Episode 125 - LEGO Find Your Flow Ad Reviewed By Beam Suntory

Are you a fan of LEGO? Do you use it unwind or is it just a kids' game in your book?

LEGO's ad this week, chosen by Contagious, didn't strike gold with our Advertisers Watching Ads guest, Jerry Daykin (Head of Global Media at Beam Suntory). The broader marketing strategy from LEGO links in with benefits to mental health and mindfulness, but does this really come across in this clip?

Watch the full episode to see it and find out why Jerry only rated it a 3 out of 5!

Transcript is automatically generated, so not perfect, but you get the idea!

Tom Ollerton 0:00

Hello, and welcome to Advertisers Watching Ads. This is a weekly show where brands watch other brands' ads.

Tom Ollerton 0:20

My name is Tom Ollerton. I'm the founder of Automated Creative, we're brought to you by the wonderful people at Contagious who have helped choose the ad this week. But before we get to the ad, let's meet the singular, one and only special guest we have this week.

Jerry Daykin 0:34

My name is Jerry Daykin. I'm the Head of Media at the alcohol company, Beam Suntory, and also the author of the book, "Inclusive Marketing."

Tom Ollerton 0:43

This week's ad is from LEGO. What they're trying to convince you is that lovely little colored bricks you loved playing with as a kid or with your kids is a really cool and easy way to wind down and solve all your wellness problems as a big bad grown adult.

Tom Ollerton 2:22

And now in a score of one to five, what is your score? One, two, three...

Jerry Daykin 2:26

I gotta give it a three, which is maybe more generous than you thought. I was close to a two. I'm a generous man.

Tom Ollerton 2:33

Okay, Jerry. So, an unusual, arresting ad, but what is going on? Surely that's not the entirety of this campaign.

Jerry Daykin 2:41

I think overall for that total marketing perspective, LEGO has done a huge amount over the last couple of years on that sort of broad "Adults Welcome" on that kind of tapping into the fact that they're quite a lot AFOLs out there - adult fans of LEGO. Everything from like product perspective through to advertising like this. I've seen them sponsor, you know, podcasts, about hobbies. I know over the last couple of years, they've been in a couple of different smaller adverts and things I've seen. And you know, certainly personally, like you know, during COVID, I was very much... I went from, "Ah, LEGO was a thing I used to do as a kid," to like doing some really serious like multi-day builds. I built like a roller coaster and a haunted house. And I definitely fit into, exactly the insight behind this ad which is that LEGO is quite a nice way as an adult of kind of having a bit of a peace time. You know, you don't have to think too much. You follow some instructions, you build something together, you create something nice, something beautiful, you know, that LEGO has a kind of mindful role for adults. So I love the insight. I love the overall kind of marketing and everything else around it. I haven't seen this advert itself in the wild. So I don't know too much more what they've done specifically for this campaign. I don't love it as an ad in itself. And I think that was part of the reason it felt like they kind of came up with this slightly odd Soho theatre idea, like somebody saw this dance troupe, saw this idea, and kind of, it felt slightly forced around, like, sort of symbolizing chaos and order and mess or something. But for me, I just, actually found it slightly stressful and messy to watch, maybe that's the point, but you know.

Tom Ollerton 4:15

You're an AFOL, "Adult Fan of LEGO" but I'm not, right? I, you know, I've built LEGO with my daughter. I think it's great. I think it's a fantastic toy for her. I don't know if you notice that LEGO are aiming to be sustainable by 2030 which would be a great thing. Is this going to convince the non-AFOL, non kid-rearing adult?

Jerry Daykin 4:40

Yeah, it's interesting because and that's... I don't have kids so I suppose for me, I'm kind of like, I had it... By the end of the ad, I was quite like, "Oh, I wouldn't mind building that pyramid." But more because I'm a very, very low hanging fruit, having you know, done some similar...

Tom Ollerton 4:53

Yeah.

Jerry Daykin 4:54

Yeah.

Tom Ollerton 4:54

Because who, who are LEGO going to have to steal that customer from? Like PlayStation? Are they gonna have to steal it from Netflix? Are they gonna have to steal it from reading? Podcasts?

Jerry Daykin 5:05

Yeah. The old school way of doing it would be like doing a jigsaw puzzle. But I'm not sure how many people are out there practically doing jigsaw puzzles in the evening. You're right. It's like, turning on the telly, or I suppose it's supposed to be, at the end of the evening, maybe the kids have gone to bed, maybe you should have a glass of wine in hand, and you just want to do something, it doesn't feel quite as kind of nothing as is sitting back and watching TV. It feels a bit more constructive. But actually, I find it, it can be sort of more relaxing than just watching TV because you're sort of forced to think about this slightly mundane thing. So therefore your mind can't think of other things. But how much of that came across? We can debate. I think it's a great point about sustainability. I think one of the things that LEGO did really, have done really well over the last few years is push on that front. I think they produced a lot of their stuff, like, reasonably locally, let's say within Europe for Europe, which meant during COVID, they were one of the few companies that wasn't relying on like shipments from China and things, they were really able to kind of scale up. So I think as a business, you know, right through the line from production, the product and everything, they're doing a really great job. I just, I don't know if this advert is their most persuasive piece of comms, but at the same time, it stands out. If you can get people to watch it, it's obviously a long video. So I guess it's for cinema, or maybe some sort of sit back TV kind of place where you're kind of, more likely to watch it. I don't know, the first few seconds of that, gripping, otherwise, if you can, if you could skip after five seconds, you probably would.

Tom Ollerton 6:29

But just looking at the insight, actually, from Contagious, thanks, guys, is that... They did a study of 30,000 adults in 33 markets saying that 93% of adults feel stressed out, 53% find it hard to switch off, and 80% are actively looking for new ways to relax. But the study also uncovered that playing could be the solution to wellness issues. Now with 86%, saying play helps them unwind for work, and 88% responding says that it helps them to relax. And 78% saying doing something manual or creative fees more fulfilling. It like... That survey sounds quite dubious to me. It doesn't really feel like this is a very strong insight, or am I being too critical?

Jerry Daykin 7:12

There is a strong insight in there, which is that they found a new... They found a whole new market. Like, the adult fans of LEGO have existed for quite a long time, that used to be a very, very geeky thing. It's become like slightly more mainstream that like, you know, generally adults especially have a lot of the like, the sets that are like licensed by different, you know, TV shows and the Friends' apartment and things like that. So I think there's broadly in there, there is an insight that actually, you know, adults can quite enjoy doing this and that there's some sort of, you know, relaxing, it's something to do, it's kind of, it's chill out kind of thing. It's one of those adverts where the kind of, the insight or the brief is showing. It's a bit, it's a bit too literal. It's a bit like, "Hey, we did some research that showed if you're stressed, this relaxes you and we literally dramatized that, with a Soho theatre youth club..." I think some of the stuff they did before which I'd seen which is more like slightly comedy, slightly abstract, still kind of amounted to the same thing, for me resonated more, but it's a good well made ad. If you hadn't thought about LEGO at all before for this, I'm not sure it's going to completely change your worldview. But if you maybe thought about trying it, it might, it might nudge you along that journey.

Tom Ollerton 8:22

So what can the industry learn from this ad, Jerry?

Jerry Daykin 8:26

I can definitely take out some real good positives about the production values, kind of what it takes to kind of really input to do something a little bit differently. I think there's a slight caution about really just literally following your brief and your insight. And also perhaps doing something just slightly forced in terms of like, the kind of the, the character animation-y thing in the background. It was a sort of nice idea that they obviously stumbled upon, but it, for me, it didn't follow a clear enough story to be clear what it was, what it was telling me, but it's not a bad ad. I'm not sure we'll remember it or talk about it in a few hours time, weeks, yeah?

Tom Ollerton 9:00

Ouch. Right... So I think I know the answer to this question, but would you sign off this ad in its current form? Yes or no?

Tom Ollerton 9:08

I'd like to think no, I'd like to...

Tom Ollerton 9:11

So, thumbs down. Thumbs down.

Jerry Daykin 9:12

Thumbs down.

Tom Ollerton 9:13

Okay. Jerry, thank you so much.

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