LEGO / Immersive Theatre / LEGO CITY Missions

How do you introduce kids (and their parents) to the idea of LEGO City Missions – The new story-led way to play with LEGO?

By creating an immersive, theatrical experience in the heart of London centred around a mysterious comic book shop posing as a cover for a secret mission to Mars! We challenged kids to react in real time to our “Mission Alerts!” and experience first hand how to play with story, not instructions.

We opened a mysterious new comic book store called “City Comics” in central London. Then, we invited parents to book FREE hour long slots for an immersive kids experience there through eventbrite.co.uk.

Inside, we filled the store with bespoke LEGO City comics made to promote the three different LEGO City Missions available.

Once everyone was inside, our store manager revealed that she was an agent as part of a top secret mission to Mars and that the kids were needed to use their creativity and building skills to help the pilot complete the mission! She then introduced them to Lt Rivera on screen before using a facial recognition scan to open a secret door leading down to the mission base where the kids could begin their perilous journey.

In the mission command centre the kids were introduced to ace space pilot Lt Jamie before getting into their very own LEGO City branded spacesuits ready for their daring journey to Mars.

As soon as everyone was suited and booted, Lt Jamie received a call from Professor Wexler on the moon base to help guide the kids through removing the damaged boosters from the shuttle so that they could design and build their own bigger and better boosters!

With the broken boosters removed, and new and improved boosters installed, it was time for the kids to enter the shuttle – ready for takeoff!

After a successful takeoff and with the shuttle on course for Mars there was little for the crew to do other than relax and enjoy the ride… Or, at least, that’s what Lt Jamie thought before a sudden and urgent “Mission Alert!” came in through the comms from Lt Rivera: The shuttle was heading into and asteroid field and the kids needed to build something to add to the shuttle to destroy or deflect them…

With this and another “Mission Alert!” to fix the damaged landing gear from the asteroid field, the shuttle was finally able to land on Mars. Waiting for them before they stepped out was TV6+ News reporter “Gabby ToCamera” who interviewed them about the experience and what they built to help save the mission from certain disaster.

Finally the kids were able to step out on to Mars and pose for a photo with the rest of the LEGO City crew.

As a momento of their day, kids were able to take home one of the bespoke “Journey To Mars” comics with the setup stories for each LEGO City Mission included so that they could find the right one for them.

Of course, we didn’t just invite kids and their parents to the event. We also invited kid and kid-friendly influencers down to help amplify the activation and spread the word on social media and LEGO.com.

The onscreen footage for the event was a mixture of content adapted from the LEGO City Missions app (to help kids trial the products) and bespoke assets created in-house to help us tell the story better from a first person perspective at the event.

Role: Creative Director

Agency: The Producers (part of The Less Ordinary Group)

Producers: Jake Townshend, Vicky Elliot, Tom Gale, Hannah Jasper.

Content Editor: Will Andrews