State of the Industry Geoffrey Greenberg, Co-President, Just Play How do you use 3-D printing in your R&D? Will you incorporate 3-D printing into your consumer offerings in the future? We use 3-D printing extensively in our development process. The quick turnarounds enable for faster approvals and the ability to make changes as needed without a long wait. A designer can be much more precise when working with a printed sample, and it helps move the development process along more quickly. From an innovation perspective, 3-D printing offers a multitude of unique approaches in how we engage consumers in the process. From a development and customization angle, as well as how these products are offered via retail or directly to the consumer, we’ll see how this more accessible form of technology will impact the industry in 2015 and beyond. In what new ways are you using social media to correspond directly with consumers? We try to engage our consumers through a variety of social platforms. It’s a great way to dialogue with our consumers, and we learn so much from that interaction in terms of likes, and even dislikes, about product. We take all of their feedback very seriously and try to incorporate as much as we can into future product. This real-time digital conversation not only empowers consumers to express their opinions and know they’re being heard, but it also enables us to give our consumers exactly what they want and need in a meaningful play experience. How have you seen consumer expectations change over the past decade? What we’re seeing now is almost a hunger for new products at the start of each season, where we see huge spikes in POS as a result of new product introductions. There’s a halo effect across carry-forward items too, but the importance of new items in pulling consumers back into retail each season is growing.
60 • THE TOY BOOK
Søren Torp Laursen, President, Lego Systems How has the success of The Lego Movie helped to transform the entertainment and merchandising arm of Lego? We are thrilled that The Lego Movie captured the attention of so many people around the world last year, serving as an anthem for creative building that drove families to pull out their existing Lego collections or try one of the Lego sets that we had on shelf. While we do not have ambitions to become an entertainment company, we know that storytelling and content—be it film, TV, YouTube tutorials, or fan-generated animations—is an important way that we create relevance while inspiring new ideas for play time. The movie was a perfect validation of our belief in the power of stories, and we look forward to deeper relationships with our content partners to continue to enhance what we do best in delivering fun and creative building sets that inspire children to become their own storytellers. What’s the oddest or most creative product request you’ve received from a consumer? We are amazed by the creativity of Lego builders—even more so by the things they’d like to build. We hear from thousands of fans each year with every request you can imagine and even the ones you can’t—from the obvious things like popular TV and movie franchises and sports mascots to the more obscure, such as replicas of famous inventions and collegiate buildings. The beauty of the Lego system is that we offer thousands of unique elements, making it easy for anyone to build whatever they’d like to see. We have also created a way for fans to bring their dream Lego set to life through Lego Ideas, a crowdsourcing platform where fans submit their proposals and if they receive 10,000 supporters, their creation moves into official consideration to become a real Lego set. Lego Ideas has helped us to create sets such as the Lego Ghostbusters Ecto-1, Lego Back to the Future Delorean, and Lego Research Institute.
FEBRUARY 2015