LEGO and adult fans: borrowing trust instead of buying reach

Case study · Marketing 465 · Influencer and UGC Strategy

LEGO grew its adult business by working with the fan creators and communities adult builders already trusted, and it learned that this trust only holds if the creators keep their own voice.

The situation

Adult Fans of LEGO, known as AFOLs, have existed for more than 30 years, according to LEGO. For a long time, the company treated them as a side audience. That changed. In a 2024 Wall Street Journal report, Tormod Askildsen, then head of AFOL engagement, said adults buying for themselves made up about one-fifth of LEGO sales by 2021, up from 5% five years earlier.

LEGO launched a dedicated 18+ product category in 2020 and an ‘Adults Welcome’ marketing push. By 2024, the WSJ counted 142 of 926 sets on LEGO’s U.S. site as designed for adults, and all but two of the 42 sets priced at $300 or more.

The challenge

Adult sets are expensive, and adult fans already have their own world: fan sites, forums, YouTube reviewers, user groups and fan-run shows such as Bricktastic in the UK, which is not affiliated with LEGO. In that world, trust sits with people who build the sets, criticize them and say whether they are worth the money. A brand message is just one voice among many.

LEGO’s own global director of social media and search, Lars Silberbauer, said in 2018 that influencer collaborations were ‘hyped and, in some cases, very overpriced.’ Paying for reach was not the obvious answer.

What they did

LEGO built programs that support the community’s own creators instead of replacing them with paid campaigns.

• LEGO Ambassador Network (LAN): LEGO’s channel for working with fan communities, including recognized user groups and Recognized LEGO Fan Media.
• Recognized Fan Media: independent sites and YouTube channels that receive support such as review sets before release and interview opportunities. New Elementary, one such site, states that its opinions are its own.
• LEGO Ideas: fans submit set designs and vote. Ideas that reach 10,000 votes can be considered for production.
• LEGO Certified Professionals: adult builders who turned the hobby into a career, sometimes working with the company.
• Silberbauer said LEGO collaborates with ‘a huge LEGO community’ and also with parent influencers outside the toy space.

What happened

The adult business became a major part of LEGO’s growth. LEGO’s chief product and marketing officer, Julia Goldin, told the WSJ the company focused on adults because ‘we realized that we had a much bigger opportunity.’ LEGO also bought the fan marketplace BrickLink in 2019 to strengthen its connection with adult fans.

• Adults buying for themselves: about one-fifth of sales by 2021, up from 5% five years earlier (WSJ, 2024).
• LEGO revenue reached about $9.7 billion in 2023, more than double the level of a decade earlier (WSJ, 2024).
• LEGO does not publish how much of this growth came from fan media, so the direct effect of creators cannot be measured from public data.

Why it worked

A fan reviewer with a long record of builds brings something a campaign cannot: a track record. When that person says a $500 set is worth it, the audience believes it because they have also heard that reviewer say a set is not worth it.

LEGO’s approach gave these creators early access and information, which helps them do their job, without requiring them to sound like ads. The company borrowed trust that already existed instead of trying to create it from scratch.

Where it gets complicated

Trust from independent creators only works if they stay independent, and the brand still decides who is in the program. In February 2021, LEGO removed YouTuber Ryan McCullough of MandRproductions from the LEGO Ambassador Network and revoked his Recognized Fan Media status, Brick Fanatics reported. LEGO gave no official reason. It called his channel ‘a powerful voice in the community’ but said it did not fit the program. The month before, LEGO had threatened his channel with a copyright strike after he posted rumored set information.

The episode raised a hard question for fans: if a creator can lose access for being too critical or too off-brand, how independent is the review? Every brand that works with creators faces this tension. Too much control and the trust disappears. Too little and the brand’s name is attached to content it does not like.

The marketing principle

Before buying reach, find the creators your audience already trusts and help them do their work. The trust belongs to the creator, not the brand, so it lasts only as long as the creator’s honesty does. Influencer strategy is a relationship to manage, not a media buy.

Sources

• Fan Engagement and Programs, The LEGO Group (n.d. (accessed 2026))
• $850 Millennium Falcons and $680 Titanics: Grown-Ups Are Now a Gold Mine for Lego, The Wall Street Journal (syndicated by To Vima) (2024)
• LEGO Social Media Director provides comment on influencers, Brick Fanatics (2018)
• About New Elementary, New Elementary (n.d. (accessed 2026))
• The LEGO Group takes action on YouTuber MandRproductions, Brick Fanatics (2021)

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