The LEGO Group's membership program changed from VIP to Insiders in August 2023 and, over a year on, here's the reason behind that change.
The LEGO Group officially changed the name of its loyalty program from VIP to Insiders from August 21, 2024. That stage was largely just an aesthetic change but it was the culmination of various tweaks and new features coming to the program over the year. What started as simply a points scheme had evolved into an entire Rewards Centre.
Now, well over a year after that change, the ex-head of loyalty and the VIP program at the LEGO Group Jason Whiting has spoken to the hosts of A Couple of Brickheads podcast about what sparked the change.
"We were VIP for a really long time," said Jason. "We had fundamentally changed the VIP program by introducing rewards. Then we started asking: what else do we want to be? How do we move away from what used to be just a cashback program to a rewards program to a membership program? Who is it for?"
Ultimately, Jason and the LEGO Group decided that the program needed to cater to everyone. There should be reason for core fans to sign up, of course, but also parents, kids, casual fans, and everyone who engaged with LEGO as a brand.
"We decided to look into what VIP means to people," continued Jason. "A lot of people said they didn't know what a VIP is. If you buy once a year for your kid, are you a VIP?
"This is a global program. How people interpret the name 'VIP' is different in the US than in Europe. So we decided to look at something that's closer to what we want to be for everybody, globally.
"We did a ton of research...and landed at Insiders. That was the closest thing we could find. We wanted people to come into the brand and feel like there was something that they got there, whether that's rewards or early information or access to an app."
Of course, other names were in contention, with the next runner-up being simply 'Insider.' Other options were based around 'connect' or 'club' – or even a brief discussion of 'universe,' before understandably being quickly shelved.
"We probably had 500 different names that we went through," said Jason. "Even if you had your favourites, you had to test them with users...and Insiders made the most sense."
Jason also divulged the harrowing journey of the LEGO Star Wars VIP card and what could have been, which you can learn more about here. Watch the interview in full here.
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