Lego targets adult fans with passion-based sets
The globe’s biggest toy company has broadened its audience beyond young boys, now drawing adults, teens and girls as well. Central to this growth is a plan to engage the passions and pastimes that cut across traditional demographic lines.
From Cars to Flowers
This approach has led to new types of building sets, including sophisticated models that adults can display on their coffee tables. Lego has also shifted its marketing strategy, pouring money into experiences and social-media skits aimed at fans.
To reach gaming fans, Lego showed up at the Gamescom trade event in Cologne, Germany, with a giant Minecraft Lego chicken that visitors could sit on.
“We go not just for the people who are there, but because the types of things that we create become big social-media engagement,” says Julia Goldin, Lego’s chief product and marketing officer.
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The strategy has helped spur growth. In the first half of this year, privately held Lego’s revenue rose 21% from the year-earlier period to a record 41.9 billion Danish kroner ($6.27 billion), while net profit climbed 32% to 8.6 billion kroner.
Goldin says the company approached adults from a passion-point perspective from the very beginning. The team looked at men, women and what their big interests were, what types of things they like to collect, and what types of things they wanted to display in their rooms. The results include Gustav Klimt’s “The Kiss” and floating sea otters. Gamers who love nostalgia can build and display a Game Boy.
Tapping Into Digital Trends
To find out about people’s interests, Lego does a lot of trend-seeking and social listening. The company looks at viewership of various programs and behaviors, then dives quite deeply into these interests through primary research and interviews.
AI has helped the company ramp this up. There are tools where one can ask, with the right prompts, what people who are passionate about F1 are talking about on Reddit.
Lego flower bouquets and trees are among the company’s most popular sets. Goldin says when they started to talk seriously about adults, they could see that some people were into gardening and flowers. The first flower bouquet launched in 2021, but the company underestimated how successful it would be. They started with the 18-plus age group, but realized younger girls, especially teens, really love to build Lego flowers, so they expanded the range.
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You might think botanicals are for women and F1 cars are for men. But that is why Lego talks about interests and not just gender and demographics. Botanicals have a huge following among women and teenage girls, but bonsai trees are one of the top 10 products for men and teen boys. Speed Champions F1 cars show up in the top 10 for teen girls.
The company says you can never be assumptive about how that breaks down in terms of gender.
‘She Built That’
Lego previously relied on a single line for girls, but the company shifted its focus to understand what interests young women. Research showed girls are passionate about pets, creatures, nature, and social interaction. The brand expanded its offerings to include botanicals, animals, and music-related sets.
A Sense of Purpose
Goldin says there is an overriding sense of lack of purposefulness and being overwhelmed by digital content. Three hours can pass while scrolling through feeds of reels.
