LEGO gets families to reprioritise play with Tan France, Bindi Irwin and Stephanie Beatriz

The LEGO Group has launched a new "Play is Your Superpower" campaign which aims to address the global lack of play among children with a new Play Squad and interactive brand film.

The Play Squad features Tan France, Naomi Watanabe, Bindi Irwin and Stephanie Beatriz who each attribute the skills they have developed to child play. The celebrities all advocate for why they believe play should be a priority for every child as they play with LEGO in a short film. 

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Through the new campaign, the LEGO Group aims to inspire families to reprioritise playtime by emphasising its critical importance in childhood development and the role it plays in bringing fun to families around the world, according to a statement by the brand.

“If we don’t recognise that factoring in time for a child to play each day is imperative to their wellbeing and future success, we’re going to have a generation of young adults missing vital skills,” said Alero Akuya, vice president of brand development, LEGO Group.

“With this campaign, we aim to re-frame the way adults see play and its many benefits and encourage them to reprioritise it in their family lives. It should be seen as just as important as reading children a bedtime story or helping them eat well to boost their health,” she explained.

The campaign draws its insights from a global study that found that children are only spending 2% of their week playing and that 70% of parents are choosing to prioritise achievement-based activities for their children over free play because they believe that it will lead them to greater success in the future.

To further get parents involved in playing with their children, the LEGO Group has also released a five-minute film that stars Jane Lynch as a work-obsessed CEO who becomes enlightened to the merits of play by seeing the impact it makes on her employees through the eyes of children. 

Set under the premise of a “bring your child to work day”, the film sees appearances by Sun Li and Groot. The film also contains easter eggs that viewers can interact with on LEGO.com and the LEGO Life app. Families will also be encouraged to transform themselves into minifigures such as the characters in the film and join a global squad of passionate play advocates on LEGO.com.

“The film showcases the endless possibilities for play that children see, in even the dullest of situations, and shows the difference play can make to the world as children rebuild it for the better,” said Nic Taylor, senior vice president and head of Our LEGO Agency.

The integrated global campaign will run across a variety of channels including TV, digital, out-of-home, cinema, PR, influencer, and e-commerce, according to a statement by the brand.  The film will also come to life in LEGO stores globally with playable experiences that tie into the characters' mission from the hero film.

“Our creative team were on a mission to develop a campaign idea that was big enough to flex across the three key moments from fall, right through to the holidays; and Play is Your Superpower is exactly that,” explained Jen Speirs, chief creative officer, Droga5 Dublin, which is a part of Accenture Song,

“Of course, the only way to launch an idea like this was with a brand film that mimics a true superhero epic and opens people’s eyes to the wonders of play, which has actual ways to play hidden inside,” Speirs also said.

The LEGO Group has constantly prioritised involving the family in playtime as LEGO HK unveiled a series of activities as part of the summer travel campaign, "樂Go! BUILDCation", to highlight the importance of family bonding time via playing with LEGO bricks and games. 

This comes as a survey conducted by LEGO last year discovered that more than 90% of parents agreed playing with children brings benefits and greater happiness to families. However, nearly 40% of parents in Hong Kong admitted that the quality time they spent with their family members was insufficient.

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