5 questions with... Lars Silberbauer, Global Social Media Director, LEGO

What triggered Lego’s decision to invest in social media?

LEGO has always been very focused on the consumer and about engaging in conversations with our fans. Social media is a naturally extension of this mode of communication. Building with LEGO bricks is a creative medium. Social media is for many a way to share the creations and engage others about the joy of creativity and imagination.

What were the key challenges?

Speed and scalability is challenge to doing social media globally. It's easy to create social engagement in one market around one campaign, but to continuously drive engagement and build brand affinity through social media globally is hard. It takes a lot of effort to be able to spot the right opportunities and scale them fast enough globally before it becomes obsolete.

How do you measure success?

We measure success in four different ways, depending on which kind of campaign or engagement that we're doing. So overall we're measuring the impact social media has on direct sales, marketing efficiency, the increase in brand affinity and the way that we're mitigating risks.

What are your top social media trends for 2014?

Outside the toy category I'm mostly looking forward to see how video on demand services (Netflix, Hulu, HBO and so on) will start to integrate with social media. I think that there's a big untapped opportunity to create more social TV experiences and so far I haven't seen any services that are really hitting the nail on this one.

What opportunity does the Lego movie in 2014 represent in terms of advancing the brand’s social credentials?

The LEGO Movie will enable us to drive awareness about the LEGO brand with an engaging story for both long time fans and new consumers.

Lars will be speaking at the iMedia Content & Social Summit at ad:tech London on 11 September with companies including Bacardi, Sports Direct, Danone and Boots. Click here for details.