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Near the tip of 2022, Lucas Bolt, an environmental artist and Lego fanatic in Amsterdam, was engaged on a design for a Lego set the corporate had crowdsourced to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of Dungeons & Dragons, the tabletop role-playing sport.
“I spent two very intense weeks engaged on it, each evening, each weekend, on a regular basis that I had,” he mentioned.
Mr. Bolt hoped to create the design for Lego Ideas, a program the toymaker began in 2008 to solicit concepts on-line instantly from followers. Typically, designers submit their idea on the platform, and if a design will get 10,000 votes, the corporate considers it for manufacturing. This case was totally different, although: It was the primary time the corporate had given followers an idea to work with.
Mr. Bolt had been designing his personal units for a number of years, primarily for his followers on Instagram, however this was the primary time one thing he had produced had gained actual traction. A panel of judges chosen his set and 4 others for a shortlist, and in a vote followers selected his set as their favourite.
Lego Ideas is a part of a rising technique amongst firms which are creating divisions dedicated to going on to customers for concepts. Lego takes a extra private method, permitting followers to submit designs, whereas different firms ballot customers about what they wish to see or converse to inventors about their newest initiatives. These initiatives are discovering explicit success inside area of interest teams of collectors and different extremely devoted followers.
Toy firms which have direct-to-consumer fashions do not need the identical viewers attain that distributors like Amazon have, however a unit dedicated to direct gross sales nonetheless offers benefits for the general enterprise, mentioned Jaime M. Katz, an analyst who covers the toy business for Morningstar, a monetary providers firm. The major motive firms like direct gross sales is the pace at which they’re able to get entry to buying knowledge from customers.
That knowledge might help toy firms convey merchandise to market sooner, Ms. Katz mentioned, and capitalize on traits and buying patterns. There’s additionally much less extra stock and, by extension, fewer markdowns on objects offered on the corporate’s web sites.
“You don’t wish to be the final adopter of the methodology,” she mentioned, “Somebody would possibly be capable of transfer sooner than you.”
Many firms, Ms. Katz added, see their direct-to-consumer divisions as the following iteration of a spotlight group. “You can acquire the information in a a lot bigger trend,” she mentioned, “It’s not like six folks sitting in an workplace in Chicago they usually’re asking, ‘Well, what do you consider Barbie?’”
As it seems, Mattel does wish to know what customers consider Barbie, however it’s taking a distinct segment method by its Mattel Creations web site, the place it runs crowdfunding campaigns tailor-made to its fan base for Barbie, Hot Wheels and different manufacturers.
“The wealth of knowledge, which we generate from our followers, is priceless,” mentioned Sanjay Luthra, managing director of Mattel’s international direct-to-consumer portfolio.
Feeding into shopper obsession is an enormous a part of Mattel’s product improvement technique, mentioned Mr. Luthra, who added that Mattel was always checking what followers have been saying on social media to get product concepts. For instance, Weird Barbie, which the toymaker offered on the Mattel Creations web site after seeing the big response to the “Barbie” film on social media, was the highest-selling doll ever on the platform, he mentioned.
A design solicitation program like Lego Ideas also can assist information firms of their product improvement. “We have 10,000 individuals who instructed us they need this product,” mentioned Monica Pedersen, advertising and marketing director for Lego Ideas. “That’s very particular, as a result of we don’t exit and take a look at each single Lego product with 10,000 folks.”
Magic: The Gathering, a buying and selling card sport owned by the gaming writer Wizards of the Coast, makes use of an analogous program, known as Secret Lair, as a option to promote particular playing cards which have added visible remedies like customized artwork.
Secret Lair offers the corporate “a pipeline of consciousness that we simply by no means had,” mentioned Mark Heggen, vice chairman of collectibles at Wizards of the Coast, which is owned by Hasbro. “We have a little bit lens into actuality, so we will perceive how persons are behaving, what’s thrilling to them, in the event that they’re coming again or in the event that they’re lapsing.”
Spin Master, a toy firm in Toronto, has been soliciting inventors for concepts since its inception in 1994. The firm’s best benefit comes from the “mutual respect” it has with the inventor neighborhood, mentioned Ben Dermer, senior vice chairman of toy innovation at Spin Master.
“I believe at different firms over time, inventors have oftentimes been maligned, not handled in addition to they might have been,” he mentioned.
There are about 300 skilled inventors within the toy business, Mr. Dermer mentioned, and Spin Master is in common contact with most of them. Typically, earlier than an thought is formally submitted to Spin Master for consideration, a member of the corporate’s inventor relations division has already had prolonged discussions concerning the viability of the product.
For his work with Lego, Mr. Bolt might be rewarded with a 1 p.c gross sales fee on every set, and 10 copies of the set for himself. The ultimate set, known as Red Dragon’s Tale, has 3,745 items and incorporates a playable journey and, after all, a dungeon and a dragon. It sells for $360 at Lego Stores, a value effectively above a lot of the firm’s mass-market choices.
Lego will get 1000’s of submissions by the Ideas program, however the bar is excessive for a set to make it to prospects. Normally, if a set receives greater than 10,000 votes from followers, the corporate considers it for manufacturing. Once made, the set is offered each instantly from Lego and by retailers like Target and Amazon.
About 100 units a yr attain the vote threshold (although that quantity will increase yearly), and from these solely 56 units, together with Mr. Bolt’s design, have reached manufacturing because the program started in 2008. Compare that with the 916 units the corporate launched simply in 2023.
The units nonetheless undergo Lego’s inside design and testing. The firm meets with the designers engaged on Ideas units a few times a month to make sure the product resides as much as their imaginative and prescient, Ms. Pedersen mentioned.
“It was very particular to see as a Lego builder how they method it,” Mr. Bolt mentioned of his expertise with Lego testers. “It was a complete workforce of designers, which was actually cool that they spent a lot time designing one thing that I got here up with.”
