Eggman Trolls LEGO Sonic, a campaign by The LEGO Group, turned fan criticism into a deliciously villainous narrative that ignited unparalleled fandom engagement.

Before this partnership launch, consensus amongst SEGA fans was we did Eggman dirty. His "ugly" brick-built figure in a previous one-off LEGO Sonic set spawned online ridicule and unsparing trolling. But it provided invaluable insight, revealing the true source of anticipation for the partnership – Eggman’s minifigure. This was our chance. To win over memelords, we had to think like one: Capitalize on the mistake and turn it into compelling publicity and entertainment for the videogame fandom.

Cultural context was critical to our success. But it wasn’t of specific markets or regions, it was the culture of the Sonic fandom.

Back in the ’90s, Sonic the Hedgehog was cool. But after a series of disappointing Sonic games lampooned by critics and fans alike, SEGA struggled to revitalize the franchise since 2005.

In fact, for the longest time, fans of the video game franchise were often the butt of their own jokes on the Internet and in gaming circles, poking fun at SEGA and deriding themselves for holding out hope for their beloved Sonic.

Even the official Twitter account, @sonic_hedgehog, gained fame for posting internet memes and self-deprecating commentary on its own decline.

This had an important effect on the fandom. Fed a diet of in-jokes, irony, and self-deprecation for over a decade, the fan culture and their humor were unlike any other.

Fast-forward to 2023, SEGA was pulling off a massive comeback for Sonic with a string of successes in mobile and platform gaming, TV and the box office. It ignited new interest and relevance for the videogame franchise, winning over old and new, younger fans alike.

Given the crossover of audiences, it was a no-brainer for The LEGO Group and SEGA to join forces, partnering on a global campaign to launch the official lineup of Sonic the Hedgehog LEGO sets, with particular focus on Americas and Europe as key markets. Unlike the previous one-time collaboration, this marks our first sustained strategic partnership.

The brief was simple: convert Sonic fans' (both kids aged 6-12 and adult shoppers) affection for the franchise and video games into love for LEGO Sonic.

The catch? No paid support – only leveraging shared and owned channels. We needed creative strategies to maximize impact on SEGA's platforms, as well as activating the 25% of the active fanbase – adult fans of the 90s videogame eager to share their Sonic love with their kids during this long-awaited comeback moment.

The challenge–an idea with outsized media impact in terms of reach and earned buzz to fulfill our objectives:

Achieve awareness of LEGO Sonic across key markets +7p.p

Beat internal reach & engagement benchmarks

Drive desire for LEGO Sonic sets

Classic advertising wasn’t going to work. If we wanted to win over this gaming fandom, we were going to have to earn it and entertain the heck out of them.

Humor, epitomized by the absurdist @sonic_hedgehog Twitter account, defined Sonic fans. Our success hinged on understanding exactly what makes this fandom, fueled by ironic memes and in-jokes, tick.

Through social listening, it became clear: For this unruly, chaos-loving bunch, making fun of the franchise and loving the franchise is the same thing. In fact, cracking self-deprecating jokes was their love language.

So when we unearthed reams of frankly hilarious memes of the “ugly” brick-built Eggman on Reddit, Discord, Youtube and other social channels, we knew we had a golden nugget of an insight. To translate love for Sonic into love for LEGO Sonic, we needed to make fun of ourselves. This wasn’t a partnership launch, this was redemption.

Our strategy to build the community was to shift the focus onto Eggman finally getting the minifigure respect he deserves, and milk it for maximum effect.

The creative idea in Eggman Trolls LEGO Sonic was simple – turn our past mistake into an entertaining villain arc worth following. After all, villains always have more fun. So we created a meta-narrative of LEGO Eggman sabotaging the partnership launch from the inside out as retaliation:

The new Sonic x The LEGO Group partnership really upsets Eggman! First, it was the less-than-stellar brick-built version of himself. Now, Sonic’s getting new LEGO sets launched??? The nerve!

With the beloved villain finally rendered as a proper, beautiful minifigure this time, he’s on a mission – to sabotage the LEGO Sonic launch and put his own plans into action. Revenge is best served eggy…

“What Would Eggman Do?” was our north star in guiding the execution to infiltrate launch plans across multiple touchpoints in our shared ecosystems.

Product Announcement: Kicking off, we sparked fan frenzy by withholding the Eggman set from the official product announcement video, only to subtly feature it lurking in the shadows.

Influencers: We sent vandalized LEGO Sonic sets to unsuspecting gaming and LEGO influencers and filmed their surprise.

Sonic Central Livestream: We ominously hinted at a surprise during SEGA’s biggest annual fan event, and hacked into it midstream to launch LEGO Eggman with a character-first rap (which nearly broke the internet), and called for fan submissions for an ugly LEGO Sonic build.

Games: Invading the popular Sonic Forces mobile game, we turned LEGO Eggman into a playable character along with gameplay changes. And revealed a LEGO Eggman skin DLC for Sonic Superstars.

Long-form entertainment:  Our long-form content entertained fans with easter eggs and deep lore references. It followed LEGO Eggman taking over LEGO HQ, lighting it in sinister red and seeding chaos everywhere.

The results were phenomenal in reaching our objectives:

14 billion impressions in total

1.9 billion in potential earned PR reach alone - more than 11x what a comparable LEGO set launch achieved in a similar timeframe.

300% more PR mentions in the first 28h than high performing assets for comparable set launches. Article mentions include mainstream, gaming and pop culture-related media sites not limited to Reddit, Kotaku, Hypebeast, Metro UK, Polygon, IGN, and Forbes.

Social media engagement beating internal benchmarks by 2X, with overwhelmingly positive reaction of a 2200% increase in joy.

US$1M estimated earned social value

Average wishlisting of 12.1%

And not insignificantly, community reactions ranging from comments like “I saw the ending and peed my pants”, to a fan-made 10hour loop of LEGO Eggman’s rap, to endlessly creative ugly Sonic fan builds, showed a success in translating love for the franchise into love for the partnership.

Since the fans of Sonic are very discerning, it was a conscious effort to produce content as authentic and engaging as possible – less commercial, more entertainment.

Lo-fi production value, handheld camera treatment and analogue theatrics were ingrained in each of the four-part campaign to achieve the LEGO Sonic flavour and texture consistently.

There were discussions around keeping the personalities and traits of the characters intact, most especially Eggman as he is the most formidable foe of Sonic. In the world of SEGA, he doesn’t rap at all. So we had to create this new persona in the LEGO world where Eggman drops bars like a pro. The creator of Sonic and Eggman appreciated the version of LEGO Eggman in the universe we formed. This also secures the flexibility and longevity of the LEGO tonality for the succeeding campaigns.