Latest / The Marketing Funnel Podcast with Fexingo: Awareness, Interest, Decision, and Action Stages / How LEGO Rebuilt Its Funnel Around Adult Fans
Transcript
- Lucas: If I told you the most successful toy company on earth now sells more to adults than to kids, you'd probably believe it — but the numbers are even starker than you think. LEGO's adult-focused sets, the ones marketed directly at over-eighteens, accounted for nearly a third of their total sales last year, and their average adult buyer spends over one hundred dollars a visit, compared to about forty from a parent buying for a child. Luna: That's wild. And it's not like they just threw some 'For Ages 18+' labels on the box and hoped for the best. They rebuilt the entire funnel around a passionate, niche community. Lucas: Exactly. And the story of how they got there is a classic turnaround. In the early 2000s, LEGO was bleeding money — they were close to bankruptcy in 2003, diversified into everything from clothes to theme parks, and had basically lost the plot. Their saving grace wasn't a new toy, it was a new audience: the AFOLs, the adult fans who were already building complex models and sharing them online. Luna: So they went from ignoring those fans to making them the centre of gravity. Lucas: Right. And they did it with a series of deliberate moves that map almost perfectly onto the AIDA funnel. Awareness first — they started putting out sets that would get adults talking, like the Ultimate Collector Series Millennium Falcon. That thing was priced at five hundred dollars, had over five thousand pieces, and was absolutely not a toy. It was a statement. Luna: And it created a buzz that went way beyond the Lego subreddit. Every tech and design blog covered it. Lucas: That's the awareness play. But the interest stage is where they got smart. They launched the LEGO Ideas platform, where fans submit their own designs and the community votes on which ones become official sets. It's crowdsourcing, but it's also a brilliant engagement engine — people spend hours tweaking their MOCs, their 'my own creations,' to get them noticed. Luna: And it gives them a stake. When a fan-designed set like the NASA Apollo Saturn V or the Beatles Yellow Submarine actually hits shelves, the designer gets a royalty, and the whole community feels like they built it. Lucas: That's the interest to decision bridge. Because the decision stage for an adult buying a three-hundred-dollar set isn't about need — it's about emotion and identity. LEGO knows that, so they create scarcity, like limited-run sets that retire after a year or two, and they lean into the collector mentality. The 'Retiring Soon' tag on their website is a conversion tool disguised as information. Luna: So it's classic FOMO, but with a very adult, sophisticated gloss. Lucas: Exactly. And then the action stage is supported by a loyalty program that's actually good. LEGO Insiders gives you points for every purchase, early access to exclusive sets, and free gifts with purchase — which sounds basic, but it keeps people coming back. The average adult fan buys six or seven times a year. Luna: That's a massive customer lifetime value. And I love that they've embraced the term 'kidult' — it used to be a bit pejorative, but now it's a badge of honour. Lucas: It is. And there's a whole psychology behind it. Adults are buying back a piece of their childhood, but they're also buying into the idea of creative play as a legitimate form of stress relief and even status. LEGO has become a luxury hobby, and they've priced it accordingly. Luna: I want to challenge that for a second. Because if you're a parent, you might be wondering — are they just going to price out families with kids? We've all seen the price of a basic LEGO set creep up. Lucas: That's the tension, and it's real. LEGO's average set price has risen about 10 percent a year over the past decade, and their premium sets — the ones with four-digit piece counts — are clearly aimed at adults with disposable income. But they're careful to keep entry-level sets under twenty dollars for kids, because they know that's the seed corn. Luna: But does the adult focus risk alienating the core demographic? The kids who are supposed to grow up into the next generation of AFOLs? Lucas: It's a real balancing act. But look at what they've done with licenses — Star Wars, Harry Potter, Marvel. Those franchises are beloved by adults and kids alike, so a parent can buy a set for a kid and the adult is just as excited to build it. LEGO is engineering a shared experience. Luna: And that's where the community angle pays off again. Because when you build a set with your kid, you're making a memory, and that memory is tied to the brand. It's not just a toy, it's a bonding ritual. Lucas: That's the deepest level of the funnel — advocacy. And LEGO has turned their most passionate fans into a volunteer sales force. AFOLs host conventions, run YouTube channels, and create content that dwarfs anything LEGO's own marketing team could produce. Their brick fans are the funnel. Luna: So what's the concrete number you'd pull from this for a friend? The stat that sums it up? Lucas: I'd say this: LEGO's adult-focused sets now generate over one and a half billion dollars a year. That's more than the entire annual revenue of many large toy companies. And they got there not by inventing a new product, but by rethinking who the product is for. Luna: That's a good one. And it shows that the marketing funnel isn't just about pushing people through stages — sometimes you have to widen the top by discovering a whole new audience you were ignoring. Lucas: And that's the lesson for marketers listening: look at who's already passionate about your product, even if they're not your 'target demographic.' They could be your most valuable segment. Luna: Before we wrap, I want to touch on something that's been on my mind. This show is free, and we're able to make it because of a small group of listeners who chip in a few dollars a month. Lucas: Yeah, it's true. We don't run ads, and that's a deliberate choice. It means we can talk about companies like LEGO without any sponsor pulling the strings. But it also means we rely on the support of people who find real value in these conversations. Luna: If you're one of those people and you want to help keep this going, you can support us at buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. It's a small gesture that adds up. Lucas: And it genuinely funds the time we put into research and editing. So, thank you for that. Now, back to LEGO — there's one more layer to this story that I think is the real secret sauce. Luna: What's that? Lucas: They treat their marketing funnel as a two-way street. Most brands push content out and hope it sticks. LEGO listens — deeply. They have a dedicated community team that monitors fan forums, social media, and even the LEGO Ideas platform to spot trends before they happen. When they saw a surge in adult fans building botanical arrangements, they launched the LEGO Botanicals collection — flower sets that are now one of their fastest-growing lines. Luna: That's a great example of using the interest stage as a listening post, not just a broadcast channel. Lucas: Exactly. And it's not just product development. They also co-create with their community. The LEGO Masters TV show, the AFOL Designer Program — these are all ways to make the fans feel like co-creators, which deepens their emotional investment. Luna: So the funnel becomes a feedback loop. Awareness leads to interest, interest leads to engagement, engagement leads to purchase, and purchase leads to advocacy that feeds back into awareness. Lucas: That's the flywheel effect. And it's why LEGO has managed to stay relevant while other toy giants have struggled. Mattel and Hasbro are still scrambling to find their footing, but LEGO has built an ecosystem that's almost recession-proof, because their customers aren't buying a necessity — they're buying a passion. Luna: And that's the ultimate lesson, isn't it? The strongest marketing funnels are built on emotion, not logic. If you can tap into what people love, they'll not only buy, they'll bring their friends. Lucas: Right. So as you're thinking about your own marketing, ask yourself: who are the superfans you've been overlooking? They might be the key to your next big growth phase.