Case Studies

Telling a video-rich brand story and executing strategy across social, digital, and on-air channels.

LEGO wanted to start a new conversation with parents, telling an emotionally strong, culturally relevant brand story. The goals that LEGO outlined were not about driving sales, but rather about capturing the hearts and minds of Millennial parents.

RED’s Brand Strategy team approached this challenge thoughtfully, crafting a brand narrative that extended across multiple channels via three creative campaigns:

  1. System of Play, geared to parents with kids ranging from ages five to 15.

  2. Let’s Build Happy, targeted at Millennial Moms.

  3. Friends for Life, a campaign that spoke to Millennial Dads.

With this integrated brand strategy, we helped LEGO strike an emotional chord and build a dialogue with parents. We identified and capitalized on LEGO’s consumer Lifetime Value (LTV) by making the story about relationships rather than products.

The :30 and :60 video executions in all three campaigns were emotionally resonant and hugely successful, broadcast during children’s and parent’s programming while garnering millions of views on YouTube. But what really set our strategy apart were the social extensions and “how-to” aspect of each campaign.

By driving parents to social channels and digital destinations, we created a path for browsing LEGO builds and related activities designed to foster awareness and loyalty among LEGO parents and kids. 

Results

  • Brand Strategy

    We developed a strategy around LEGO’s LTV, unmatched in the industry. We activated that strategy using three foundational brand campaigns, deployed across channels and geared at diverse but intersecting audiences.

  • Social Extensions

    By smartly activating social channels, with a focus on Pinterest (a popular destination for Millennial parents), our Brand Strategy team helped LEGO engage and communicate with its audience, while demonstrating that creativity can literally be one of the building blocks of personal and familial development.

  • Video Execution

    Our :30 and :60 video executions told an emotionally resonant brand story about family relationships, co-creative brick play, and how LEGO can help children build happiness skills that will shape their lives, now and into the future. 

Let’s Build Happy

Car shopping and buying in the post-Uber economy: Personalized, trusted, and immediate.

The Edmunds brand is the Edmunds product – a digital-only car shopping and buying resource. Edmunds is an organization with impressive brand equity, but no ownable point of view, comprehensive strategy, or visual appeal. Edmunds had a deep legacy, but it was mired in the past.

RED Interactive’s Brand Strategy team approached Edmunds with a simple truth: brand matters. Edmunds needed to reinvigorate its brand and make an emotional connection with its audience. 

We started with an immersive brand audit, exploring all Edmunds’ digital touchpoints, brainstorming in collaborative client workshops, and amassing targeted market research to uncover peer, competitor, and cross-industry trends.

Based on our findings, we developed a multi- year campaign strategy designed to increase awareness and understanding around Edmunds’ offerings, activating the brand across multiple channels: social, video, digital, OOH, radio and email.

RED’s Experience Design team came on board to review the Edmunds.com user experience, making recommendations to align the experience with the new brand. Our goal was to enliven and simplify the customer journey and drive sales, loyalty, and referrals. Our team’s insights and designs helped Edmunds shape its new vision for the transformed site.

Results

  • Brand Assets

    We developed a full suite of assets including a brand language system, style guide, and completely redesigned visual assets such as new logo, tagline, color palette, typography, and photography guidelines.

  • Creative Campaign

    Our multi-year, multi-channel campaign extended across social, video, digital, OOH, radio and email. The campaign conveyed Edmunds’ core brand tenets: personalization, expertise, and reliability wrapped in an easy and enjoyable digital experience.

  • Ecosystem Vision

    Our exhaustive vision for the Edmunds digital ecosystem included an approach that was fully ownable and unique in the industry: the combination of original content, proprietary data, and best-in-class tools, all served up in a lively and entertaining digital environment. This vision helped Edmunds see the future of their brand.

In-depth stakeholder interviews result in something truly magical – an anthemic story that resonates with employees, customers, and investors.

Hudson Pacific Properties (HPP), a leading West Coast real estate group, has earned its reputation with three core brand pillars: partnerships, relationships, and spaces. Now HPP’s leadership wanted to tell the story of what the company stood for and the future it sought to build, in a sweeping two-minute video that would honor not only its passion, but the internal team that carried the brand forward, and the expansive Southern California landscape that HPP touched. 

RED’s Brand Strategy team explored each of HPP’s brand pillars to tell a story that felt powerful and true. We developed two video concepts gleaned from what we learned in our extensive one-on-one stakeholder interviews. These concepts were built around key themes of creating inspirational spaces, facilitating deep relationships and a vibrant culture, and forging the way toward future growth.

Both directions incorporated cinematic techniques and compelling narrative. We presented the two separate directions to the client to get an even more specific sense of which visual treatment and story best showcased HPP. 

Ultimately, the client chose the concept called “We Build” –  the recurring mantra of which tells the story of the enduring strength of HPP’s mission, vision, and values.

We Build