While scanning the latest LEGO models on my favorite building sites, I came upon a video which should be required viewing for anyone working for a company with ties to fandom. This talk from Jake McKee, a former LEGO employee who helped the company dig itself out of a financial and creative hole by truly embracing fandom, has relevance well beyond the niche of plastic building blocks. It’s long, and nerdy to the extreme, but if you if you read stuff like WIRED or work with in an industry with a vocal and affluent minority of fans, it’s definitely worth the time investment.
Elsewhere in the industry/fandom world, here’s how NOT to think of your fans.
Look for a related essay on doujinshi/fan fiction very soon. With real Labyrinth tidbits, too, I promise!
Thanks to Brickley’s Words for sharing.
4 responses so far ↓
1 Kristi O. // Apr 6, 2008 at 7:28 am
I can’t understand why some companies don’t embrace fans, it seems like the smart thing to do.
I mean, the fans are who buy your products, so if you can’t/don’t care about making them happy then you’re threatening to loose your main demographic.
It’s like if you guys made released a post saying you’re turning Jareth into some sort of pimple faced computer nerd because loosing Sarah made him anti-social. You’d get flooded with posts by us fans about what a stupid move that would be, and even if you really though the idea of a nerdy Jareth would suit the storyline better, you’d still have to realize and consider what would make the fans happy.
((Also, I’m more of a Knex person myself. I made a body suit out of the stuff once))
2 Fallen Fairy // Apr 6, 2008 at 8:28 am
Brands like Volkswagon and Apple do a really good job of interacting with their fanbase as well.
I work at an ad agency. Our reason for existing is to try and build for our clients what Lego just has. I can’t believe Lego would try and ignore them!
But I get the ivory tower thing. So many companies want to tell their consumers what their product should mean to them, instead of listening…
…and, I would imagine, it gets even hairier if, instead of a product, it’s a story you’re selling.
So does this mean there’s going to be a Labyrinth Lego set?
3 MasonTemplar // Apr 6, 2008 at 11:26 am
At least LEGO fans get a happy ending. Things are so rosy with LEGO building quality now that they pulled my habit out of hibernation. : )
LEGO building, 8-bit culture, fan fics, cosplay are all ways in which we use entertainment for personal expression, and it’s interesting to watch how companies respond to this. Lego seems to have struck a good balance between innovation, changing tastes of new consumers and demands of the old guard. The Henson Company’s in a similar position, needing to create new properties to connect to connect to today’s youngins, while having an adult fanbase who hope for a extension of what they love from their youth, but they still seem to be struggling to find that balance. More later. My brains getting all excited with ideas, but I’m way late on some deadlines.
As for licensed Labyrinth Legos, I would highly doubt it, but with the new Lego Factory program, where fan-built sets are available for purchase, it’s far from unreasonable. There are lots of brands that wouldn’t make sense to stock in Walmart, but which could probably do quite well via internet and convention sales (like the $500 Millennium Falcon set mentioned in the video).
4 Kristi O. // Apr 6, 2008 at 6:06 pm
The thought of Labyrinth Lego’s totally didn’t occur to me, but now that you mention it, it does intrigue me.
I can just imagine getting a box that says “Build a model of Jim Henson’s Labyrinth” and inside the box is about 1000 grey pieces (And that’s it).
If I had space to do so, I would totally get it. Better than that, I’d love a 3-D puzzle of the Labyrinth (That or atleast a model of Jareth’s Tower). While I’m wishing, I’ll take a toilet seat made of gold please.
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