Lego awards global media to Initiative

Lego has appointed Initiative as its global media agency after a worldwide review of its planning and buying business.

The IPG Mediabrands agency won the account after a competitive pitch and takes over from Dentsu Aegis Network’s Carat in Europe and Publicis Groupe’s Starcom in the US.

Julia Goldin, Lego’s chief marketing officer, said Initiative’s "digital-first approach" would help the brand's ambition to bring Lego to more children around the world.

The media agency will now work with IPG stablemate R/GA, which has worked with Lego since last year, on a "cross-agency solution" as the Lego brand aims to evolve for the next generation of children. 

Carat had held the pan-European media business (including in the UK) since 2004, as well as Asia-Pacific since 2015. Starcom, meanwhile, had handled the US business for the same amount of time. The US is the Danish brand’s largest market.

Lego launched the global media review within months of Bali Padda, the former chief operations officer, being promoted to chief executive. Padda, the first non-Dane to run Lego, replaced Jørgen Vig Knudstorp.

Initiative has won three major global pitches this year, defending Amazon and picking up Carlsberg.