LEGO ‘brand slams’ Hasbro

The LEGO Group has been compared to fellow long-standing international toy brand Hasbro in a recent article.

Event Magazine took the two toy giants and in a fun ‘Brand Slam’ piece compared the companies in a variety of categories.

The piece highlights some of the LEGO Group’s promotional activity:

Lego has staged a wide range of global activations in recent months. The brand teamed up with Warner Bros to promote the Lego Batman film and unveiled a three-metre-high Lego Batarang on London’s South Bank which brought to life Batman’s most famous gadget. The interactive Lego show Bricklive launched its tour this month and will visit four UK cities from July to October.

The impressive LEGO Batarang build now resides at the LEGOLAND Windsor Resort. The note about BRICKLIVE is also inaccurate, as the organisers are keen to ensure that attendees are aware that the event is not officially endorsed by the LEGO Group. By contrast, Hasbro has staged events around Play-Doh and Transformers.

In terms of social media, the article notes that the LEGO Group has 41,000 Twitter followers – only one third of Hasbro’s 121,000. Conversely, the US toy giant’s Facebook account has 3 million likes to the Danish company’s 12 million likes.

The article highlights recent brand activity conducted by both toy giants, noting Hasbro’s shopping centre tours and annual team-up with McDonald’s to offer a Monopoly themed instant win contest. As for the LEGO Group, the Leicester Square store opening is mentioned along with an upcoming LEGO Friends tour:

Lego’s ‘Lego Friends’ brand will stage a friendship party experience at Camp Bestival this month, inviting children and families to immerse themselves in the lives of the Lego Friends characters including Stephanie, Andrea, Olivia and Emma. Guests can create their own Lego builds, as well as experiencing a silent disco complete with a disco ball, pop classics, disco props and a dance floor.

Overall, the piece names LEGO as the stronger brand although erroneously notes BRICKLIVE as an official LEGO event.

Lego has a larger social following, and has partnered with well known brands to enhance the reach of its experiential endeavours. The events are all inclusive, appealing to children and adults alike, and events such as Bricklive feature live elements to make the experience more exciting for guests.

The articles misses the clearest reason that LEGO is recognised as a stronger brand than Hasbro – that consumers enter a toy shop looking for a LEGO product, whereas they look for a Nerf or Transformers product rather than a Hasbro product. There is no Hasbro aisle, but there is a LEGO aisle, demonstrating the long standing affection that consumers have for the largest construction toy manufacturer.