Campaign Trail is our evaluation of a few of one of the best latest creative efforts from the marketing world. View past columns within the archives here.
Actor Tom Holland is best known for portraying your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man within the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but he’s also played — to name just just a few roles — a tsunami survivor (“The Impossible”), a military veteran with PTSD (“Cherry”) and a video game adventurer (“Uncharted”).
In what may be the best display of his range yet, the 29-year-old actor tackles being the protagonist in a sci-fi film, a soccer star, a tech innovator, an elderly gardener, a chunky executive and a classy artist — all in a two-minute video from Lego.
“Never Stop Playing” utilizes not only a superstar brand ambassador but in addition the creative power of its iconic brick pieces to show the transformative power of play. The video is a series of vignettes linked together by Lego-loaded transitions that begins when Holland’s sci-fi actor ends a scene during which he wonders if his character’s proclamation, “To survive, we must stop playing,” is true.
What follows is a series of Lego-powered scenes, from a soccer player kicking a Lego ball, to a tech-talk host with rocket boots, a garden hose that turns organic matter to Lego and an artist in a floral Lego outfit that unleashes 3D Lego art. One vignette even features Holland as an older, fatter executive who has forgotten how to play and the way to secure his hairpiece.
Set to AC/DC’s “High Voltage,” “Never Stop Playing” was directed by duo Los Pérez (Tania Verduzco and Adrián Pérez) through Biscuit Filmworks and created by the brand’s in-house Our Lego Agency (OLA) in collaboration with creative agency Chaos x Magic. While the unique script used different actors to show various perspectives, one creative decision elevated the video into something greater.
“The genius of somebody writing it as one talent playing multiple characters, that is after we went, ‘Now we’re talking,’” said Nic Taylor, senior vice chairman and head of OLA. “It’s got a pleasant, memorable hook, and in case you get that talent right, then this thing will hopefully catch fire.”
The power of play
“Never Stop Playing” is the newest chapter in Lego’s “Rebuild the World” campaign, an overarching platform that maintains that play will be transformative and constructing creative confidence is important for people of all ages. For its latest effort, Lego keyed in on an insight that folks are playing less at earlier ages. As kids start to come of age, nearly half feel the pressure to grow up quickly and admit that they stop twiddling with certain toys because they’ve been told they’re “childish” or “babyish,” according to Lego research.
“We felt like we wanted to make that aspirational, to make the thought of constant to play, continuing to use your creative powers a very fun and exquisite way of life your life, regardless of what age, and really dramatize the enjoyment of that,” Taylor said.
After unlocking the thought of getting all of the characters portrayed by one actor, Lego had to find the fitting brand partner. In Holland, they found a young star who has fans of all ages thanks to his ongoing gig as Spider-Man and an authentic relationship with the brand. Holland grew up twiddling with Lego along with his brothers Sam and Harry, who also appear within the spot.
“For a brand and product like ours, finding universal talent reinforces that concept that this product and this experiences is relevant to all parts of the world and all ages,” Taylor said of Holland’s casting. “He contributed to the script, and he helped us craft the storytelling and the characters and the scenes themselves. It’s a collaboration, greater than only a casting of an awesome talent.”
Beyond Holland, the predominant character of the spot is the Lego bricks themselves, which make up costumes, sets and props, whether physically or via CGI. For Lego, its bricks are a medium onto themselves — not a product that is just revealed at the top of an attention grabbing commercial.
“The more we embrace [the bricks], the higher the work,” Taylor explained. “We don’t shrink back from it. We prefer it to feel as authentic as possible.”
In-house strength
To tap into the Lego medium, the production teams leaned on the corporate’s specialist teams that understand how to construct unique pieces — including the brick-built soccer ball, wildlife, megaphone and a custom suit — that appear within the brand’s content. That in-house knowledge also powers OLA.
“When you are contained in the company, generating campaigns and concepts on behalf of this brand, you are interacting with more stakeholders on that journey. You’ve got proximity to the designers, not only the product or brand teams that could be briefing you,” Taylor said. “You’ve got this sort of access that’s completely latest and different, which I feel can lead to richer ideas… that could be hard to get while you’re at a little bit of a distance.”
Taylor, who joined Lego in January 2022 after years at agencies including DDB and McCann, has worked to construct the agency’s capabilities around creativity. For example, Carlo Cavallone, the previous global chief creative officer at 72andSunny, serves as head of world creative at OLA.
“It’s a creative brand at its heart, so culturally, we’re already within the space of creativity, so you are not coping with any disconnects there,” Taylor said. “We’ve got access to all areas that you have only ever dreamed of within the external world.”
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