MAKING THE LIST

Short List
TitleMAKING THE LIST
BrandLEGO
Product / ServiceLEGO
CategoryC03. Data Driven Targeting
EntrantCHE PROXIMITY Melbourne, AUSTRALIA
Idea Creation CHE PROXIMITY Melbourne, AUSTRALIA
Media Placement UM Sydney, AUSTRALIA
PR CHE PROXIMITY Melbourne, AUSTRALIA
Production CHE PROXIMITY Melbourne, AUSTRALIA
Production 2 YELL DESIGN Fitzroy, AUSTRALIA

Credits

Name Company Position
Chris Howatson CHE Proximity CEO
David Halter CHE Proximity Managing Director
Ant White CHE Proximity Chief Creative Officer
Brian Jefferson CHE Proximity Group Creative Director
Ashley Wilding CHE Proximity Senior Copywriter
Cameron Brown CHE Proximity Senior Copywriter
Daniel Davison CHE Proximity Senior Art Director
Roma Stein CHE Proximity Operations
Mariana Rice CHE Proximity Group Account Director
Claire Hawksford CHE Proximity Senior Account Manager
Julie Duff CHE Proximity Head of TV Production
Lisa Ristuccia CHE Proximity Producer
Jason Young CHE Proximity Head of Design
Vanessa Saporito CHE Proximity Senior Designer
James Shaw CHE Proximity Head of Performance
Nigel Hill Freelance LEGO Builder

The Campaign

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.

Creative Execution

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 Target’s eBay shop, with the execution using eBay’s search result API. We developed listings for our partners showing the seasons most popular toys made from LEGO. When gift givers shopped online, the LEGO version was there. Each listing highlighted multiple toys children could build from a single LEGO set, reinforcing the power of imagination. The shopper 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 platforms. We developed an extensive and comprehensive list of the most popular toys and used keyword targeting to serve the LEGO creation relative to the users search input.

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. Additionally, 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 with the power of imagination, LEGO isn’t just one toy on a Christmas list, it can be every toy.

‘Making The List’ is a smart retail solution that used direct channels to create one of the most targeted and effective Christmas campaigns of the year. Powered by a data model built from people’s Christmas shopping intent, the creative solution overcomes LEGO’s biggest hurdle: maintaining relevance. The model predicted the popular toys of the season and the creative built them from LEGO. Targeting ensured the right toy was delivered to the right person. If you were looking for a drone for Christmas, LEGO showed you ads of a drone being built from the LEGO CITY Coast Guard Head Quarters set.

Insights, Strategy and the Idea

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.

Links

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