Stepping on the Plastic pains Marketing Tactics

Stepping On The Plastic Pains Marketing Tactics

-Nate Berard

Alright, let’s talk about a thing thousands have had to learn about time and time again, marketing. Now I’m going to give a modern look on how a company, in this case The Lego Company, has had to change everything they’ve known to make it in the modern era known as the 2010’s.

So everyone knows what Lego is, it may mostly be from stepping on your own or siblings bricks and feeling the pain of death shoot through you, but it’s much more complex than that. Lego is a brand that will be 68 years old in 2017 and it is still growing. Now if you want a short 17 minute summary of how Lego was created click HERE. If not, continue to read this post.

Let’s return to the topic of marketing now. Marketing is what every company in the world does be it on TV, a billboard, in the newspaper, your phone, or even on your friends right shoe. Marketing is how companies show off their products to the world and try to get it stuck in a person’s head so they will eventually attempt to buy it. The Lego Company is not new to this at all. From TV ads, to online ads, to their theme parks, TV shows, and even their movies. Yes Lego has grown at an exponential rate since they almost shut down in 2003-. 2003 is Lego’s worst year because no one seemed to buy anything that was made by them. Even their coming to fame toyline, Bionicle, was failing. But this was not due to any marketing failure, no in fact some believe that Lego was almost lost because Lego over advertised their items. So everything they did made the DEMAND of Lego sets to drop into dangerous territory almost creating a MARKET FAILURE.

Then in 2006 the Lego Bionicle line titled “Bionicle Ignika” came out with a special kind of marketing, they took the popular at the time band, All American Rejects, and had the slogan “Save The Band” on all of the commercials. Some people may remember the commercials all over the Nickelodeon channel and Cartoon Network back then, click HERE to see the short commercial about it. Now this was the year that Lego officially made their comeback as the company was saved by the toy line, Bionicle. Now after those commercials the Bionicle Ignika got a video game titled “Bionicle Heroes”. Now this game was loved by kids at the time and that ended up in them getting the toys to act out the game or to create their own scenarios.

After that Lego hit a state of pure bliss in sales and they racked in the bucks. But then, in 2014, a movie came out that boosted sales dramatically. The Lego Movie advertising was crazy for this full length feature film. The slogan for the film was “Be The Special” which many kids and adults took to heart in very positive ways. That slogan made kids want to get Lego sets and make their own stories and be their own “special” like the movie suggested. So with that movie coming out, it brought in the buck with the eventual rise of Lego in the toy company department beating out Matel.

With the success that movie brought in, Lego almost immediately ordered 3 more movies. The Lego Ninjago Movie, The Lego Movie 2, and the film coming out in february, The Lego Batman Movie. You can see the trailer for The Lego Batman Movie by clicking the link posted here. With the release of that movie, new sets come out. And like always, Target releases them early, If you care to see what they are, you can see the sets by clicking that link.

Lego has definitely done more than TV spots and movies. They also have done TV shows like Lego: Legends of Chima, Lego Nexo Knights, and the most famous of the shows Lego Ninjago. All three of those shows have been growing strong and have helped boost sales. Especially Ninjago with it’s 4+ season run now.

Those shows are just like TV shows from the 80’s, they are made to sell toys. We can show a comparison with the very popular show and toy Transformers, which started out as a show in the 1980’s made just to sell toys, and now it is a worldwide phenomenon just like the new lego shows are like.

To wrap up, Lego has learned that they need to pander to the kids of today. They make apps for phones, TV shows, movies with iconic characters, and more. And all of those kinds of things are marketing ploys that work. And since it works, it means that Lego makes a lot of money because of their advertising jobs across many platforms.

Works Cited

"Best Lego Movie Quotes." Quotesgram. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Nov. 2016.

Bionicle Heroes Trailer. N.p., 17 Nov. 2006. Web. 18 Nov. 2016.

BREAKING NEWS: 2017 Lego Batman Movie Sets Revealed. N.p., 13 Nov. 2016. Web. 18 Nov. 2016.

Free The Band Commercial (2006). N.p., 27 Mar. 2016. Web. 18 Nov. 2016.

The LEGO Batman Movie – Trailer #4. N.p., 4 Nov. 2016. Web. 18 Nov. 2016.

The LEGO® Story. N.p., 10 Aug. 2012. Web. 18 Nov. 2016.

"The TTV Podcast." The TTV Podcast. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Nov. 2016.