Latest / Community Marketing with Fexingo: Discord, Slack Groups, and Brand Communities / How Lego Ideas Crowdsourced a Billion-Dollar Product Line
Transcript
- Lucas: Lego Ideas — the platform where fans submit their own set designs and, if they get enough votes, Lego actually manufactures and sells them. It launched in 2008 and it has produced some of the most iconic Lego sets of the last decade: the NASA Apollo Saturn V, the Beatles Yellow Submarine, the Women of NASA. Over fifty sets have come out of this program so far. Luna: And Lego is a privately held company, so we don't get exact figures, but analysts estimate those sets have generated hundreds of millions in revenue. The Saturn V alone reportedly sold over a million units. Lucas: Right. So the mechanics are pretty straightforward. Any Lego fan over the age of thirteen can submit a design. The community then votes, and if a project reaches ten thousand supporters within two years, it qualifies for a review by Lego. If approved, the creator gets one percent of total net sales — royalties, essentially. Luna: One percent sounds small, but for a set like the Saturn V, which retailed at a hundred and twenty bucks and sold over a million units, that's more than a million dollars going back to the original designer. Lucas: Exactly. And the creator also gets ten free copies of the set and is credited on the packaging. But the real value for Lego isn't the royalty cost — it's the fact that they're essentially outsourcing R&D and marketing simultaneously. Luna: Because every submission comes with a built-in community of supporters who are already invested in seeing that set succeed. They share it, they campaign for it, they unbox it on YouTube when it launches. Lucas: That's the core insight. Lego doesn't need to guess what fans want — the fans tell them, and they also do the heavy lifting of promotion. Each successful project becomes a marketing event, with hundreds of fan-made reviews, build videos, and social posts. Luna: But not every project makes it. What happens to the ones that get rejected? I recall there was some backlash a few years ago around a Minecraft set that hit ten thousand votes but then got turned down because of licensing conflicts. Lucas: That's a real tension. Lego has to balance community enthusiasm with brand safety, IP clearance, and manufacturing feasibility. They've rejected projects that overlap with existing licenses they don't hold, or that use too many unique pieces, or that just don't have broad enough appeal. Luna: And when a beloved project gets rejected, the community can feel betrayed. They put in months of campaigning, and then Lego says no for reasons that aren't always transparent. Lucas: Lego has tried to address this by publishing detailed review criteria and occasionally offering consolation prizes — sometimes they'll work with the creator to modify the design and resubmit. But it's not a perfect system. Luna: Speaking of imperfect — what stops a fan from submitting a design that infringes on someone else's IP? Like a Star Wars ship that isn't an official Lego set? Lucas: Great question. Lego's review board checks for IP conflicts before approval. But the ten thousand votes stage is community-driven, so there's no pre-screening. Occasionally a project that clearly uses unlicensed IP will get flagged by other users and removed. Luna: So it's a bit of a wild west until the official review. But the upside is that some truly unexpected ideas get through. Like the typewriter set — did you see that one? A fully functional mechanical typewriter made of Lego bricks. Lucas: Yeah, that one was submitted by a fan in Croatia. It hit ten thousand votes in about six months, and Lego released it in 2021. It sold for two hundred bucks and was backordered for months. That's the kind of surprise hit that a traditional product team would never greenlight. Luna: And that's the real power of community co-creation — you get innovations that no one inside the company would have thought of. But you also get a lot of noise. How does Lego manage the volume? There are thousands of submissions every year. Lucas: They rely heavily on the community to self-moderate. Users can flag inappropriate content, and Lego has a small moderation team that reviews reported projects. But the ten thousand vote threshold acts as a natural filter — only about two percent of submissions ever reach it. Luna: So the community does the curation work for them. That's efficient. Lucas: It's also a form of market research. Lego can see which themes are trending — space, nostalgia, pop culture — and then feed those insights into their mainstream product lines. Ideas is basically a constant focus group. Luna: And the sets that come out of Ideas tend to have higher engagement on social media, because the fans who voted for them are already primed to share. It's a virtuous cycle. Lucas: We deliberately keep these episodes ad-free because we think these marketing conversations are valuable on their own. If you've found them useful and want to support that choice, you can find us at buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. Luna: It's a small way to keep this independent and listener-supported. No ads, no sponsors, just the content. Lucas: Exactly. And speaking of community-driven content — let's talk about how Lego Ideas handles the transition from digital submission to physical product. That's actually where a lot of the magic happens. Luna: So once a project is approved, Lego's design team works with the original creator to refine the build. The creator gets input but doesn't have final say. The goal is to make it manufacturable while keeping the spirit of the original design. Lucas: Right. And that collaboration is key. The creator becomes an ambassador for the set, doing interviews and social media posts. Lego essentially gets a free spokesperson who is genuinely passionate about the product. Luna: There's also a feedback loop — the community sees that their votes lead to real products, which encourages more participation. It's not a one-off campaign; it's a sustained ecosystem. Lucas: And Lego has expanded it over time. They now have Lego Ideas contests for specific themes, like 'build a vehicle from the 1950s' or 'design a set for International Women's Day'. Those keep engagement high between regular submissions. Luna: But there's a risk of oversaturation. If too many Ideas sets launch, they could cannibalize sales from the core line. Lego seems to cap it at around five to ten new Ideas sets per year. Lucas: That scarcity actually helps. Each Ideas launch feels like an event. And because the sets are often more complex or niche than standard sets, they command premium prices. The average Ideas set retails for about a hundred dollars, compared to the Lego average of around fifty. Luna: So it's a higher-margin product line, with crowdsourced design and free marketing. That's a pretty compelling business model. Lucas: It is. And it's not just about the sets themselves. The Ideas platform also feeds into Lego's broader community strategy. Users who participate are more likely to buy other Lego products, join Lego's VIP loyalty program, and visit Lego stores. Luna: It's a classic example of turning customers into advocates and co-creators. The stronger the emotional investment, the stronger the brand loyalty. Lucas: One metric that stands out: Lego Ideas has over two million registered users. That's a highly engaged community that costs Lego very little to maintain, since the platform is fairly lightweight. Luna: And the data they get from it is invaluable. They can track which themes are popular in real time, which color schemes work, which piece types are in demand. That's like a free trend-forecasting service. Lucas: Other brands have tried similar models — like Threadless for t-shirts or Quirky for consumer products — but Lego has been the most successful at making it sustainable. Partly because their product is inherently modular and customizable, but also because they've managed the community well. Luna: What do you think is the biggest mistake brands make when trying to copy this model? Lucas: They underestimate the moderation burden. You need a dedicated team to handle IP issues, community disputes, and design reviews. Lego has a small but dedicated Ideas team, and they've built a culture of transparency with regular updates and clear rules. Luna: And they don't try to control the narrative too tightly. They allow the community to have real influence, even if it means occasionally saying no to a popular project. That authenticity is what keeps people coming back. Lucas: Exactly. The day Lego starts ignoring community input or pushing through designs that fans didn't ask for, the magic disappears. As long as they stay true to the co-creation model, I think Lego Ideas will keep producing hits. Luna: It's a model that any brand with a passionate customer base could learn from — as long as they're willing to share a bit of control. Lucas: And that's the real lesson. Community marketing isn't about using your audience as a focus group; it's about giving them a seat at the design table. Lego Ideas shows that when you do that, the results can be extraordinary.