Lego has been everywhere as of late: YouTube, Universal, Disney, Star Wars, the Spider-Verse — and now it will join Fortnite in the metaverse.
Julia Goldin, chief product and marketing officer at Lego Group sat down at Variety Studio presented by Canva at Cannes Lions to discuss the brand’s growth and its expansion into the digital world. Lego is set to dive into the metaverse in collaboration with Epic Game’s Unreal Engine in the much-anticipated endeavor.
“I think everybody should be participating in the metaverse, and we are definitely seeing evolution of creative tools that will help a lot more people to be creators and to fuel the experiences in the metaverse,” said Goldin. “So I think all innovations in this space are going to be very welcome as long as the industry agrees to ensure that interoperability across all of the different experiences versus siloed experiences, as we know them today.”
As a kid-loved brand, Goldin said that one of their biggest priorities is child safety, which means Lego will be implementing age gating, data privacy, no pay-to-win and parent-access to kids’ data.
“Kids weren’t thought of with the design of internet 2.0, but that’s yet where they spend a lot of their time. Often, data is being misused,” she said. “There’s bullying that’s happening online and kids are not safeguarded enough to protect their right to play and to play in a really good way.”
But even as Lego makes the move into the digital world, Goldin ensures that Lego blocks and toys will always be the “primary aspect” of the brand.
“What’s really important for children is play, because really good play is a play that’s engaging, that’s immersive, that’s collaborative, and that’s what we provide with the Lego bricks,” she said.
“But we also know that the digital world opens up huge opportunities to do the same, and that’s why we want to participate in the Metaverse and that’s why we are already so present in the digital world,” said Goldin.
