The digital Snow Throw competition is part of the brand’s larger “Play is Your Superpower” campaign.
As it looks to get into the holiday spirit, Lego is leveraging AR and the power of friendly competition to bring together shoppers from across the globe. The Snow Throw challenge could shore up a stronger sense of community, a sentiment often tied to the season, while attracting younger audiences through AR. Others are similarly using buzzy tech to bolster their seasonal efforts, like Coke, instance, which is expanding its “Create Real Magic” AI platform around holiday postcards this year.
Snow Throw is available to play in the windows of Lego’s 5th Avenue store in New York along with its Leicester Square location in London now through the holiday season, allowing in-person shoppers from either city to go head to head for a digital snowball-throwing blitz. The activation was kicked off November 08, 2023, with fashion editor Eva Chen and television star Millie Mackintosh, who threw the first snowballs for their respective cities alongside their children.
Following years of pandemic restrictions, several brands this season have prioritized in-person shopping experiences to appeal to consumers ready to step back into the world. For example, Target, as part of its holiday blitz, has planned a Target Wonderland pop-up tour along with travel-inspired in-store displays. Meanwhile, J.C. Penney has prioritized making its stores more easy to navigate to promote bigger gifting.
The Snow Throw effort ties into Lego’s larger campaign, “Play is Your Superpower,” which was first launched in September. The campaign’s latest iteration, revealed earlier this month, is anchored in a festive 30-second hero spot that features children, adults and lively Lego gifts gathering together for a high-energy snowball challenge. The marketing push is meant to encourage families to prioritize play, per the release, with Snow Throw an extension.
“For our Holiday campaign this year, we wanted to show how the Lego play experience brings an epic new dimension to transforming festive family moments into something even more extraordinary and what better way to do this than transforming an ordinary family shopping trip into the chance to take part in an epic snowball challenge against fellow shoppers on the other side of the world!” said Natali Stolovic, head of Lego Retail at the Lego Group, in release details.
Tied to its holiday efforts, Lego stores also run its annual Build to Give initiative, challenging consumers to build a heart from Lego bricks and share it on social media with the hashtag #BuildtoGive. The brand will donate a Lego set to a needy child for each post.
