Mads Nipper Leaves LEGO

[Hapori Tohu]

The LEGO Group announced recently that Mads Nipper is stepping down from his position as CMO of the company. The former Chief Marketing Officer will be taking on the role of CEO for the Danish company Grundfos. While this may not seem like a big deal, people familiar with the history of the company or who have read Brick by Brick by David Robertson will know that Nipper was a key player in the turnaround LEGO has undertaken in the recent past. It seems, however, that LEGO is confident that the organization he helped create will be able to continue on without him, and I wish him the best of luck in his new role.

 

View the full article

[Makaru]

BZP is the last place I would expect to get my industry news. Maybe with this new leadership, Grundfos can finally stop shutting down major cities and letting wolves loose.

Edited April 2, 2014 by Makaru

[Lemony Lepid]

Who knows, maybe this means, less kid friendly, more dark and deadly. And we'll get the good stuff like bionicle's storyline seriousness into... Ninjago, or... hero factory. I have my fingers crossed.

[Lyichir]

Who knows, maybe this means, less kid friendly, more dark and deadly. And we'll get the good stuff like bionicle's storyline seriousness into... Ninjago, or... hero factory. I have my fingers crossed.

Unlikely. First and foremost, I don't see why his departure would signal themes getting darker, particularly because he had his position since the "darkening" of Bionicle in 2006—so if he had a role in steering Lego away from that in themes since then, he probably had real, concrete reasons for doing so. Secondly, Lego's generally been more successful with less "dark and deadly" stories like Ninjago and Hero Factory than they were with Bionicle in its later years. Why would they go back to that when the current lighthearted adventure fare is more in line with Lego's values AND has been more successful?

[Sumiki]

I have a hard time seeing this really affect LEGO in any particular direction. Hopefully he is successful in his new venture.

[Kopekemaster]

My takeaway from this: Mads Kipper is a freaking awesome name.

*looks into how old one must be to change their name*

[LQ1998]

It's always somewhat unsettling when a change like this happens in any company. Nipper did great things for LEGO, it's hard to see him go. We can only hope someone steps up who knows what they're doing to take his place. Not someone who will drive LEGO back in to the late 90's mistakes.

[Meiko]

It's always somewhat unsettling when a change like this happens in any company. Nipper did great things for LEGO, it's hard to see him go. We can only hope someone steps up who knows what they're doing to take his place. Not someone who will drive LEGO back in to the late 90's mistakes.

The LEGO Group has an extremely experienced and knowledgeable marketing team. Mads wasn't the only great mind in the marketing branch of the company, nor was he the only great mind on the management board. While it's unfortunate he's leaving, we can feel safe with the fact that another person will step up to the CMO position and do a fine job.

[LQ1998]

 

It's always somewhat unsettling when a change like this happens in any company. Nipper did great things for LEGO, it's hard to see him go. We can only hope someone steps up who knows what they're doing to take his place. Not someone who will drive LEGO back in to the late 90's mistakes.

The LEGO Group has an extremely experienced and knowledgeable marketing team. Mads wasn't the only great mind in the marketing branch of the company, nor was he the only great mind on the management board. While it's unfortunate he's leaving, we can feel safe with the fact that another person will step up to the CMO position and do a fine job.

 

I'm just always skeptical about these things. It's when people stop being worried things could go bad that they do.

[Lyichir]

 

 

It's always somewhat unsettling when a change like this happens in any company. Nipper did great things for LEGO, it's hard to see him go. We can only hope someone steps up who knows what they're doing to take his place. Not someone who will drive LEGO back in to the late 90's mistakes.

The LEGO Group has an extremely experienced and knowledgeable marketing team. Mads wasn't the only great mind in the marketing branch of the company, nor was he the only great mind on the management board. While it's unfortunate he's leaving, we can feel safe with the fact that another person will step up to the CMO position and do a fine job.

 

I'm just always skeptical about these things. It's when people stop being worried things could go bad that they do.

 

The thing is that it's not the position of fans to have to worry about something so behind-the-scenes and irrelevant to us as a change in Lego's Chief Marketing Officer. This change isn't going to affect set design. It's not going to affect manufacturing, or pricing, or anything that would adversely affect us end consumers. What it might (not necessarily, but possibly) affect is Lego's advertising, and maybe their cross-media promotions like the Ninjago TV show. But I can't imagine the person who takes his place will be making a lot of changes to that, because what Lego's doing now has been working wonders for them—the current marketing paradigm has made brand-new themes like Ninjago, Chima, The Lego Movie, and Friends into best-sellers, and has succeeded admirably in reminding kids and adults of the joys of Lego products.

 

It's valuable for consumers to take an active interest in the business dealings of their brand of choice, but as far as news like this is concerned, it's just another day at work. One of the old guard left, and someone new will likely take his place, but ultimately this news alone doesn't bode good or ill for the company as a whole.

[Kopekemaster]

I'd like to point out that sometimes, change can be good. We have seen LEGO making some environmental changes in their products recently, and this has been good. While it may be sad to see a skilled member go, it may be (and quite possibly will be) that the change will be for the better.

[LQ1998]

 

 

 

It's always somewhat unsettling when a change like this happens in any company. Nipper did great things for LEGO, it's hard to see him go. We can only hope someone steps up who knows what they're doing to take his place. Not someone who will drive LEGO back in to the late 90's mistakes.

The LEGO Group has an extremely experienced and knowledgeable marketing team. Mads wasn't the only great mind in the marketing branch of the company, nor was he the only great mind on the management board. While it's unfortunate he's leaving, we can feel safe with the fact that another person will step up to the CMO position and do a fine job.

 

I'm just always skeptical about these things. It's when people stop being worried things could go bad that they do.

 

The thing is that it's not the position of fans to have to worry about something so behind-the-scenes and irrelevant to us as a change in Lego's Chief Marketing Officer. This change isn't going to affect set design. It's not going to affect manufacturing, or pricing, or anything that would adversely affect us end consumers. What it might (not necessarily, but possibly) affect is Lego's advertising, and maybe their cross-media promotions like the Ninjago TV show. But I can't imagine the person who takes his place will be making a lot of changes to that, because what Lego's doing now has been working wonders for them—the current marketing paradigm has made brand-new themes like Ninjago, Chima, The Lego Movie, and Friends into best-sellers, and has succeeded admirably in reminding kids and adults of the joys of Lego products.

 

It's valuable for consumers to take an active interest in the business dealings of their brand of choice, but as far as news like this is concerned, it's just another day at work. One of the old guard left, and someone new will likely take his place, but ultimately this news alone doesn't bode good or ill for the company as a whole.

 

Well knowing the effect Nipper made on the LEGO group as I read in Brick by Brick, it just puts a bit more impact on it to me. Plus I've seen CEO's who stepped up in successful companies start to really turn them down the wrong path. Such as Bob Iger's (CEO of the Disney Company) effect on the Disney parks (though I doubt anyone would know much about this unless they are a Disney Parks geek like me).

[Lemony Lepid]

 

Who knows, maybe this means, less kid friendly, more dark and deadly. And we'll get the good stuff like bionicle's storyline seriousness into... Ninjago, or... hero factory. I have my fingers crossed.

Unlikely. First and foremost, I don't see why his departure would signal themes getting darker, particularly because he had his position since the "darkening" of Bionicle in 2006—so if he had a role in steering Lego away from that in themes since then, he probably had real, concrete reasons for doing so. Secondly, Lego's generally been more successful with less "dark and deadly" stories like Ninjago and Hero Factory than they were with Bionicle in its later years. Why would they go back to that when the current lighthearted adventure fare is more in line with Lego's values AND has been more successful?

 

This is True. o3o