Latest / The Marketing Funnel Podcast with Fexingo: Awareness, Interest, Decision, and Action Stages / How LEGO Turned Adult Fans Into a Marketing Funnel
Transcript
- Lucas: LEGO reported last year that adult sales now make up nearly 30 percent of their total revenue. That's up from basically nothing a decade ago. And they didn't stumble into it — they engineered a whole marketing funnel specifically for grownups who never stopped loving bricks. Luna: Thirty percent of a company that sold roughly ten billion dollars worth of bricks in 2025. That's three billion from adults. How do you even start building a funnel for people who already know the product? Lucas: You start with LEGO Ideas. That's the platform where fans submit their own set designs and the community votes. If a design hits ten thousand votes, LEGO reviews it for production. The creator gets a cut of sales. As of early 2026, there have been over two million submissions — and about seventy official sets produced this way. Luna: So the awareness stage is literally users pulling in other users. A fan builds something incredible, shares it on Instagram or Reddit, and suddenly thousands of people who hadn't thought about LEGO in years see it and go 'I want that.' Lucas: Exactly. And the sets that come out of LEGO Ideas are not generic. They're niche. The Medieval Blacksmith, the typewriter, the NASA Apollo Saturn V. These appeal to specific adult interests. The Saturn V set was so popular it sold out multiple times. Each restock was free marketing — scarcity driving demand. Luna: That's the interest stage. Limited drops, high detail, higher price points — like the Titanic set at nearly seven hundred dollars. That's not an impulse buy. That's a considered purchase. Lucas: Right. And at the decision stage, LEGO uses its VIP loyalty program. You earn points on every purchase, but they also give early access to new Ideas sets. So a fan who's on the fence about a two-hundred-dollar botanical collection might get an email saying 'VIPs can order the new Tranquil Garden three days early.' That nudge converts lookers into buyers. Luna: And the action stage isn't just a purchase. It's building, sharing, and submitting new ideas. The funnel loops back on itself. The customer becomes the marketer. Lucas: LEGO has even formalized that loop. They run ambassador programs for AFOLs — Adult Fans of LEGO — who get early access to sets in exchange for content. In 2024, the LEGO Ambassador Network had over five hundred members globally, each generating organic buzz that would cost millions in paid media. Luna: It's interesting how different this is from traditional toy marketing. Mattel and Hasbro still spend heavily on TV ads and movie tie-ins. LEGO is essentially running a community-managed content engine. Lucas: And it's not just for adults. The adult funnel feeds back into the kids' funnel. Parents who get hooked on the botanical collection or the architecture series are more likely to buy sets for their children and to introduce them early. The lifetime value of a customer who joins as an AFOL can be enormous. Luna: Let's talk numbers. LEGO Ideas sets typically sell for forty to four hundred dollars. The most successful ones sell hundreds of thousands of units. The Titanic set, at 9,090 pieces, reportedly sold over a hundred thousand units in its first year. That's seventy million dollars in revenue from one set. Lucas: And that set came from a fan design. The original creator, a professional LEGO builder in Poland, submitted it, got it approved, and earned royalties. LEGO gets a proven concept with a built-in audience. It's the ultimate product validation. Luna: But there's a risk. If you rely on fan submissions, you might get a flood of derivative ideas. LEGO has to curate carefully. They've rejected designs that violate their brand guidelines — no military vehicles, no political content. Lucas: They also limit the number of Ideas sets per year to about twelve. That scarcity applies to product development, too. It keeps demand high and maintains the perception that being selected is a big deal. It's a prestige economy for creators. Luna: So the awareness is organic, interest is driven by exclusivity, decision is nudged by loyalty perks, and action is a purchase that doubles as content creation. That's a closed-loop funnel. Lucas: The thing is, most brands would kill for that loop. But it requires a product that people are passionate enough to build and share. LEGO bricks are inherently social. You build something, you put it on a shelf, people see it, they ask about it. Not every product has that virality baked in. Luna: Quick honest thing — this is exactly the kind of marketing case study that makes you think 'I could apply this to my own business.' A handful of listeners chip in monthly through buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo, and that's literally what funds us making deep dives like this without ads or sponsors. Lucas: Yeah, it's a small group, but they're the reason we can spend forty minutes researching a single company's funnel. If these conversations have sparked something you've actually used at work, that's where you can keep it going. Luna: Alright, back to the bricks. The other piece of the adult funnel is the direct to consumer shift. LEGO has been aggressively pushing its own stores and website over third-party retail. Lucas: In 2025, LEGO.com accounted for over 20 percent of total sales, up from 12 percent in 2020. That matters because first-party data lets them personalize offers. If you bought the botanical set, they'll recommend the succulent set. If you bought the space shuttle, they'll show you the ISS. Luna: And that personalization feeds back into the loyalty program. VIP members get personalized recommendations based on past purchases and even their saved wish lists. It's like Netflix for bricks. Lucas: Exactly. And they've extended that to physical stores. In flagship locations like the New York Fifth Avenue store, they have 'Pick a Brick' walls where adults can buy individual pieces. That's an action-stage tactic — you go in for one specific piece, you leave with a full set. Luna: One more thing about the awareness stage: LEGO movies. The 2014 LEGO Movie was essentially a ninety-minute ad for the brand. But it was so good that it won over adults who hadn't touched a brick in decades. It created a nostalgia spike that LEGO capitalized on with targeted ads for Ideas sets. Lucas: That movie earned over four hundred and sixty million dollars globally. And LEGO saw a direct correlation: in the quarter after release, sales jumped 13 percent year-over-year. That's awareness turning into action at scale. Luna: So the question is: can other brands copy this? Say a craft beer company or a cookware brand. Can they build a fan-submission platform and a loyalty loop? Lucas: Some have tried. Doritos had the 'Crash the Super Bowl' contest for user-made ads. That generated huge awareness but didn't create a sustained funnel because the product itself — a bag of chips — doesn't have the same creative engagement. LEGO works because the product is the medium. Luna: Right. The key insight might be that the funnel doesn't start with marketing. It starts with product design that invites participation. LEGO bricks are a platform. Most products are not. Lucas: And that's the takeaway for any marketer listening. Don't graft a community onto a product that doesn't naturally foster creation. But if your product can be remixed, customized, or displayed, you have the raw material for an afol style funnel. Luna: So we've got a brand that turned its biggest fans into its most effective marketing channel, built a loyalty program that actually drives repeat purchases, and uses scarcity to create urgency — all while keeping the core product unchanged. Lucas: LEGO's adult funnel is a masterclass in aligning product, community, and incentives. And the best part? The fans aren't just customers. They're co-creators. That's the ultimate engagement loop. Luna: Now I'm wondering — which brand will be the next to figure this out? Maybe someone in the audio space, like synthesizers or modular gear. Lucas: I'd watch the guitar pedal market. There are already fan communities building custom circuits. If a company like Boss or Electro-Harmonix opens up a submission platform, they could pull a LEGO. Luna: That would be a fun episode. Maybe we'll cover it if enough listeners ask. Lucas: And if they do, you know where to find us. Until next time.