Lego

Lego is nothing if not masterful at its own reinvention. As a one-brand company, it really has to be. But the future of play could easily look different to how it has been in the past, and even how it is today, so how is Lego planning to reinvent the brick for children who spend less time playing with physical toys and more time playing with tablets? "Kids are moving digital platforms earlier," acknowledges David Gram, Lego's marketing director, speaking at The Conference in Malmo. "They are growing up in ways we cannot even imagine."

From speaking to parents, Lego knows that mums and dads are concerned about the passive nature of many digital play activities, and are keen to steer their children towards more creative activities that demand they use their imaginations.


Lego's Future Lab has taken this on as a challenge. The Future Lab consists of ten individuals from across the world who Gram describes as "rebels" that have complete freedom to create whatever they want, as long as it stays true to Lego's core brand beliefs. This means that making sure products have longevity (Lego bricks are built to last forever), that they inspire the builders of tomorrow and that they enhance children's ability to be creative and express themselves. This team of people allows the company to stay nimble, to experiment on a small scale very fast. Every year they release three of four new products into different markets around the world.

[h2]"We wish we invented Minecraft"[/h3]

Lego was one of the first companies in Europe to own a computer, and now says Gram, "these devices are becoming the kids' primary platform for play". In order to go about completing the leap between the two, the company went back and looked at its major innovative successes over the years. "We actually invented the wheel back in the seventies," he jokes, which allowed Lego to include vehicles in kits. Now 70 percent of kits incorporate vehicles and has apparently made the company the biggest tyre manufacturer in the world. Next came the minifigure and then, says Gram, "we experimented with robots but that was not a success". "It really comes down to the brick, the core brick," is what Lego concluded. How though could the company's teams put this on a screen? Obviously, Gram says, they were inspired by Minecraft and knew that they could learn from it. "Minecraft is digital Lego," he says. "We only wish we had invented it."

The final result was Lego Fusion, which launched in pilot form in the US last week. Gram describes it as mixture between Civilisation and The Sims.


Players have to build and populate a town, but in order to build houses on the screen they have to be build them physically with bricks first. They build the facade, capture it with the tablet or phone camera, which then makes it into a 3D building on the screen.

The company was keen to go back to what the core of what the original Lego experience was, which means there are no instructions and no structures that users are told to build.

The key challenge for Lego in approaching this project, says Gram, was proving something new needed to happen. The best way to prove it is to actually launch something, he adds, which is where the company is at now. It was also important that they internalised the challenge, because by staying true to the company's core DNA, Lego fully supported it and is committed to working out whether it is scalable from the pilot. He reiterates though that every company needs rebels, but rebels who know how to make things happen. "It's easy to set things on fire, and to rebel, but it's hard to get everyone to follow". His advice? Be diplomatic, accept that people will hate your project, understand the rules that you're breaking, build a tribe and make people shine.