In the advertising campaign of the Hamburg agency Jung von Matt, simple LEGO bricks demonstrate how amazingly creative the human mind is.
What can a creative agency do with a few dozen colorful LEGO bricks? It creates a straightforward and brilliant creative concept: it stacks them in a specific order and size, leaving the rest to our imagination.
Each of the simple, minimalist advertisements is a puzzle. The columns of bricks hide various cartoon characters. Classic cartoon heroes from the ’90s, such as Lucky Luke and the determined Dalton brothers, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, members of the Simpson family, Asterix and Obelix, or characters from South Park.
There are no unnecessary or distracting details. However, behind the minimalism lies engineering precision in design: exact size and color ratios drive the creativity. Each character is illustrated solely with these two attributes: their colors and their relative size ratios.
The minimalist print series is a good example of cleverly designed immersive marketing, where the creative concept is powered by the recipient's imagination. Instead of customer-attracting phrases, great headlines, and visual orgies, it engages the gray matter playfully, simply, and entertainingly – perfectly reflecting the essence and values of the brand.
The reward for solving the puzzles is the joy of wonder.
The campaign primarily targets young parents, those who are well acquainted with the imagery of these classic cartoons. The „Imagine” campaign message perfectly aligns with LEGO's philosophy: use your imagination and create! The minimalist approach also conveys that sometimes less is more.
It's worth returning to the basics sometimes, as the foundation of LEGO's incredibly complex sets is still these basic bricks to this day.
In response to the 2012 creative concept, several people raised the point that the idea is not new, but as a fully developed concept, the credit definitely goes to the Hamburg creative team. A much more interesting aspect is that the LEGO campaign builds on characters that are not part of the LEGO universe: the creators cleverly and ingeniously avoided potential issues related to royalties. After all, the characters are imagined by the advertisement's recipient into the individual bricks...
Do you think there has ever been a Hungarian marketer who would have dared to publish such an immersive, minimalist creative material in an expensive print magazine? I've had such a conversation:
M(arketer):
– nice material, but the brand is small...
G(raphic designer): – but my friend, there is only one brand on the whole page, it doesn't compete with anything, nothing dulls it! The emptiness provides a frame, highlights it from the everyday, helps focus on the essence, the brand actually screams, and by the way, it's not small at all!
M: – See? You said it. The page (label, poster, banner, etc.) 85% is empty. What do I tell the boss about why we paid so much money?
You are indeed right, Gábor... so much so that this comment deserves a separate post someday 🙂 We must talk it out.