The Campaign

Within 50 short years, Singapore transformed from a fishing village to the world's most expensive city. But at the same time, Singapore has also been ranked as the most emotionless country in the world. To remind Singaporeans of what makes this world-class city 'home', LEGO looked to our future generation. We imagined what grown-ups saw as a picture of success and created a futuristic Singapore built with LEGO bricks, only to invite children to rebuild the city based on what they'd imagine home to be. The content co-created with children via this social experiment turned into a talking piece amongst Singaporeans.

Execution

LEGO Singapore's social media following has more than eleven millions fans. Working together with a video ad tech company that runs a leading programmatic platform for social video advertising, we leveraged upon that fanbase alongside paid Facebook Ads, boosted posts, and a detailed PR plan both locally and internationally to turn this conversational piece into a talking point. It was a month-long campaign that culminated with Singapore's National Day.

We generated 146 press postings about our campaign from the likes of Fast Company, PSFK, as well as local broadcast like Channel News Asia & Channel 5 - with total earned media worth up to S$1.9 Million. Global titles like Adweek echoed in agreement that “Cities failing to nourish the human spirit are poorly constructed”. More importantly, it struck a chord with Singaporeans. Generating over 6000 interactions and commentaries on social media. In tandem with retail activation, the campaign also generated the largest sales (+41%) increase for LEGO Singapore for that period.

The Situation

In 2015, Singapore celebrated its biggest milestone with SG50 (50th year of independence). The months leading up to national day saw brands scrambling to celebrate the nation's success in exchange for immediate publicity. While the entire fracas became a mockery, LEGO, being an international brand, had managed to strengthen its relationship with Singaporeans by sparking real conversations that resonated within and beyond the country.

The Strategy

The target audience were Singaporeans - mainly parents and adults. These are people who have witnessed Singapore's rapid transformation. They have plenty of fond memories, but are often too busy to pause and reflect. The PR strategy was to first introduce via social media branded posts to introduce LEGO's limited edition SG50 mini-builds. We then invited Singaporeans to rebuild their fondest Singapore memories using LEGO bricks and post them on LEGO's Facebook page. As nostalgia began to peak, we surprised Singaporeans with the content that was co-created with children - Rebuild. As the conversation piece resonated not only with Singaporeans but others who lived in cosmopolitan cities, the PR plan begun with exclusives to International Media like Fast Company and PSFK before the flurry of coverage began in the region.