Lego Builds Relationships With Social Media
Full disclaimer here: Lego really doesn’t need to do anything else to build brand loyalty in our house. I have two little boys, and Santa brought a lot of Legos down our chimney at Christmas. My husband grew up loving Lego, and has a flair for building just about anything the kids request (I’m rubbish at Legos but I get the appeal.)
I’m guessing a lot of Lego’s customer base is in the same situation. But that doesn’t mean the toy maker isn’t trying to make those relationships stronger.
Lego recently debuted Lego Photo, the company’s first official iPhone app. Users can load a photo into the app and essentially “Legoize” the image in one of several different color palettes.
It’s cool, but takes some trying to get a picture that actually ends up looking like something once you put it through the process. (The above shot is my son Jacob, who just received a membership in the Lego Brickmaster Club as a birthday present.)
The app is part of an initiative to encourage Lego users to share “click” moments, what happens “when the solution to a problem suddenly becomes clear.” The LegoClick.com Web site is called the “hub” of this program by the company.
“We hope to motivate people to recognize, embrace, share and yes, chase, those unpredictable but powerful light bulb moments in life when things just click,” said Michael McNally, brand relations director at Lego Systems, Inc., in a statement. “Exploring your imagination from a young age, daring to realize your ideas, creating stories and uses for what you create, solving problems that no one knew existed — this is the stuff of Lego play, and is exactly what leads to a lifetime of click moments.”
The site also hosts a blog to honor these “light bulb” moments, both big and small. And Lego users can share their own click moments by e-mailing legoclick@gmail.com, post a comment on the Lego Click Facebook page, or send a tweet to #legoclick. All of these – and a short film celebrating imagination Lego style – are featured on the LegoClick.com site.
These are all good ideas for building lifelong customer relationships. I’m just glad my son isn’t quite old enough to fully embrace social networking beyond the playground yet. I have enough trouble getting him to give me back my iPod touch as it is.
