LEGO: Social Media Marketing Plan
Natalie Edwards Taylor Robinson Chloe Vavra
Marketing Technology Professor Smith December 8, 2015
Part 1: Executive Summary
Current State of Brand’s Social Media: Lego has a social media presence on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Pinterest. Overall Facebook has the most likes and engagement and is without a doubt their most successful social media account in reaching consumers. Our goal with Lego is to consistently and effectively expand engagement with consumers through all social media accounts by increasing likes on the platforms stated above. We will also introduce new social media platforms such as Snapchat to reach new demographics.
Goals/Objectives: Our marketing objective at Lego is to encourage consumers to purchase Lego products. This includes existing products, upcoming products yet to be released, and films associated with Lego. Our general demographic target are middle aged people as these consumers are typically parents purchasing Lego products for their children. We also want to broaden our audience by targeting both men and women who are popular culture enthusiasts, social media users, and who have grown up with Lego as a child. The specifics of Lego’s demographics will be covered more extensively later in this report.
Lego has been around since 1949, establishing themselves as one of the top companies in manufacturing plastic construction toys. Lego is a highly recognizable brand amongst consumers, however, there is diminutive engagement between the brand and consumers. We intend on increasing this audience engagement through various social media marketing strategies as well as implementing a newsletter emailing list for consumers.
Through social media platforms, Lego will promote its products in engaging formats such as photos, short video clips, GIFs, and hashtags. To accurately measure the response rate from these posts, we plan on connecting all Lego social media accounts to one preferred social media management service such as Sprout Social.
In regards to what Lego is capitalizing off of, the company has been partners with Star Wars since 1999, making it first intellectual property to be licensed to Lego in the group’s history. In other words, Lego has already been capitalizing off of Star Wars for quite a long time, and continue to do so. Currently Lego is capitalizing off of Star Wars for the upcoming highly anticipated Star Wars film “The Force Awakens”. In the future, we hope to continue to promote Lego building toys through future Star Wars, Marvel, and Universal films, as well as any other Lego project. Part 2: Social Media Audit LEGO has a strong presence and following on these particular social media websites and channels: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest. In order to analyze the success of these platforms, we chose and monitored 5 posts from each social media site in order to gather data and make observations.
1. Facebook (10.7 million likes)
Post #1 Post #2 Post #3 Post #4 Post #5 Average Engagement Rate
Likes 5,065 2,178 475 8,170 2,084 5,138 0.05%
Comments 53 111 21 610 58 170.6 0.002%
Shares 1,208 332 106 3,913 126 1,137 0.01%
Type Video Photo Photos Photos Photos 0.0001%
● Post #1: November 26th at 7:00am. This post featured a short 7 second video of a Lego turkey being chased by a chef. The caption above wished followers a Happy Thanksgiving, and they stated that they were thankful for having Lego fans like you. People responded because this post was comical and was geared towards the Thanksgiving holiday.
● Post #2: November 26th at 4:44am. This post featured a picture of the LEGO Santa Express located at the London Covent Garden Piazza, which was built with 500,000 Lego bricks (#LEGOSantaExpress). People responded to this post because they were impressed and wanted to buy Lego’s to try and build something similar.
● Post #3: November 24th at 4:00pm. This post featured an album of 6 pictures promoting the new Star Wars: Droid Tales LEGO movie. People responded to this post because they thought it was exciting that they announced the release of a new LEGO movie coming in March of 2016.
● Post #4: October 27th at 9:15am. This post featured 4 photos of the new LEGO Ghostbusters Firehouse Headquarters playset (available January 2016). This post attracted attention and created excitement for both younger and older audiences because of the new movie coming out and the nostalgia from the past Ghostbuster films.
● Post #5: October 11th at 2:58pm. This post featured an album of 35 pictures giving a preview of the new LEGO Nexo Knights from the New York ComicCon. ComicCon is a popular event, and that is why this post caught the attention of both LEGO and ComicCon fans.
Overall Platform Performance: Instead of posting just words/captions, LEGO will accompany a caption with either a video or photo(s). All of their posts involve some type of media, and it is working well for them because it is both entertaining and engaging for consumers. In terms of trends, LEGO will post relevant pictures and videos based on the time of year and holiday (Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas posts). They also post content about new products and playsets being released, relating to recent movies and characters such as Star Wars and Ghostbusters. Overall, we feel that their Facebook is a strong platform, but would thing they can improve on is their CRM and how often they respond back to people.
2. Twitter (307K followers)
Post #1 Post #2 Post #3 Post #4 Post #5 Average Engagement Rate
Favorites 240 153 1,342 75 217 405.4 0.13%
Comment 13 7 36 8 9 153.2 0.05% s
Retweets 78 82 1,182 34 173 309.8 0.61%
Tweet Photo GIF Photo Video Video 0.39% Type Series
● Post #1: December 1st at 8:13am. This tweet features a photo of Star Wars Lego characters (Jawa and R2D2) working on their Lego vehicle. Lego asks in the tweet “What @StarWars vehicle could possible be built with these bricks?”, engaging twitter users to respond with an answer.
● Post #2: October 31st at 9:59am. This tweet was posted early on Halloween morning with a Lego Monster Scientist GIF. It features the #LEGO and #HappyHalloween hashtag and had positive comments.
● Post #3: October 27th at 2:09pm. This post is promoting the new Lego Ghostbusters Firehouse set. The Firehouse playset was modeled after the same firehouse filmed in the movie, so Lego posted 4 photos of the playset model next to the real firehouse.
● Post #4: November 11th at 9:09pm. This tweet linked a clip of a battle scene from one of Lego’s Ninjago episodes, showing the product as an animation. This struck interest with fans who were familiar with the television show.
● Post #5: November 9th at 9:52am. Lego posted a tweet with their version of “The Force Awakens” trailer. Lego tagged @StarWars, and they also hashtagged #TheForceAwakens and #LEGOStarWars. This tweet was meant to generate more hype surrounding the new movie coming out later this month.
Overall Platform Performance: Despite only having 307K followers, their Twitter has a higher engagement rate than their Facebook does. They post videos, pictures, and utilize many different hashtags to promote their new products and movies. The Lego brand has one main Twitter account, but there are many subsidiary accounts that link to the brand. For example, there are separate Lego Twitter accounts for Lego Ideas, The Lego Movie, Lego Marvel, and Lego Star Wars. With their main Twitter, they hashtag and link these other accounts in order to expand their audience and introduce them to all of their product lines. Also, they do a good job at engaging in conversations with their fans, but they should retweet fan tweets more often instead of just retweeting posts from other Lego accounts.
3. Instagram (789K followers)
Post #1 Post #2 Post #3 Post #4 Post #5 Averag Engagement Rate e
Likes 19,165 14,555 32,658 23,986 31,954 24,463.6 0.031%
Comments 221 47 365 130 483 249.2 0.0032%
Type Video Photo GIF Photo Photo 0.313%
● Post #1: December 1st. This post featured a short video promoting Lego’s #MiniFigureFamily. They are encouraging people to create and share a Minifigure version of your family’s holiday card at minifigurefamily.com.
● Post #2: 3 weeks ago. This post features a picture of children having a piratethemed #LegoDuplo Birthday Party. Lego suggests that this is the best idea for your “little builder’s” next birthday party.
● Post #3: 5 Weeks ago. This GIF was posted on October 21st 2015, which was a specific date that was featured in the iconic film “Back to the Future”. The GIF wished people a “Happy #BackToTheFutureDay!” to celebrate the film and to promote Lego’s line of Back to the Future Lego playsets. This post was popular because so many people are familiar with this film and they understood the reference.
● Post #4: 9 Weeks ago. This post featured a photo of a Scooby Doo villain. The post reads, “#ScoobyDoo and the Gang put their heads together and stumbled upon a mystery this month!” They used the hashtags #Lego and #LegoSpooktober, trying to promote Lego’s Scooby Doo playsets. This photo was posted around Halloween, making the post relevant and interesting.
● Post #5: 12 Weeks ago. This photo features San Francisco Giants player, Buster Posey, and a lifesized Lego replica of him. The post explained that the Lego Master Builders spent more than 240 hours and 17,000 Lego bricks to complete the figure, which will be permanently installed in AT&T Park. The post used the hashtags #SFLego, #SFGiants, and #BusterPosey. This photo appealed to both sports fans and Lego enthusiasts.
Overall Platform Performance: Because Instagram is photography based, it makes the most sense for Lego to utilize this platform to post all of their photos and videos in one place. Compared to the other social media websites, their content on Instagram received the most likes and attention out of them all. Using creative content and hashtags, their posts are able to receive views and likes from a larger, photographyenthused audience. Unfortunately, Instagram isn’t the best platform for a company to converse with their followers, but it certainly can be done if someone takes the time to read people’s comments.
4. Pinterest (21,093 followers)
Post #1 Post Post #3 Post #4 Post Average Engagement Rate #2 #5
Likes 32 10 12 45 8 21.4 0.10%
Comments 0 2 0 1 0 0.6 0.003%
Pins 157 10 41 337 43 117.6 0.56%
Type Photo, Photo Photo Photo, Video 0.017% Building DIY Instructions instructions
● Post #1: November 27th. A photo of a Lego creation that links to a website called “FrugalFun4Boys”, captioned by Lego “Are your kids as kitten crazy as ours? Here are some instructions for how to build cats out of LEGO bricks! #KeepBuilding” and was pinned on their #KeepBuilding board. This post was popular because it was a creative and featured an original Lego creation that the LEGO brand decided to endorse and expand to their followers.
● Post #2: November 23rd. A photo including a Lego creation and words on the photo that say “Be Thankful,” and captioned “We are so thankful for all of our creative LEGO builders. Here’s some Thanksgiving inspiration to help them #KeepBuilding.” This post gained some attention because it was a few days before Thanksgiving and was relevant for children to build the creation in the photo around the time period it was posted.
● Post #3: November 30th. A photo of a Lego creation that links to a website called “FrugalFun4Boys”, and captioned “Such a fun, rainy day activity to set up a LEGO DUPLO mini golf course in your house!” Once again, this post gained interest because it was an outofthebox and original Lego creation.
● Post #4: 6 Weeks ago. This is an instructional, howto photo on building a jacko lantern. There is a link in the description that goes to the Lego website where an additional stopmotion video is featured. This post gained attention because it was seasonally appropriate. Also, it didn’t require any specific purchase there’s a disclaimer that the product can be made with miscellaneous Lego blocks.
● Post #5: 1 Year ago. This is a Lego YouTube video posted on Lego Speed Champions with the #Ferrari, advertising a new Lego creation. The video can play in Pinterest, but also links to Lego’s YouTube page. This gained attention on a few Lego boards, mostly because it was new and featured two hashtags: #Ferrari and #Lego.
Overall Platform Performance: Pinterest is an important platform because it gives people ideas and instructions on how to utilize Lego’s products. Lego has many “boards” and “pins” that give instructions on how to build certain things, as well as ideas for unconventional uses (Lego food items, arts and crafts, games, and birthday party ideas). Pinning content to your own board will give you the opportunity to share content with other people and to expand Lego’s audience. Like Instagram, Pinterest isn’t the best platform for companies to connect with their fans.
Social Media Audit Summary: Lego has a prominent presence on all of its social media platforms, but a few stand out from the others. Lego’s Facebook page has the most followers and likes, but they do not have a significant engagement rate. Although, Facebook and Twitter are their best platforms when it comes to conversing and interacting with fans and followers. Lego’s Instagram seems to be the most successful platform because of how their pictures and videos gain the most likes and attention on an especially artistic platform. Lastly, their Pinterest page is useful for crafty people, and can be expanded by linking their Pinterest boards to other social media websites. Overall, all of their social media sites are impactful, yet they can all use some improvements when it comes to the company interacting with their followers.
Part 3: Social Media Plan Company Background LEGO is a line of plastic construction toys that are manufactured by The Lego Group, a privately held company based in Billund, Denmark. The company's flagship product, LEGO, consists of colorful interlocking plastic bricks accompanying an array of gears, figurines called minifigures, and various other parts. The Lego Group began manufacturing the interlocking toy bricks in 1949. Since then, a global Lego subculture has developed. Supporting movies, games, competitions, and six Legoland amusement parks have been developed under the brand. Lego spent about $257 million dollars in advertising in 2012 and 2013. Also, in 2013 Lego was named one of the fastest growing U.S. consumer products companies based on net sales growth with 21.7%. As of July 2015, 600 billion Lego parts had been produced. In February 2015, Lego surpassed Nike, CocaCola, Unilever, and The Walt Disney Company as Brand Finance's "world's most powerful brand” with a 93.4 strength index.
Current Target Audience (MRI+) ● Demographics ○ Age: 2444 years old ○ Gender: Women (82.7%) ○ Marital Status: Now married ○ Children: Under 6 years old ○ Annual HHI: $75K $150K ○ Education: Graduated college ○ Occupation: Sales and Office occupations ○ Geography: Midwest region ○ Race: Caucasian (86.6%)
● Psychographics ○ Hobbies: painting, biking, gardening, cooking, and DIY projects ○ Interests: Reading magazines, taking their kids to the park/playdates, working out, occasional “girls night out”, watching their kids play sports ○ Attitudes: They feel that Legos are great/exceptional toys for their kids to play with because they give their kids a way to create and express themselves. ○ Beliefs: They are the purchaser, they are influenced by their child to buy the product for them. When it comes to their kids, giving them what they want is important.
● Preferred Media Outlets ○ Heavy Magazine Readers ■ American Baby, Allure, Cooking Light, The Economist, FamilyFun, InTouch, Life & Style Weekly, Midwest Living, U.S. Weekly ○ Medium Radio Listeners ■ Weekday 3pm7pm, Weekend 10am3pm ○ Medium TV Watchers ■ ABC Family, Animal Planet, Disney Channel, Cartoon Network, DIY, E! (Primetime) ○ Medium Internet Users ■ Gmail.com, Yahoo, Abc.com, iVillage.com, Pbs.org, Spotify.com, Groupon.com, HuffingtonPost.com ○ Heavy Outdoor Viewers
New Target Audience Although our research reveals that Lego’s target audience consists of primarily mothers, we want to:
● Broaden our target demographic (males and females 1844) ● Pop culture enthusiasts ● Mobile app users ● Social media junkies ● Those who have grown up with Lego as a child
Goals/Objectives:
1. Goal/Objective: Over the next year, increase the amount of social media followers by 20% on all platforms.
○ Strategy #1 Increase followers on Twitter by being more “active” on platform. ■ Tactic = Tweet (compose original tweets) and Retweet (share other people’s content) more frequently ● Tweet 34 times per day, Retweet 810 tweets per day to engage with and expand audience ■ Tactic = Pay more attention to users, fans, and followers by retweeting their content and possibly following their accounts (will show that the brand is personable). ● Retweet fan tweets at least twice per day and engage in at least 5 conversations per day ■ Tactic = Tap into “realtime programming” and tweet along with followers during special events ● Tweet during live television shows, premieres, special occasions, during holidays, etc.
○ Strategy #2 Increase followers and likes on Pinterest by promoting itself on other social media platforms. ■ Tactic = On Twitter, link Pinterest URLs in Lego’s tweets. Create and incorporate special hashtags that mention Pinterest. ● #LEGOPinterest and #LegoDIY ■ Tactic = On Facebook, post and showcase Pinterest DIY projects with videos/GIFs. Include links to various Pinterest boards. ● When users access the Pinterest boards, a link to Lego’s website will also be given (where they can buy the products needed to create their desired project) ■ Tactic = Use Instagram to post videos and photos directly linked to specific Pinterest boards. Feature video and photo content that will inspire Lego creations.
○ Strategy #3 Generate more likes and followers on Facebook by posting more “engaging” content. ■ Tactic = Ask questions or ask for consumer’s opinions to engage users in conversation. Post surveys or polls on relevant topics. ● One week prior to the “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” premiere, ask the audience what their favorite Star Wars movie was and why ■ Tactic = Host and feature occasional contests and sweepstakes. Will serve as an incentive and will encourage users to interact with the brand by signingup/participating. Will drive more users to page. ■ Tactic = Post more video content, rather than pictures and general captions. The videos must be relevant and interesting (related to certain time of year/holiday or movie coming out) ● Since the new Star Wars film is coming out near Christmas, some videos should incorporate “holiday” imagery leading up to the event
2. Goal/Objective: In the next year, increase sales via social media by 15% through LEGO’s cobranding opportunities (movies, cartoons, television shows, video games)
○ Strategy #1 Create a campaign focused on promoting Disney’s upcoming “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” movie. ■ Tactic = Two weeks in advance, start counting down to the movie’s premiere (December 18th) on all platforms ● The “countdown” will feature different Star Wars Lego characters in short videos ● Use the hashtag #LEGOTheForceAwakens ● Incorporate “holiday” and winter inspired posts to encourage followers that Star Wars Legos would be the perfect holiday gift for a loved one ● Include a link to Lego’s website to purchase products ■ Tactic = Host a contest on both Twitter and Facebook to see who can create the best/most creative Star Wars Pinterest Board ● 10 winners will receive tickets to the Star Wars premiere and an exclusive Star Wars Lego playset ■ Tactic = Create a Lego Snapchat account and develop Lego Star Wars geofilters. This Snapchat account will be promoted on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. ● Two weeks in advance, nationwide geofilters will be available and will feature various Star Wars Designs ● Lego Star Wars Snapchat Story on the “Discover” page ● Users who screenshot a certain snap from Lego will receive a discount on Star Wars Lego products
○ Strategy #2 Create a campaign promoting the upcoming “Marvel: Avengers” movie in 2016. ■ Tactic = Partner with Snapchat 2 months before its release ● Marvel “Snapchat “Story” on the Discover page ■ Tactic = Partner with McDonald's and their social media sites ● Provide Marvel Avengers Lego characters and other objects (cars, sets, etc.) in Happy Meals ■ Tactic = #LEGOAvengers hashtag on all social media sites
○ Strategy #3 Create a campaign promoting the new “Ghostbusters” movie coming out in 2016. ■ Tactic = Post a short video clip of Lego Ghostbusters characters dancing to the Ghostbusters theme song. ● Start advertising 2 months in advance ■ Tactic = Target older demographic. ● Specifically those who are familiar with the older Ghostbusters movies ■ Tactic = Advertise heavily around the Halloween season
3. Goal/Objective: In the next year, improve and increase the company’s brand engagement and interaction with consumers by 20%.
○ Strategy #1 Utilize social media management tools to track consumer engagement and interactions. ■ Tactic = Organize an official social media team to constantly communicate to Lego fans and followers. ● Use Sprout Social to organize and manage social media messages and posts ● Each day, every message should be viewed and/or responded to (if requiring immediate action) ■ Tactic = Schedule posts and designate specific tasks to each member of your social media team ● Depending on how many messages need attention per day, the tasks should be divided among the team to make sure everything is being addressed ■ Tactic = Collect feedback, opinions, and requests from consumers ● Lego will try to appease any problem quickly ● This will show other social media users that Lego listens ● Create an environment in which you can respond to your customer’s questions within one hour or less
○ Strategy #2 Implement an email marketing system to communicate directly to users. ■ Tactic = Issue newsletters every month, updating the consumer on any Lego current events ● Signups will be available on Facebook and Twitter ■ Tactic = Communicate new products and features through a personalized email based on what they are interested in ● We will use demographic and psychographic information to assess what people are interested in ■ Tactic = Offer the consumer coupon incentives so that they are more likely to invest in Lego’s products ● Incentives will be given to those who signup
○ Strategy #3 As a company, it is Lego’s responsibility to constantly ask their followers questions in order to keep them engaged, interested, and pleased. ■ Tactic = Post occasional polls on Twitter asking what people think about a new product/Lego playset ● Listen to consumer likes/dislikes in order to improve the product ● Gain insights on what the consumers want ■ Tactic = Post a trivia question every week on Facebook ● Question will be related to Lego and/or relevant topics (Star Wars, Ghostbusters, etc.) ● Winner who comments the right answer will receive a prize or coupon incentive ■ Tactic = Create groups and discussion boards on Facebook ● Lego representatives can ask questions and answer consumer questions ● Forum where people can express their opinions and consumers can interact with each other
WORKS CITED
Advertising Age. "Lego Group Advertising Spending in The United States in 2012 and 2013 (in Million U.S. Dollars)." Statista The Statistics Portal. Statista. 08 Dec 2015.
Brand Finance. "Leading Brands Worldwide in 2015, by Brand Strength Index." Statista The Statistics Portal. Statista. 07 Dec 2015.
Deloitte. "Fastest Growing Consumer Products Companies in The United States in 2013, Based on Net Sales Growth*." Statista The Statistics Portal. Statista. 08 Dec 2015.
“Lego.” LEGO.com. The LEGO Group, n.d. Web. 07 Dec. 2015.
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APPENDIX
MRI Plus:
Spring 2014 Product: Household Products Baby/Children’s Toys & Games Number Bought Construction toys in last 12 months Demographic, Psychographic, and Preferred Media Outlet Information PAGE 89
● Demographic Information ○ Age: 2444 years old ○ Gender: Women (82.7%) ○ Marital Status: Now married ○ Children: Under 6 years old ○ Annual HHI: $75K $150K ○ Geography: Midwest region ○ Race: Caucasian (86.6%)
Statista:
● Advertising Age. "Lego Group Advertising Spending in The United States in 2012 and 2013 (in Million U.S. Dollars)." Statista The Statistics Portal. Statista. 08 Dec 2015.
● Brand Finance. "Leading Brands Worldwide in 2015, by Brand Strength Index." Statista The Statistics Portal. Statista. 07 Dec 2015.
● Deloitte. "Fastest Growing Consumer Products Companies in The United States in 2013, Based on Net Sales Growth*." Statista The Statistics Portal. Statista. 08 Dec 2015.