Lego sees adult market as block to build on
Cris McDonough builds Legos during a BYOB adults-only build event.
Elisabeth Briggs finds calm in clicking small, interlocking bricks together and turning piles of multicoloured plastic into something recognizable.
Sometimes she has a beer while playing with Lego bricks — at 37, she’s allowed — or watches TV. But she keeps the instructions close by, following them to the block.
For Briggs, this ritual has become a kind of guided meditation with a tangible reward at the end: a big city skyline, perhaps, or an iconic building she can display in her office.
She picked up her first Lego building set, a 321-piece replica of the Eiffel Tower, for $35 (U.S.) after a trip to Paris, and now has nearly three dozen kits that mirror her travels.
Lego, the world’s largest and most profitable toy maker, is zeroing in on a growing demographic: Stressed-out adults. The 87-year-old Danish company increasingly bills its brightly coloured bricks as a way to drown out the noise of the day and perhaps achieve a measure of mindfulness.
Adults have become a coveted market for toy makers confronting increased competition and waning sales growth, and it doesn’t hurt that they’re more likely to drop $800 on a 7,541-piece Star Wars Millennium Falcon set or $400 for the Harry Potter Hogwarts Castle on Briggs’s wish list.
“Adults with high-pressured jobs are telling us they’re using Lego to disconnect from the mania of the day,” said Genevieve Capa Cruz, Lego’s audience marketing strategist.
The company spent the past five years revamping instruction manuals to make kits foolproof for frazzled adults, she said.
Lego’s appeal, of course, has long spanned generations. Adult Fans of Lego — known colloquially as AFOLs — have inspired dozens of Facebook and Reddit groups and at least one “blocumentary.” And a competition show, LEGO Masters, which premieres next month on Fox, pits adult builders against each other.
But the toy giant is increasingly looking beyond die-hard hobbyists to court the casual builder in search of modern-day tranquility. “Need an escape?” asked a recent Lego ad on Instagram. “Building with Lego bricks reduces stress and improves your well-being. It’s zen, in the shape of a brick.”
Lego is facing many of the same head winds as its rivals. Sales growth has held steady at about four per cent since 2018, a sharp drop from the 17 per cent a year average seen the preceding decade. Competition is growing — not only from other toy makers, but also smartphones and apps that are devouring a bigger portion of children’s allowances. Plus, analysts say, today’s parents would rather spend on experiences than stuff. U.S. toy sales fell about 5.5 per cent in the first nine months of this year, according to NPD Group.
Selling blocks — or puzzles or action figures — to adults has become one way for toy makers to counteract the slowdown. Competitors like Playmobil are taking note too, by rolling out programs that they say will help corporate employees “find new business solutions.”
“The rise of adult fans is driving the toy industry,” said Byrne, a New York-based consultant who bills himself as the Toy Guy. “Who do you think is buying the $499 Death Star or the $399 Hogwarts Castle? That’s all being made for adults who have their own money to spend.”