lego x
dubai metro
On September 9th 2024, the Dubai Metro turned 15 years old. This was a birthday party that nearly every brand in the city wanted in on but LEGO wanted to be the showstopper. We were asked to create a campaign and an experience that paid homage to the Dubai Metro while still accurately capturing the essence of LEGO.
WE hit the tracks running with
DESK RESEARCH + QUALITATIVE RESEARCH
A study by the University of Zurich found that commuting is one of the least enjoyable parts of people’s day due to its repetitive and transactional nature
We learnt from interviews that people tend to tune out their surroundings during their metro rides.
TRUTH : THE DAILY COMMUTE IS A ROUTINE THAT FEELS MONOTONOUS AND UNINSPIRING
600,000+
people ride the metro in a day, many of whom seem to take the same route everyday without much thought behind it
60%
of adults in UAE say they rarely experience any creativity in their daily routine according to the region’s LEGO Play Well report
This is a sharp contrast from how people experienced the Dubai Metro when it first opened
This picture captures passengers waving excitedly to an oncoming train on the first ever ride of the Dubai Metro. During the first years since the Dubai Metro was created, people regarded the driverless train that zoomed in the skies with wonder, joy and curiosity. People would hop on just to ride the metro and not just to get some place. For them, the metro represented what could be created with innovation and imagination
INSIGHT : riding the metro used to be a joyful experience, but now it’s just another routine
STRATEGY
Bring back the joy of riding the Dubai Metro by transforming it into a playground for creativity
CREATIVE CAMPAIGN
imagination station
Imagination Station brings back play into the daily commute by transforming a prominent metro station into a larger than life LEGO experience. Everyday elements were reimagined with a creative LEGO twist. Benches became a garden, elevators were rockets and most importantly, the metro got a LEGO makeover inside and out. The two week long campaign saw several people using the metro just to get a glimpse of the ‘Imagination Station’
AGENCY
TEAM
Nidhi Kumar (Copywriter)
Nur Yarbou (Art Director)
Samyuktha Shankar (Strategist)
Vidya Manmohan (Creative Director)
My role
Qualitative + Quantitative research
Cultural insight generation
Creative strategy
Ideation
Creative brainstorming