Lego’s Epic, Play-Along Superhero Ad Gives Marvel a Run for Its Money

A team of fresh-faced superheroes assemble, united by a single mission. As they advance toward their end goal, they battle obstacles with some moral support from Groot, before thwarting a villain and coming face to face with their mysterious boss, Jane Lynch, in a dramatic final summit.

No, this isn’t the new Marvel movie. It’s Lego’s latest ad: an epic 5-minute spot that celebrates the heroes that can emerge in a world that’s forgotten how to play.

Kids, Lego says, aren’t playing enough. On average, they spend just 2% of their time (or seven hours a week) playing, according to a global study conducted by the brand, which questioned more than 21,000 parents of children aged 6 to 12 across 22 markets. One in 3 kids (32%) spend less than three hours a week enjoying play.

These numbers are cause for concern for any company in the business of selling toys. However, for Lego, this play deficit is personal, because it built its brand on celebrating the power of play as a tool to enhance creativity, cogitative skills and well-being.

“Play isn’t a nice-to-have. It’s a critical thing to have in our kids’ development. This research was a gift to our creative talent, with the brief to tell this story in an entertaining way,” Nic Taylor, senior vice president and head of the toymaker’s in-house ad shop Our Lego Agency (OLA), told Adweek.

And so, the Danish-founded brand has launched its blockbuster “Play Is Your Superpower” film to encourage adults to prioritize play and drive sales throughout peak shopping season.

The 430-strong team at OLA and Accenture Song’s Droga5 Dublin developed the hero ad. Direction is from Ellen Kuras, best known for her work on Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, while Rachel Morrison of Black Panther fame is credited as director of photography.

Starring six adventurous kids who were painstakingly cast from different corners of the world, each one is shown bringing a different skill to a mission to spread play in a monotonous, structured workplace. Glee actor Lynch stars as the work-obsessed CEO who becomes enlightened by the power of play, while Sun Li takes on the role of the CEO in an adaption for families in China.

Taylor said the five-minute film is also Lego’s first ever “fully playable” ad. It’s packed with Easter eggs, inviting fans to crack the clues and play along with visual assets on Lego.com.

“We’ve created an interactive layer to the film itself,” explained Hazel Tracey, global creative lead at OLA.

“Kids and their parents can unlock different digital experiences, whether it’s building an avatar or collective virtual cards. We wanted to bring play into every touch point,” they added.

Built for effectiveness

The film is just one piece of the puzzle in an extensive fully integrated global campaign that will span TV, digital, out of home, PR, influencer and ecommerce. In-store experiences will also run around the world through playable experiences that tie into the character’s mission shown in the central ad.

It comes amid a challenging time for the toy industry, which is facing inflationary pressures and cost-cutting from financially squeezed families. Against this backdrop, Lego’s growth has slowed year on year, with revenues up just 1% in the first six months of 2023 compared to the 17% posted in the same period for 2022.

Despite this, it’s continued to outpace rivals as the largest toy manufacturer by revenue with a strategy that builds on its pandemic-era growth, boosted by a diverse slate of products that cater to both kids and adults and continued investment in marketing.

“Play Is Your Superpower” will run for four months across peak holidays, including Black Friday and Christmas. Taylor acknowledged Lego would add a “holiday component” with the characters showing up a “little differently” in the seasonal spots.

This commitment to a single, integrated campaign running across markets was an “effectiveness decision,” she said. “We’re bundling what would ordinarily be different campaigns into one bigger one.”

Taylor said from a brand-building perspective, Lego was expecting a strong long-term boost, “but like all marketers, we’re looking for good short-term sales impact, especially over the holiday period,” she added.

The latest campaign builds on Lego’s “Rebuild the World” brand proposition, which launched back in 2019 and marked its biggest strategy shift in 30 years. The platform has spent the past four years positioning Lego as something that can strengthen creative resilience and problem-solving capabilities for kids in a world where young people are more likely to pick up an iPad than open a toybox.

Taylor said: “This is a seamless continuation of that narrative. ‘Rebuild the World’ is here to stay. This is a new way of creativity expressing it, and there’s a lot more juice in that platform for us to [be] active against for a long time.”

For Jen Speirs, chief creative officer at Droga5 Dublin, there was a balance to strike between delivering a message to adults and engaging kids.

“Certain, deliberate beats within the story itself were designed to show how collaboration is better. That’s why we included scenes like the office dance scene,” she said. “For kids, there’s plenty of fun too – floating hot dogs and adventure. There’s a serious message to land, so that by the time we get to the holiday season, there’s value built in around how important Lego play is to kids and their parents.”

The Lego Insider scoop

In August 2023, the 91-year-old business made changes to its loyalty program, Lego VIP, rebranding it to Lego Insiders. Customers can earn rewards and redeem points against purchases via the free membership initiative, participate in interactive competitions and access exclusive merch.

“Play Is Your Superpower” will incorporate Lego Insiders perks, said Taylor.

“Most of our campaigns in the future will, to be honest. We want people to join the membership. That will be an increasing goal of our marketing,” she continued.

With Gen Alpha in mind, Lego has been advancing with a strategy that blends its traditional physical product with digital innovation, gleaning first-party data and opening up fresh revenue streams in the process.

Last year, Taylor’s predecessor, Remi Marcelli, was enlisted as svp of Lego’s gaming and metaverse experiences. The business announced soon after it was gearing up to launch a hotly anticipated kid-friendly metaverse project with Fortnite owner Epic Games.

Though that project is still very much in the works, Taylor believes there’s some “synergy” between the messaging of the latest global campaign and Lego’s foray into Web 3.

“This message [about the power of play] relates to all our initiatives in some form because it’s a Masterbrand story,” she asserted. “Everything we do is about making the play the hero in the story we want to tell, so it’s an easy connection to make.”