The Power of Play

Play is the engine behind creative thinking. The best ideas come from messing about, building, breaking, and starting again without fear of getting it "wrong." In an industry drowning in a sea of sameness, we think that rediscovering how to play might just be the best thing creatives and, well, everyone can do.

Let’s be honest, unless you work in games development or at a nursery, it’s highly unlikely you play on a regular basis. But why is that? Why do we almost have to have permission to play, before we actually let ourselves?

You don’t have to have ‘creative’ in your job title to benefit from play either. Play can fire up the reward parts of your brain, lower stress, and boost your cognitive flexibility.

LEGO’s own Play Well research, which surveyed 30,000 adults worldwide, found 86% of adults say play helps them unwind from work, while 89% say it keeps them mentally sharp, and 87% said play helped them feel calm. The report, conducted by Edelman, also showed that nine in ten believed their confidence would increase if adults emphasised the creative process over outcomes.

So, last week we took to the stage at MAD//Fest with the Lego Group to bring play… to the people.

‘Permission to Play: How Lego x Jelly use creative play to unlock better thinking’ was a hands-on 30 minute session that saw attendees build LEGO ducks from scratch with no instructions and only seconds on the clock. They folded paper aeroplanes. They played rock, paper, scissors. Small, low-stakes tasks that, together, made the point that, given the same brief, no two people arrive at the same answer.

The audience threw themselves into the tasks, chatting excitedly about the ‘why’, unlocking new routes to creative thinking and seeing the results in real-time. Eva and Jonathan’s playful dynamic kept the momentum going and the vibes high, while keeping the core message in focus - that play removes the idea of only one correct solution, and opens up everything else. There’s no failing with play!

And the feedback afterwards has been really great. Some people said it was refreshing to have a session that doesn’t talk about AI. Some reflected on how we’ve lost the instinct to play somewhere in adulthood. Most people loved the LEGO duck experiment. But most importantly to us, more than one person said they were going to steal the exercises for their next team meeting. We wanted it to be useful. We wanted to spread the fun.

Play fosters creativity - and creativity is well known to be one of the biggest drivers of memorability, brand recognition, effectiveness and profitability in advertising.

Playing, asking why, changing, and collaborating with others in the process are keys to transforming good ideas into great ones.

So, what are you waiting for? Book that session with your team and get playing!