The LEGO® Group - The LEGO® Superpower Academy

Campaign Date: 2023

Challenge

“We are never more fully alive, more completely ourselves, or more deeply engrossed in anything than when we are playing.” - Charles Schaefer, Psychologist / Founder of the Play Therapy Training Institute

How do you inspire people to make play a part of their every day and show them its true potential?

You give them an invitation they can’t refuse…

Welcome to The LEGO® Superpower Academy: A worldbuilding brand experience designed to celebrate World Play Day and unleash the superpower of play.

Insight + Strategy

A global study of over 32,000 parents of children aged from 6 -12 years old that was commissioned by the LEGO® Group, found on average, children spend just 2% of their week playing (around seven hours).

It found that play is fundamental to kids’ growth, boosting their creativity (59%), confidence (57%) and communication skills (54%),

Yet 70% of parents choose achievement-based activities for their kids over playtime.

LEGO believes in the importance of play and inspiring all the builders of tomorrow, breaking down barriers to play and equipping the world to make play a part of their lifestyle.

Their ongoing ‘Play is A Superpower’ initiative continues to encourage families to prioritise play, addressing the global lack in play amongst children.

In the next 10 years between now and the 100th anniversary The LEGO® Group will bring play to 10 different cities with a long-lasting legacy in each location.

This year, using their “Play is a Superpower” framework, the LEGO® Group again brought World Play Day to life.

The Superpower Academy was a free and open to all LEGO-focused family event in central London… helping kids unleash play as a superpower.

Solution

Welcome to The LEGO® Superpower Academy…

A destination for a play-filled brand experience in celebration of World Play Day.

The LEGO® Superpower Academy was a series of escape rooms filled with playful wonder that were designed to unleash the superpowers of play for low-affinity families.

Children and families were welcomed to the experience by a large-scale, interactive mural, immediately inviting them to express their play ‘Superpower’.

From there on a series of experiences and moments created a content playground for guests, passers-by and fans to discover and share.

After crossing the vibrant threshold of The Superpower Academy, guests entered into the Professor of Play’s office who explained the task at hand, encouraging everyone’s unique superpowers of play.

The experience consisted of a series of four theatrical play missions led by our Mission PlayMakers, an experienced team-mate to support participants' creativity, fire up their imagination and guide them through the missions towards a place in the ‘Play Squad’.

Each play mission leant into different expressions of play.

Play missions included:

1. The Ultimate Play Puzzle: Solve the cryptic riddle on screen, build your space explorer and place your final LEGO brick build in the airlock to progress.

2. The Fantastical Forest: Turn the LEGO bricks into fantastical new forest creatures; adding them to the light lock in the middle as they’re made to make an extraordinary shadow scene appear.

3. Unleash the Joy: Work together to restore the Academy’s Superpower with your own superpower energy; scoring points to fuel the machine.

4. PlaySquad Graduation: Once graduated as a new member of the Play Squad and passed the play missions with flying colours, a space to help you start using your superpower - free play with LEGO bricks.

Results

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