LEGO's Advertising Strategy: Original v Licensed

I think a lot of that is because they don’t invest in them as much as they should. Licensed themes usually take most of the advertising budget.

Can’t argue there. Part of the reason Bio was so successful was that it was a media experiment. Whenever they wanted to try a new form of advertisements, they use Bio. First comics (and I don’t mean those printed Into the Magazine), Bionicle. First chapter books, Bionicle. Bionicle has always been the frontier for Lego advertising. Honestly, I think Bio is partly to blame for the lack of Original Lego IPs.

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You’re so right. They just don’t want to give us original stuff, and I hate that.

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I’m not saying LEGO needs original themes, but I’m just saying I miss them, and the LEGO won’t be the same without them.

I get that there won’t be anymore constraction themes in the near future (which is sad), And I honestly don’t expect Bio G3 for at least 10 years, But these are opinions. Just because they’re opinions doesn’t make them meaningless.

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I don’t know if you’re aware, but this isn’t a particularly large community, in the grand scheme of things. There are a few hundred people here, at best, and the large majority aren’t that active, or vocal. But those that are tend to drone on about it a lot. And it’s annoying.

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I think I can.

In terms of advertising, we also have to count stuff like TV shows/specials in with your typical commercials and stuff. Currently two original LEGO ip have TV shows. NinjaGo, which is now on its 11th season, and now LEGO City Adventures or whatever it’s called on Nick. Who knows how long that will stick around, but its worth mentioning. Their licensed themes typically don’t get a show or special to help advertise the line because it’s based off a preexisting IP and therefore doesn’t actually need the extra marketing push. Kids will see a Harry Potter set on shelves and think “ohhh, a LEGO toy of that movie I love!” and will buy the toy without a second thought. The IP does most of the marketing for it.

LEGO Star Wars gets the occasional special and short run series (Season 3 of Freemaker Adventures when?) just because it’s Star Wars. There’s so much room in that universe to play around in, especially when you add the quirkiness of LEGO on top of it, that it’d be impossible not to. DC Super Heroes has a few direct to DVD movies, but it seems like DC themselves might be funding and pushing for those because they’re an extra product to sell rather than LEGO budgeting those as extra marketing. And then there’s, what, one LEGO MARVEL special that came out around Age of Ultron? MARVEL toys especially market themselves thanks to the IP.

Comparative to these examples, LEGO spends way more time and effort on their own stuff because it’s their own stuff. Star Wars and Batman are nice cushions to fall back on in terms of revenue, but there’s a reason sets like Creator, City, and NinjaGo were the best sellers in the last couple quarters. The reason NinjaGo is so successful is because of the TV show. Just like how BIONICLE was popular in part because of the comics/books/movies. Up until recently, NinjaGo sets weren’t all that impressive, but the theme survived because of the show and how successful it was. Despite continuously dropping ratings (which is at the fault of Cartoon Network), LEGO keeps producing the show in conjunction with the toyline and (usually) put lots of care and thought into the story. Kids respect this and buy the toys to play with their favorite characters.

If we’re going to exclude things like TV shows and movies from the talk of marketing budgets, then comparatively, sure, licensed themes do take up more advertisements, but that’s more down to contractual obligations rather than no love for their own stuff. As much as LEGO Star Wars tends to market itself based on name alone, you still have to put TV commercials out for it because you gotta tell your audience that new toys are on shelves so Disney can get their cut of the licensing fee. It’s also hard to market some themes in today’s age. How do you do a commercial for LEGO Creator? Yeah, kind of hard. They’re either random build sets like animals or vehicles or it’s modular buildings. The audience for these sets don’t necessarily need to be advertised toward, and obviously it works because Creator is still here and has been since I can remember.

Let’s also remember that time spent on ads doesn’t always equate to what sells the most either. In 2018, four of the five best selling themes were original themes and only one licensed.

So I’m not sure why you think that. Obviously they give us lots of original stuff.

I think this is 100% it. Chima wasn’t received well, Nexo Knights sorta petered out with little fanfare, and G2 was G2. While all of these LEGO doesn’t count as failures, they were nowhere near the level of success as NinjaGo. Why bother competing with yourself? Instead of creating more story themes that end after three years or less, add story to your evergreen stuff. That seems like it’s what they’re doing with City and it’s new show.

And in all of this, I’m pretty sure Friends has some sort of media that I’ve completely forgotten about since I’m not target demo. So now that’s three story based original IP from LEGO to go with their licensed stuff.

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They gave us lots of original stufg. We don’t anymore. We barely have Ninjago and Hidden side!

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Yeah, they have a few miniseries on Netflix.

Yeah. Thats what I meant when I said I think Bio G1 helped kill original themes. Most of the themes that tried to run concurrently, couldn’t compete, and all those that came after (especially HF) were never able to live up to it’s legacy, except for Ninjago (or so I can tell not all that into it). So, together, I think it’s killed original themes for good.

To be fair, the main problem would be the lack of basic, classic themes such as Castle, Space or Pirates. From what I have seem, this is what AFOLS truly want when it comes to original themes. Just basic themes that only need a plot, and no full story. This is probably what LEGO lacks the most nowdays. The current LEGO Market seems to be only focused on “Big Bang” themes instead of incorporating at least a few standard original themes. Why bother making a full story for every single original theme you make when all you need to do is just give us good sets? Big Bang themes are great in their own way, but those themes can be equally as great even without a fully-written story.
The last time we got a Space theme was 2013’s Galaxy Squad. The last time we got a Castle theme was also in 2013. The last time we have seen Pirates was in 2015. Excuse me, but it’s been quite some time since then. It would be about the perfect time to bring back at least one of those. Though for some reason, it just doesn’t happen.

Maybe there isn’t a big enough market for it? There are a lot of AFOLs, but I would still assume that kids make up the majority of their profits.

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There is no proof to support that. There has always been a market for such things, and it will always be.
Licensed themes have only had a market when there were new movies released to support them. With themes like the ones I mentioned, there will always be a market for, no matter what movie is currently released.

Is there any kid you know who doesn’t like Knights or Pirates?

When it comes to original themes, AFOLs want good sets above all else. You can tell me how much your experience with AFOLs has said otherwise, but I’m still willing to bet my experience has been at least slightly greater, and yields different results.[quote=“LegoDavid, post:11, topic:49783”]
There is no proof to support that. There has always been a market for such things, and it will always be.
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That is too much of an assumption to make. You don’t know if there will be a market worth pursuing for Pirates in 50 years, less some tragedy occur and taint the word Pirates permanently. or interest just fades away over time. Heck, you don’t know if there will be a single person in 50 years who would like to see LEGO Pirates. You can guess and assume, but that’s it.[quote=“LegoDavid, post:11, topic:49783”]
Is there any kid you know who doesn’t like Knights or Pirates?
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Yep. And he’s definitely part of the general market.

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True, but that does’t mean that things like Star Wars or Superheroes would remain popular in 50 years from now either.

Yeah, but they are now, so LEGO’s making hay while the sun shines.

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Wasn’t there already a topic about this somewhere?

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I dunno. The staff move our discussion here from another topic.

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You know there was a whole decade between the end of the prequels and the beginning of the sequels where Lego Star Wars was still making bank (in fact, that was when I got most of my Star Wars sets), right? Blanket statements like this are just asking to be proven wrong.

But yes, I can imagine there being plenty of kids who don’t care for Kingdoms or Pirates, and just want sets of their favourite characters. That’s been me, for the most part. Most of my system stuff was Star Wars or Harry Potter… Because I like Star Wars and Harry Potter (and I wanted more Harry Potter tbh, was happy to see it back even if I probably won’t buy any :P). Is that a crime?

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It’s not by any means. I wouldn’t mind those licensed themes as long as they were balanced with a equal amout of original themes, but that obviously isn’t the case. But anyways, if you enjoy those themes, that is great. It’s great that you can enjoy something that I can’t.

Ditto.

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Yeah, about five times[quote=“LegoDavid, post:13, topic:49783”]
True, but that does’t mean that things like Star Wars or Superheroes would remain popular in 50 years from now either.
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I… Never said that? I’m saying your holy grail of original themes is overrated. The only reason there isn’t more original themes is because there is no financial need for them. Any pirates theme could be covered in Ninjago. Any castle theme as well, so until those themes start selling like hot cakes inside of their current super theme there’s no need to branch out into what would be a financial flop.

And the big wigs at LEGO aren’t like you or I. They’re professional market analysts who actually know what they’re doing. Yes, occasionally they mess up and release a theme or concept when there wasn’t enough demand for it, but they’d mess up far less than if you or I were in the position.[quote=“TheMightyObsidianDude, post:17, topic:49783”]
You know there was a whole decade between the end of the prequels and the beginning of the sequels where Lego Star Wars was still making bank (in fact, that was when I got most of my Star Wars sets), right?
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And not only that, the amount of sets released for the new movies didn’t exactly supersede the amount of sets being made for the old. Last I checked LEGO star wars has always done relatively well with sales, even at low points.[quote=“LegoDavid, post:18, topic:49783”]
I wouldn’t mind those licensed themes as long as they were balanced with a equal amout of original themes, but that obviously isn’t the case
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Instead they’re balanced with some of the longest-running original themes to date, along with the most successful the company has ever had even when the sets were mediocre and sometimes worthless. That being Ninjago, of course.

Look, I’m really tired of reiterating the same points about the same topic over and over and over and over again, so I’m just gonna stop if that’s alright. Surely you can find a different topic to discuss on the forums? The topics you’ve created are some of the most popular while they last, and I really hope it’s not entirely because of drama.

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