The LEGO Group aimed to expand their audience, and grow credibility with adults this Valentine’s, by infusing fresh energy into a wilting occasion.

To shift brand perceptions amongst adults, we broke out of the toy aisle and disrupted the iconic, yet traditional world of flowers. Our LEGO Store was rebuilt into “Le Florist”, the most unexpected flower shop, featuring our Botanicals Collection.

The Le Florist activation sat at the heart of the campaign, and blossomed across the consumer journey. Showcasing the impact of an engaging retail experience to charm a new audiences, and shift brand perceptions while delivering sales.

To grow credibility with adults, and plant LEGO’s role in the world of gifting, we needed to go big, and chose Valentine’s to shine - a globally treasured gifting occasion, yet one facing a problem, which is where we saw our brand opportunity.

Valentine's Day, once deemed the pinnacle of love and surprise, was losing its spark worldwide. Seen as shallow and predictable, cynicism towards the occasion was growing, and the number of people buying gifts was declining. Notably, in the United Kingdom, one of the core markets for The LEGO Brand, Valentine’s spending reportedly dropped 19% YoY in 2023.

But every great love story has a glimmer of hope, we saw appetite for a Valentine’s refresh. Research revealed that the UK was eager to redefine the holiday, with people looking to ditch gifting cliches for more meaningful gestures and experiences to surprise their loved ones.

This cultural need opened up a clear role for The LEGO Brand and shaped our rollout. We launched our key activation in the UK, leveraging the consumer appetite, as well as a new LEGO Store in London to deliver something fresh.

We then grew the campaign worldwide with engaging social content. Meanwhile local activations sprouted across markets to spread the love and make it a truly global Valentine’s refresh.

Like every rose, the LEGO brand has its thorn. It's adored worldwide for inspiring generations of children. However, therein lies the challenge, LEGO sets are seen as toys for kids, but the vast majority of adults aren’t aware we have brilliant sets for them too.

Our task was twofold, we need to grow credibility with adults, shifting perceptions of the brand. While also driving commercial success, with sales of the LEGO Botanicals collection. The brief was to branch out of the toy aisle and plant our role in the world of gifting to adults. As a brand that plays big, we aimed high with our sights on Valentine’s Day.

This would be no easy task. We needed to shake up perceptions of the brand to win over adults. While also planting the LEGO brand’s role in a cluttered occasion, proving the best flowers for Valentine’s aren’t just picked, but built.

The creative idea: We invited everyone to Keep It Fresh this Valentine’s Day,

blooming against traditional conventions.

For a limited time only, our London store was given a fresh floral makeover and rebuilt into a LEGO florist, or as we named it ‘Le Florist’. Surprising passers-by with wall-to-wall brick-built blooms. Our store staff even became florists, arranging and showcasing the freshest bunches.

But love knows no boundaries, Le Florist was designed to bloom across the globe. We partnered with social influencers and leveraged earned media to spread the love, and challenge the public to Keep It Fresh.

LEGO Florists also sprouted up in other key markets, reimagining local Valentine’s traditions with a fresh LEGO twist. And for those who couldn't visit a Le Florist, we brought it to them, with a limited-edition gift with purchase florist set, building fresh excitement into Valentine's.

Audience: We needed to woo the hearts of adults, who are looking for a unique gift to celebrate their loved ones this Valentine’s Day.

The Tension: Gifts are the ultimate love language. Our way to surprise our loved ones and make them feel special, but too often they feel ordinary and predictable, especially when it comes to Valentine’s Day.

Brand Opportunity: As a brand rooted in creativity, this gave The LEGO brand an ownable role. We wanted to bloom fresh energy into a wilting occasion with our LEGO Botanicals Collection.

The strategy: Inspire everyone to deliver a fresh Valentine’s gift to surprise their loved ones, with botanicals as unique as their connections.

It took us circa 600 building hours to make The LEGO Battersea Power Station store blossom through a special build that required more than 125K LEGO bricks and 1900 LEGO flowers.

Le Florist opened at this flagship LEGO store in London during the February 3rd-4th, 2024 weekend. Meanwhile, we had a Flower Cart nearby, which drove traffic to the store and stayed up to drive more visits and content until February 19th. Throughout the same period, other LEGO Florists opened up across the globe, making this a global Valentine’s refresh.

Barcelona Airport had its own pop-up Florist open from February 12th-14th. More mobile Florists opened across France, and others sprouted in The Netherlands, Italy, Romania, and Bulgaria. In the Americas, we activated with market-relevant events and drops.

At these physical activations, content was captured to drive awareness and Botanicals sales for Valentine’s and keep feeding the Keep It Fresh campaign.

The campaign bloomed beyond our goals, and successfully grew relevance with adults:

•Activation video garnered 4.2M views on our TikTok alone, and reached 4.6M Impressions on talent paid social (vs 2.2M benchmark)

•Content sprouted across social platforms, with an astounding 1.1 Billion in earned global reach!

•Media sentiment was 100% positive, reflecting the widespread love

By playing with the flower category, we earned our place at the top of it, dominating flower searches, without paid search.

•LEGO flowers was the top searched for Valentines flower in the US, reported by Google Trends

•LEGO Roses searches increased +592%

The impact translated into sales, as LEGO Botanicals were proudly chosen to keep Valentine’s fresh:

•Achieved 94% YoY global sales growth during the campaign period

•Sold out of roses in key markets due to high demand

•LEGO roses were the top selling item in the London store, the week following the activation