House of DOTS
LEGO DOTS
Issue 54 | March 2020
Agency
The LEGO Agency
Creative Team
Associate Creative Director Anne-Mette Vagn-Hansen Art Director Paula Scott Senior Art Director Fatema Barot Senior Copywriter Gregory Lloyd Senior Designer Diego Lopez Sancho Designer Chiara Bisontin
Production Team
Senior Project Manager Marjorie Satgé Lopez Senior Engineering Manager Libor Udrzal, Logistics Coordinator Christine Røjkjær
Other Credits
Senior Communications Partner Steffen Ballegaard Juul Senior Communications Manager Denise Lauritsen Social Influence Partnerships Manager Gemma Albin Cleint Marketing Director Susanne Højgaard Andreasen Social Influencer Partnerships Manager Signe Vest
Date
28th Jan – 2nd Feb 2020
Background
A creative mindset is ranked as one of the most important skills for kids growing up in the 21st century and should be nurtured and developed early on in life. LEGO DOTS were tiles, flatter than bricks, designed to help kids explore, celebrate and develop their creativity by encouraging them to make their own accessories and items to decorate their rooms such as desk organisers, picture holders and bracelets.
As LEGO’s first entry to the arts and crafts category, DOTS needed a bold and inspiring launch to breakthrough to a new audience of kids, parents and adults.
Idea
In order to reach kids who enjoy crafting, DOTS had to appeal to their parents.
It was discovered that the target audience actively followed and interacted with influencers, creators and artists related to arts and crafts. So, as part of a larger strategy to engage hundreds of influential creatives in a conversation around DOTS, LEGO invited the French artist Camille Walala to bring DOTS to life with an inspiring and interactive installation.
The House of DOTS was a fantastical, container-built house in which everything from the walls and floors to the rugs, frames and furniture had been customised in a mashup of DOTS in Walala’s distinctive patterns and colours.
Children from local London schools as well as AFOLS (Adult Fans of LEGO) joined Walala and LEGO designers to create their own unique photo cubes, bracelets, jewellery holders and pen holders.
Over just a few days, hundreds of visitors to The House of DOTS, including journalists and influencers from around the world, enjoyed the colourfully “dotted” rooms and designed their own DOTS creations ahead of the official product release.
Results
LEGO DOTS gained worldwide attention.
And the initial response has been overwhelmingly positive with adults, parents and children seeing the value of the DOTS concept.
Highlights so far:
• Potential media reach of 7.1 billion.
• 240 school kids visited the House of DOTS.
• 600 free tickets were released for the public (all spots were reserved within three hours of release).
• 370 mentions in articles reached after three weeks.
Our Thoughts
This all started because LEGO is in constant communication with children and their parents. In terms of listening and responding to their customers, they are champions.
In this instance, a survey of some 18,000 people indicated that kids were looking for ways to express their personalities in play.
The way it works is you buy the ‘canvas’, the unadorned bracelet or photo box, pen holder or jewellery holder, and then buy the decorative tiles to stick onto them, tiles with glitter, with emojis, with patterns and with bright colours. From a box and a bag emerges a treasured possession.
To launch the new tiles, the idea was simply to turn a couple of containers into a lovely experience for children of all ages from six to 60.