LEGO Australia Christmas Film 2017 - Ad Analysis
AI Editor notes
Straight from the gut!!
“It's a very charming, well-crafted piece of stop-motion. The 'under the couch' world is a clever concept. But does 'Build Together' really land? Master Wu does most of the building *for* Santa. It's more 'Build For Each Other'. A solid, heartwarming ad, but the tagline feels slightly disconnected from the specific story being told.”
Quick Summary
This ad reinforces LEGO's core brand promise: creativity can solve any problem. By showing Santa Claus stranded and then saved by ingenuity, it transforms a simple toy into a tool for heroic problem-solving, neatly tying the magic of Christmas to the magic of building.
Executive Summary
LEGO's 2017 Australian Christmas film is a solid exercise in brand storytelling that leans on the company's greatest asset: the product itself is the hero. The ad doesn't need to shout about features or price; it simply shows what LEGO does best—facilitate creativity.
The core insight is a simple but effective one: even in a world of play, problems arise, and ingenuity is the key to solving them. This taps into a fundamental part of the LEGO experience, where a child (or adult) is constantly faced with the challenge of turning a pile of bricks into a coherent object. Here, that challenge is given a classic Christmas narrative structure.
The execution follows a clean Setup-Turn-Payoff model. The Setup (0:00-0:06) establishes a perfect, bustling LEGO Christmas village, hitting all the right notes of holiday nostalgia. The Turn (0:07-0:14) is the inciting incident—a giant foot from the 'real world' disrupts the miniature one, sending Santa into the vast, dusty wilderness under the couch. This is where the ad gets clever, transforming a mundane household space into a formidable landscape. The Payoff (0:24-0:56) is the heart of the ad. A lost Santa is found by another toy, Master Wu, and together they don't just find a way home, they build one. By using spare bricks and discarded real-world objects like a sock and a crayon, they create a new vehicle. This sequence is the direct manifestation of the brand's 'Rebuild the World' ethos, showing creativity in action. The final tagline, 'Build Together,' aims to crystallize this theme.
The debrief for the creative team would be positive. The decision to use stop-motion animation gives the film a tangible, handcrafted quality that CGI often lacks, perfectly mirroring the physical nature of the toy. The story is simple, universal, and positions the brand as a facilitator of imaginative solutions. While the emotional impact is more 'charming' than 'deeply moving,' and the 'Build Together' message could have been demonstrated more literally, the ad succeeds in its primary goal: reinforcing that LEGO is synonymous with creativity and connection, making it a desirable part of the holiday season.
Theme Keywords
Brand Position
LEGO is the ultimate tool for unlocking creative potential and collaborative problem-solving.
Brand Archetype
The Creator
Creative Game Plan
Demonstrate that the magic of LEGO isn't just in the box, but in its power to solve any problem—even saving Christmas itself.
Diagnosis: Issues & Solutions
Primary Issue: Strategic Sense
The Problem:
The 'Build Together' tagline doesn't perfectly match the on-screen action. Master Wu conceives of and builds the vehicle *for* Santa, who only adds one final piece. It's an act of kindness, but not true collaboration.
The Solution:
To better align the story with the tagline, the scene could have shown Santa and Master Wu actively brainstorming and building the vehicle side-by-side, each contributing essential ideas and parts to the final creation.
Secondary Issue: Emotional Connection
The Problem:
The ad misses an opportunity for a stronger emotional payoff. We see Santa leave the wilderness, but we don't see the joyous reunion in the Christmas village.
The Solution:
A final 3-5 second shot showing the new vehicle arriving back in the village to the cheers of the elves and citizens would have completed the emotional arc and amplified the feeling of triumph and relief.