LEGO Dimensions and Mashup Marketing

LEGO turned its fortunes around years ago by producing building sets that license some of the best-known (and best-loved) brands on the planet, from Star Wars and Minecraft to Disney's Frozen, among others.

The next big LEGO product, a video game from Warner Bros. Interactive Dimensions, is a mashup of mashups that promises to be a huge Christmas hit in the "toys to life" category. Mashup #1 is the marriage of digital with physical: the electronic part features some super character franchises AND works with a physical game platform where players build LEGO structures that can advance the game.

Mashup #2 has to do with the way players manipulate characters in the game: They can, for instance, team Batman with Doctor Who (or any of the Doctors, actually) or mashup some other combination from the growing list of brand franchises available. This is a major marketing feat because so many children and adults have their own favorite characters--and now they can have more than one brand franchise represented within the game, for more complications and fun.

Mashup #3 is the combo of star voices for the characters in the game...stars like Chris Pratt, Michael J. Fox, Peter Capaldi, and more.

From a marketing perspective, the pricing is interesting, as well. Initial platforms cost $99, but future enhancements will be priced lower because they'll be add-ons, such as additional characters. In fact, characters are all available within the video game, so after
the initial purchase, players can enjoy mashups of all kinds, as long as they don't mind playing in the guise of the first character they purchased with the initial platform.

Naturally, LEGO Dimensions is being promoted cross-platform in multiple media (see YouTube snippet above). And it's available for multiple game platforms (Wii, XBox, PS).