Joe from Salem tweeted today on a Company dear to my heart, and how they are creatively using current events to stay in the minds of consumers (and collectors):
On Aug. 5, NASA's Juno spacecraft began its five-year journey to the planet Jupiter. Not generally known to the broader public, there are three "crew members" aboard, and they've all signed up for the duration of the trip. These "crew members" are in fact Lego representations of the Roman god Jupiter, his wife Juno, and Galileo Galilei, the Renaissance astronomer who made many important discoveries about our solar system.
The well-planned mission is part of Lego's "Bricks in Space" program (not to be confused with Muppets In Space). A long-standing partnership between the Lego company and NASA has resulted in every space mission carrying numerous Lego sets onboard. This is more than simple product placement. And this is not the first time Lego has demonstrated its skill at insinuating itself into the news.
To celebrate the marriage of Prince William and Catherine Middleton in April this year, a team of Lego designers created a replica of Westminster Abbey for the British Legoland Park. Of course, it included the royal bride and groom, along with thousands of Lego spectator figures witnessing the marriage of their future king. The cost of the exercise was probably around $50,000, give or take a few thousand. In return, Lego was given news-style publicity that reached millions.
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The Lego story is slightly different, though just as relevant. They learned their lesson the hard way, back in the early 1990s: The company had unknowingly allowed a great distance to develop between themselves and their core fans. When they hit rock bottom and were threatened with bankruptcy, they realized that the most important asset the company had was its legion of Lego fans. In 2000, they began to hand over the power of the brand to this hard-core group of users. The result? You only need visit the headquarters of Google, NASA, and even Apple, and you'll see Lego everywhere. In fact it was the fans that created most of the opportunities for Lego, and not Lego themselves. Instead Lego took on the role of facilitator, helping their fans turn dreams into reality.
I loved LEGOs as a kid. I had a old small suitcase that I would haul around to Grandma's house, and get lost building cities and vehicles of the future. When LEGO started in with the "specialty" sets, like Star Wars, Indiana Jones, etc., I wasn't a fan. LEGOs weren't supposed to come with instructions on how to build a specific item, but to be used to create whatever your imagination dreamed up.
I've changed my position now that my daughter is discovering them. She loves the LEGO airplane and helicopter, "flying" them to various destinations around WAMKWorld HQ. Her imagination is firing on all cylinders, and it's only a matter of time before she starts creating her own vehicles, and not just playing with the pre-designed sets.
Kudos to LEGO for finding a way to get tons of free marketing press, and for continuing to feed the hunger of imagination, both in kids and kids-at-heart.
