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LEGOLAND® DISCOVERY CENTRE
FAMILY ENTERTAINMENT CENTRE & MIDWAYS
We teamed up with The LEGO® Group and Merlin Entertainments to create an exciting, expressive LEGO® DOTS activation worldwide.
THE BRIEF
he ambition of the activation was to create a hands-on experience where guests can interact with the product, have complete creative freedom and be self-expressive building what they like using LEGO DOTS. We designed a host led DOTS Experience, made up of a DOTS Cart, a DOTS Campervan, DOTS Spinning Totem Letters, Hanging Hoops Decor and supporting activities. DOTS invites kids to be bold, add colour to their world and never stop creating! It’s arts and crafts for kids, with a unique LEGO twist.
There was a phased opening across locations due to the pandemic and guests can experience the event at 11 of the LEGOLAND Discovery Centres in Europe, North America and Asia.
NARRATIVE
The vision was to create an inspiring space that encouraged guests to express themselves creatively with LEGO DOTS. The environment was to feel relaxed and inspirational, giving guests the freedom to create whatever they wanted, and have the option to display their creations at the event, or take them home. Our narrative and theme ideas were developed with mood boards, and key concepts to showcase the tone and vibrancy of the event. It was key that the themes be of interest to both boys and girls, providing them with the opportunity to create and share with their family and friends. The theme agreed on was The LEGO® DOTS Festival experience which was to be designed to encompass the ‘creative atmosphere’ from a music festival and the creative freedom encapsulated from an artist’s studio.
CONCEPT DESIGN
We focused on 4 key areas for the DOTS Festival Experience: the decor, great photo opportunities, a fun way to display designs and a space to create. We considered everything, from the sounds thousands of tiles make to the visual impact from the product on display, building in aspects that kids would unlikely be able to experience at home. We collaborated closely to agree on which concepts would operationally work best and deliver a great event. The DOTS cart became the centerpiece of the event, a treasure chest for budding DOTS designers. It’s bespoke design means it is portable and can be opened up to reveal everything required to host a DOTS session. Functional, exciting and versatile as well as supporting the DOTS Camper, Festival Letters, and other supporting activities.
EXECUTIVE PRODUCTION
We began with operational flows, concept sketches and 3D design development, which allowed us to examine in detail the experience and production design even through several pandemic lockdowns. We created prototypes which tested the construction and durability of details such as the DOTS dispensers and worked closely with the LEGO workshop on the creation of the campervan front which is made from DOTS. We ensured the items could be assembled and disassembled on-site and in the case of the DOTS Cart created so it could be easily wheeled out of the crate and moved around at each site. We ensured that facilitation would be straightforward and fun for the host leading the experience, as well as durable to help sites run LEGO DOTS activities well past the campaign period. Throughout the project we worked closely with The LEGO Group, Merlin Entertainments and the LEGOLAND Discovery Centres on site teams to ensure items were produced to specification and were shipped and delivered to meet each site’s access specifications and requirements.
Katapult has done a great job developing and delivering this new exciting LEGO® DOTS Festival experience, which will allow families and most importantly kids the creative freedom to highlight their own self-expression at LEGOLAND Discovery Centers.
THE LEGO GROUP
THE RESULTS
Despite developing and activating the project during a global pandemic, we were able to successfully roll-out the experience across 11 locations worldwide. Staff, guests and influential bloggers who have visited the LEGOLAND Discovery Centres, have praised the experience for facilitating creativity and a new LEGO play experience for both girls and boys. There has been positive feedback on the attention to detail and the quality. Locations are also reporting subsequent increases in LEGO DOTS product retail sales too.
