This May seems to be the one for Taiwanese band Mayday. After bagging partnerships with Starbucks for the May Day holiday and SK-II for the 520 “I Love You Day”, Ashin (阿信), the frontman of Mayday is now the chief “music-making” officer (首席造乐官) of Danish toymaker LEGO. It is worth noting that since “乐” can mean music when pronounced “yue” in Chinese and mean “fun” when pronounced “le”, the “music-making” officer can also be interpreted as LEGO’s “merrymaking” officer.
Built around the “adults welcome” message of “小快乐很伟大” (small joys are great), the first promo video shows how adult frustrations, whether it’s stress from work, dating, or even Ashin snapping a pencil while writing, can be alleviated by the act of play – in this case, with LEGO. With a jingle which is a variation of Ludwig van Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy” and a copy written by Ashin himself in his typical heartfelt style, the announcement captured great interest on Chinese social media.
- #信手拼搭小快乐 small joys from casually building with Ashin: 50.17 million views on Weibo. The hashtag is a play on words: “信手” (xin shou) means casually, but 信 (xin) is also the name of Ashin
- #小快乐很伟大small joys are great: 10.39 million views on Weibo
The collaboration campaign also includes a LEGO notebook with 5 alternative covers co-created with the Mayday singer, as well as a LEGO figure of the singer-songwriter. Ashin subsequently appeared in LEGO’s 520 promo videos as well, showing off LEGO flower bouquets. With the popularity of the pop-rock group among millennials and Gen Z, LEGO has likely hit the bullseye with its “adults welcome” campaign.