The Hardest To Reach LEGO Store in the world is a love letter to off-roading culture. Our non-fiction film captures the go-anywhere ruggedness of off-roading and feeds authentically into the fanbase’s love for 4x4 adventures.

As a toy company that’s about play and creativity, we wanted to challenge ourselves and show our adventurous side. By creating a mini documentary-style expedition film to launch the new LEGO Icons Land Rover Classic Defender 90, we wanted to appeal to adventure-content hungry audiences online and in doing so, invite them and more adults into LEGO’s world of iconic and classic vehicles.

To celebrate the 75th anniversary of the Land Rover, we collaborated with Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) and brought to life the new LEGO Icons Land Rover Classic Defender 90 – a beautiful 2,336-piece LEGO set based on the classic design and interpretation of the Land Rover Defender from 1983 to 2016.

Rather fittingly, this would be a simultaneous global launch without borders or barriers. And to present our new LEGO set to the world and honour the significant anniversary, we had to rethink the way we would normally launch a new LEGO set for adults. For a product that’s a gold symbol of 4x4 exploration in the real world, we needed to pay homage to 75 incredible years of extraordinary adventures in a way that could be globally recognised.

Furthermore, as the Classic Defender ceased production in 2016 – this launch would see us welcoming back a legend of the 4x4 world.

So, we decided to go back to the UK, where the Land Rover was birthed, and seek out the most mountainous and challenging terrains as the setting for our campaign. A setting a Land Rover Defender can truly call home.

The task was to launch the new LEGO Icons Land Rover Classic Defender 90 in celebration of 75 years of the Land Rover. The challenge was to do it in a way that brings out the playfulness and creativity of the LEGO brand, while also making sure we stay true to the above and beyond spirit of the Land Rover Defender.

The objective was to not specifically engage traditional LEGO fans as we do with many product launches. Instead, we needed to attract the niche Land Rover and off-roading fanbase through authentic storytelling, thereby encouraging them to buy and build our new Land Rover LEGO set and more iconic and classic vehicles that the LEGO Group has to offer. This would be no easy task as, for many, they would not have considered or desired LEGO sets for themselves since way back when they were kids.

We targeted the Land Rover fanbase and anyone who loves off-roading. These are a group of people who relish challenges and exploration because it is a big part of who they are as 4x4 enthusiasts.

More importantly, whereas for most car fans, we have to make sure the car looks right; for fans of the Defender, we had to make sure it was seen authentically in the right place.

Our mantra: it's not just about what it looks like, it’s about where it’s seen.

So, if we are going to launch a product that symbolizes adventure, to a community where adventure is in their DNA, then a completely new way of creating a product demonstration is key.

To build legitimacy with the 4x4 community, we engaged Land Rover Experiences in the UK to seek off-road locations, and worked with PR agencies to recruit adventure enthusiasts into our campaign.

The creative idea is The Hardest to Reach LEGO Store in the world.

We turned an actual Land Rover Defender into a pop-up store carrying our new LEGO Land Rover Defender set. We placed the entire pop-up store in an extremely off-road location high up in the Scottish Highlands along challenging terrains.

We then decided to test those with the spirit of adventure to come claim and help reveal our new LEGO Defender. We sent out invites to incredible adventure enthusiasts and two answered the call. They raced each other to the pop-up store in a bid to be the first to build the new LEGO set.

Across touchpoints, the campaign CTA invited people to build their own adventure by taking on the challenge of the 2,336-piece LEGO build. It was a fitting message for our target audience as we stayed true to the spirit of off-road expedition.

The store: Worked with Land Rover Experience UK to turn a Land Rover Defender Trophy Edition into our pop-up store. DIY-ed the boot of the Defender into a store display that could hold several of the new LEGO Defender set. Its overall yellow colourway created further connection with LEGO’s brand colours – playful vibes and high visibility on the hill.

Location: The Experience team picked Rotmell Hill as the store’s location after a week’s recce. Rotmell Hill is in Dunkeld – Scotland’s best kept secret for off-trail driving according to locals.

Adventure influencers: Worked with PR agencies to recruit outdoor enthusiasts with incredible adventure credentials. These included experiences like climbing Everest and tour guides for remote locations in the world.

Production: 4 months from concept to final delivery. Other than the usual production crew, we had a team of 4x4 drivers, trail crew and drone in a 2.5 day shoot.

The campaign exceeded all expectations, surpassing benchmarks at driving traffic to the website by 5% and nearly 50% of all traffic to the website coming from new to LEGO brand users during its first month to market.

Despite such a niche target audience, we gained over 850,000 views and 3.7m impressions on YouTube which exceeds our typical performance for the channel and spend level. The content added an additional 1m reach amongst non-LEGO followers through the @landrover.classic Instagram page.

All of which translated into a massive 35% increase of customers that were new to LEGO products, exceeding benchmarks again by 6% for similar sets.