Barcelona, the second-largest city in Spain, with 5.4MM people and 700K children between 0-14 years old, offered the perfect location for the next LEGO Flagship Store. There was an opportunity to reinspire a culture that was just rocked by a pandemic, while reinvigorating LEGO brand presence in the market. Leveraging the LEGO Groups new “retailtainment” platform in a global market, our challenge was to launch this new store with a hyper-localized approach, reigniting our consumers need for normalcy, connecting local culture with the values of the LEGO Groups’ core brand messaging of Rebuild the World. Our four business objectives were 1) Drive family footfall to the store for opening month with Covid restrictions reducing store capacity, 2) Gain strong media coverage and earned social attention/impressions, 3) Achieve opening month sales goals, 4) Grow brand affinity in the market.

One of the most iconic symbols of Barcelona’s identity and culture is its beautiful mosaics. Trencadís, the most popular technique for creating mosaics, was made famous by legendary Catalan architect, Antoni Gaudí, and involves smashing porcelain objects into pieces that are then rebuilt into something more imaginative. Inspired by Gaudí, the idea “Build. Unbuild. Rebuild Barcelona” revolved around the creation of a symbol of Catalan spirit. A giant 3-meter, 120-kg mosaic plate made with more than 62,000 LEGO bricks. In true Trencar (“to break” in Catalan) fashion, we dropped the plate from the sky, creating a breathtaking explosion of LEGO bricks in all shapes, sizes and colors. But the real excitement came with the rebuilding of something new from the broken/unbuilt pieces – embracing Gaudí’s philosophy that while it’s hard to break with the past, there is hope that letting go will lead to something more beautiful.

Geographic: Barcelona Spain

Consumer Demographic:

Local families with children 6-12 yrs old, adults engaged in the brand, tourist families with children 6-12 yrs old.

Consumer Psychographic: The Creator

Our target was Barcelona, as all of the city was feeling the effects of the pandemic. From store closures to stay-at-home orders, we uncovered that the best way to have a successful launch was to reinspire the creative spirit and celebrate the beautiful culture of the people of Barcelona in a way that reminded them that they are the masters of picking up the pieces and rebuilding them into something even better.

Launched as a full hyper-localized 360 campaign, “Build. Unbuild. Rebuild Barcelona” was developed in multiple phases– announcement, tease, excite/reveal, opening, and sustain. Building anticipation for the mosaic plate drop, we ran targeted social across owned and paid channels, featuring a 3D rendering of the LEGO mosaic plate. Shareable content not only drove traffic but offered consumers a chance to experience this exclusive event. Within COVID restraints, a select number of local press and influencers joined our contestant winners at the LEGO mosaic plate drop where over 7 cameras captured the breathtaking footage, which was shared as social short/long form content. Everyone was invited to rebuild their own version of Mosaic art featuring the pieces they collected, which inspired thousands more. Social video of the plate drop, in-store innovations and the rebuilding experience we shared out across social/press channels and supported by traditional media that blanketed the city.

Objective 1: Drive family footfall to opening month of store, with a reduced store capacity due to COVID constraints. RESULT: An unprecedent, approximate footfall of 100K people visited in a matter of a four weeks.

Objective 2: Garner strong earned media value and coverage. Result: Gained 350M+ Impressions and garnered over 257 media clips attracting media from across the entire region. (EPV: 1,288,480 euros)

Objective 3: Achieve opening month sales goals. Result: Beat goals–drove sales 27% above plan during opening month.

Objective 4: Grow Brand Affinity in the Market: Overall, the experience achieved a world-class level net promoter score (NPS) of 88.5.