LEGO Universe
A six-month alternate reality game built to sustain fan anticipation through a delayed MMO launch, spanning real-world "crash landed" LEGO pods across four countries, weekly online missions, and a launch trailer voiced by Sir Patrick Stewart.
Agency: Advance Copenhagen
Role: Creative & Campaign Strategy • ARG Concept & Design • Copywriting & Scriptwriting • Cross-Channel Content Strategy & Development
The Brief
While leading creative on Hero Factory at Advance, my creative partner and I were asked to help on LEGO Universe, the company's upcoming massively multiplayer online game.
LEGO was concerned the game skewed too young, and development delays meant there was a growing gap to fill before launch. Fans needed something to keep them engaged and excited while they waited.
The Problem
Two challenges, tackled together: the game's look, feel and tone needed more edge – darker elements, a greater sense of urgency and action – to broaden its appeal beyond a younger audience.
And with the launch date slipping, LEGO risked losing the momentum and excitement it had already built, with nothing new to sustain fan interest in the interim.
The Solution
I proposed a six-month alternate reality game (ARG) to run ahead of launch, spanning offline and online, in two phases:
Phase 1
This centred on a fictional research organisation, the Bradford Rant Institute of Cosmic Kinesis (BRICK), tracking a series of mysterious "pod" crash landings.
Working with LEGO's toy designers, we created seven unique pods, each built from LEGO pieces never used in any product before, and had them crash land at LEGO stores and sites across the US, Germany, UK and Denmark between November 2009 and January 2010.
The BRICK website leaked a pod's coordinates prior to each “crash landing”, prompting fans to converge on locations to claim the pod.
Each of the pods found contained a code, a piece of a larger message, plus teaser images and clips from the game.
Once all seven pods were found and every code entered, the full message was revealed: "Answer The Call, Save Imagination". This triggered the release of the Announcement Trailer, which I wrote and produced.
Announcement Trailer | Concept • Script • Production
Phase 2
Phase two, The Great Minifig Mission, launched immediately after. Fans completed a series of missions and minigames on the LEGO Universe site – 20 in total, released weekly – each one sending a minifig into the game world to help "save imagination."
At the conclusion of this phase, we released the full launch trailer, which I wrote and produced alongside developer NetDevil, voiced (at my own half-joking suggestion that somebody actually took seriously) by Sir Patrick Stewart.
Launch & Pre-Game Trailer | Concept • Script • Production
The Outcome
A genuine cross-market ARG, with players actively tracking and locating physical pods across four countries over several months. Still documented today as a distinct chapter in the game's history
Sustained fan engagement and anticipation through a difficult pre-launch delay, exactly the problem the campaign was built to solve
The Announcement Trailer outperformed its targets across every market: 832,520 total views globally (by end of campaign), 142% in the US, 140% in Germany, and 116% in the UK
A 9.36% click-through rate and 31% play-to-end rate for the trailer, both strong results for the format