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Subject: 
Re: Who Does Lego Like the Most?
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.ambassadors
Date: 
Wed, 14 Mar 2007 09:38:45 GMT
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Of course, I imagine that if you ask the average kid/mom in the toy aisle
of
Wal-Mart, Toys R Us or Target about the Lego Ambassador program, you will
be
looked at quite strangely.  So this begs the question who was the LA
program
designed for?  AFOLs or the Average Lego Buyer?

I'm going with AFOLs.

Yes, I think the Ambassador program is aimed at AFOLs. And what is wrong
with that? For years, we complained TLC never knew about, cared about, or
listened to AFOLs. Now they put in place a means to listen (which hints at
the knowing and caring) and then we ... uh ... complain.

Be realistic. TLC can't test an idea with all of us. They can test an idea
or get "a sense of the community" from a group of individuals, aka the
ambassadors (I presume the ambassadors sign NDAs or similar to protect ideas
from premature public release).

Are TLC in the ambassador game to make $$s? Ultimately yes, because they are
a business and that's what businesses do, try to make $$s.  It's what
they've been doing for 50+ years after all, but it's been an OK deal on both
sides -- we give them money, they give us little plastic bricks (which we
seem to like a lot). I'm cool with that, it's the fundamental nature of
capitalism at work. I think the question is more about whether the
ambassador programme is a genuine intention to engage with the AFOL
community or a cynical one.  Given the size of the organisation, I very much
expect both points of view exist. But hey it does give us a voice. It wasn't
that many years ago that TLC didn't know they had an adult fan base, and
even when they did, the evidence suggested that they underestimated its
purchasing, and when they figured that out, they still didn't know how big
they could grow that adult market. We've come a long way, baby!

Although some people are putting a negative spin on it, it seems to me that
the long-standing-ness of a number of ambassadors is a sign that they are
doing a good job at being ambassadors (or at least nobody else is putting
themselves forward, which in turn is probably still a sign that they are
doing a good job). I can't speak for every country, but personally I think
our current long-standing Australian Ambassadors are people who are active
and respected in the AFOL community here in Oz and LUGnet (and even in the
badlands of JLUG) and I'm happy to see them represent us.

Kerry



Message has 1 Reply:
  Re: Who Does Lego Like the Most?
 
In lugnet.ambassadors, Kerry Raymond wrote: [SNIP] (...) LAs sign two documents. The now famous Non Disclosure Agreement aka NDA - almost half the community signed at least once this document for various program from UTB to MDP :-) and a document (...) (17 years ago, 14-Mar-07, to lugnet.ambassadors)

Message is in Reply To:
  Re: Who Does Lego Like the Most?
 
(...) Call me a cynic, but I always assumed that the main goal of the Lego Ambassador program was to increase sales (read: dollars, pounds, euros, lyra, rubles, etc.). Also, it could have been a way to quell some of the whining that takes place when (...) (17 years ago, 13-Mar-07, to lugnet.ambassadors, FTX)

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