Lego is reviewing its media business worldwide and has also lined
up Wieden & Kennedy and St Luke’s to pitch for a major new international
project.
The moves are part of a rethink of Lego’s worldwide communications
strategy. This saw the appointment of Ammirati Puris Lintas this summer
to create advertising aimed at four- to nine-year-old boys on a global
basis.
On the media front, it means individual media reviews conducted for the
US, Europe and the rest of the world. However, centralisation of Lego’s
pounds 60 million media spend under one roof has not been ruled out.
The toy giant’s media buying is handled on a region-by-region basis,
with CIA Medianetwork being the incumbent in Europe, including the
pounds 8 million UK account. Lego has been with CIA in the UK since 1987
but it is in talks with European media networks, although a shortlist
has yet to be finalised.
Marco Ilincic, the marketing manager for seven- to 16-year-old targeted
products in northern Europe, denied that there was a formal pitch,
adding: ’We are perfectly happy with CIA but are constantly reviewing to
ensure that we’re receiving the right media at the right price.’
In the US, the incumbent, Western Initiative Media, McCann-Erickson, TN
Media and Starcom are understood to have been invited to pitch for the
dollars 40 million media business.
Lego has also held a creative pitch for an agency to handle a major
international campaign for one of its products which has not been
advertised before. St Luke’s and Wieden & Kennedy Amsterdam have pitched
for the project, and the work is in research.
