Despite cars playing a huge part in the UAE culturally, kids in the UAE were spending more time playing electronic games instead of LEGO cars. LEGO cars weren’t considered the coolest, most desirable, or most talked about toys compared to other toy cars like hot wheels and action-packed car racing games like Gran Turismo and Mario Kart. Also, parents didn’t see LEGO cars as a way to foster their kids’ imagination and creativity. They viewed LEGO cars as expensive functional construction toys that are all about replicating the car on the box and following step-by-step instructions.

LEGO wanted to change this perspective. They especially wanted parents to see LEGO cars as toys that spark creativity in their kids by offering values beyond the price tag. LEGO needed to change that perception and create cross-generational appeal to both audiences, kids and parents.

Our target audiences were kids under 12 years old and their parents who are living in the UAE.

Our first insight was within every LEGO kit. By observing how kids play with LEGO, we realized LEGO provides only half the toy. The rest is in the kids’ imagination. When children play with LEGO, they ditch the instructions and use free play to build something they imagine.

Our second insight came from the life of today's kids. It’s not so easy being a kid. In fact, parents put loads of rules on their children, like don’t play in the living room, eat all your broccoli, etc. But during LEGO time, it’s their time to forget about these rules and just have fun.

And so the idea of "Brick The Rules" was born. An idea that champions the value of imagination and makes LEGO time a playful time to break the rules.

To activate our strategy, we wanted to communicate the Brick the Rules idea through an action-packed car chase. In a film, we planned to showcase the range of LEGO car portfolios, champion kids’ imagination through their own LEGO car creations, and display the transformation of a plain living room into a movie set and a playground.

We launched the campaign on the 15th of May and ran it for a month. The film ran on TV stations in both South Africa and the UAE as well various social media platforms such as Instagram, Facebook and YouTube.

The Brick the Rules successfully tapped into cultural insights and showed the real value of LEGO to parents and children of the UAE. The campaign further changed their behavior of play time from screens to bricks, and improved the parents' perception of LEGO.

The film was viewed 29K+ times on Instagram within the first weeks and helped LEGO achieve a 51% year-on-year increase in total sales volume of the LEGO Car category in the UAE.

The 51% of sales increase is significant for LEGO especially since the campaign ran after the end of Ramadan which is one of the biggest sales of the year in the UAE.

Due to the success of the campaign, Brick The Rules will return in 2023.