advantage of the high interest created by other toys, and use it to reinforce LEGO’s point of difference- LEGO can be any toy a child wishes for.

We gathered and analysed 400 key word groups from Google’s search data. This was then aggregated with retailer purchase data, and their predictions leading into Christmas. The output was a propensity model that gave us a view of the toys that would be the most popular at Christmas.

Situation

Any parent knows Christmas isn’t complete without sitting down after the present opening to wade through a fresh LEGO instruction booklet and shiny new bricks.

Problem is, the 85-year-old brand continuously has to fight off the season’s fad toys to stay at the top of Australian kids Christmas wish-lists.

Brief

Our brief in one word: relevence.

Throughout the competitive Christmas season, how do we ensure an 85-year-old toy continues to appeal to children who have a never-ending selection of new and exciting toys to choose from?

Objectives

LEGO don’t sell direct in Australia so partnerships are essential to shifting stock.

Objectives defined:

1. Boost sales of ‘priority’ LEGO sets.

a. Priority sets selected based on being high in stock and providing high margins for the retailer.

2. Engage with retail partners to unlock physical availability at the most competitive time of the year.