How Lego Built an Almost Inflation-Proof Toy Company

Here are some of the strategic moves the company made to achieve such positive results.

Attracting a wide audience

Lego is a rare toy that appeals to an audience beyond children.

The company appeals to adult consumers, or “kids,” with product lines like Lego Icons, which are Lego sets that include “impressive landmarks, modular buildings, classic vehicles, pop culture favorites and beautiful home decor sets,” the company says. Adults can drop $850 on a Star Wars Millennium Falcon or $680 on a Titanic replica.

The Danish family company’s investment in a wider audience has paid off. While the toy market has declined over the past 15 years, Lego has outpaced competitors such as Mattel, which makes Barbie, and Hasbro, which makes GI Joe. Lego has doubled its revenue over the past decade.

Strategic partnerships and entertainment projects

“Everything is great! Everything is great when you’re part of a team! Everything is great when we’re living the dream!”

It’s all great, really, especially when a company has a hand in many dishes, including lucrative film and entertainment projects. Several movies have dived into the Lego universe and it has paid off.

“The Lego Movie,” with its catchy “everything’s cool” chorus and incorporating some humorous coming-of-age tropes to target a broad audience, enjoyed massive success for an animated film when it hit theaters in 2014. It grossed over $468 million worldwide.

In 2017, “The Lego Batman Movie” and “The Lego Ninjago Movie” grossed $312 million and $123 million, respectively, worldwide. “The Lego Movie 2, released in 2019, grossed $192 million worldwide.

Just as the Lego franchise enjoyed a string of success when it branched out into film, it did the same with partnerships with other popular brands, that Adidas and Ikea, among others. Customers can purchase Adidas shoes featuring Lego pieces or Ikea storage bins with Lego studs and accompanying Lego bricks.

Plastic toys in a digital world

Lego has also taken its plastic blocks into a new frontier: the digital world.

Lego Fortnite, which is rated for players aged 10+, attracted millions of players when it launched in December. Players can build villages and “live it up” with friends.

Lego announced this month that it has reached one stunning 83 million players on the game. The company is looking for additional digital partnerships to replicate the success of Lego Fortnite, Bloomberg reported.

“We will continue to grow in the digital world,” Lego CEO Niels B. Christiansen told Bloomberg. “It is not new for the Lego Group to do partnerships and licensing agreements and it is clearly our ambition to do more.”