LEGO Australia appoints Airborne to handle creative in Australia and New Zealand

Creative agency Airborne has been appointed by LEGO Australia Pty Ltd as a creative agency for Australia and New Zealand, as the No. 1 toy brand moves to greater synergy for its creative and media investments.

The new LEGO partnership with Airborne (the creative division of IPG Mediabrands) is the second major development for the agency in the last two weeks after boutique retailer Georg Jensen appointed the agency to handle all creative work for the Australian market on July 10.

Airborne will work closely with sister Mediabrands agency UM to create close creative and media synergies for the LEGO brand and product in the local market.

Says Caroline Squire, LEGO director of marketing for Australia and New Zealand: “We are a big brand with a small team and have the need to have an agency work with us that can manage the creative traffic driven by our media plans for our LEGO theme marketing campaigns.

“We see great advantage in closely aligning our creative work with media strategy and execution. Having UM and Airborne work seamlessly will ensure both media and creative led opportunities are leveraged, with close collaboration between LEGO Australia, Airborne, UM and our media partners.

“Along with our retained agencies UM (media agency) and OGB (PR agency), who have been in our family for a while now, Airborne will streamline our processes and increase our ability to manage our business in a smarter and more effective way. LEGO Australia doesn’t have one specific creative agency – we prefer to work with a small stable of agencies and use the right agency forthe job, most of which is product rather than brand focused.

Continues Squire: “However we couldn’t let the 50th Anniversary of the LEGO brick in Australia pass us by in 2012 and using OGB/Host who have worked so brilliantly on developing and delivering an amazingly engaging brand campaign to celebrate this was the right choice for us given their experience and credentials in delivering innovative, engaging and electric master brand campaigns.”

Says Henry Tajer, executive chairman of Mediabrands: “It is great to see a brand of LEGO’s stature embracing the simplicity of fully integrating creative and media executions. Since Airborne joined the group, we have increasingly seen how creative work can influence media execution and vice versa. What emerges is undoubtedly more focused and effective work for clients.”

Scott Player (left) managing director of Airborne, said that taking on LEGO Australia’s broader creative portfolio was a proud achievement for the agency.

Says Player: “The LEGO brand’s stature holds a high creative pedigree anywhere in the world. It is a great opportunity for Airborne to not only produce its best creative work, but also gives merit to the collaborative creative and media model Mediabrands offers.”

Underlining the success of the LEGO brand and product in Australia, the company’s own research indicates that every Australian owns an average of 70 LEGO bricks and in 2011 alone, LEGO Australia sold almost 7 million LEGO sets.