Carat tipped for £35m Lego task

Carat is tipped to win Lego’s &£35m European media buying and planning business. In the UK the business will move from Starcom Motive.

Starcom also holds the account in eight European markets but is understood to have dropped out of the race earlier this week. A Lego spokeswoman claims a final decision had not been made.

The review follows a disastrous year for Lego. The company reported an annual loss of &£127m last year, its worst to date, following a 25 per cent drop in global sales. Lego blamed its poor performance on an over-reliance on licences and neglecting its core building-brick product.

Lego scrapped its pre-school Explore range because of poor sales and revived the classic Duplo bricks in its place as the company embarked on a back-to-basics strategy.

The company also launched a European review of costs that resulted in the loss of hundreds of jobs and the merging of its three marketing divisions into a single global marketing unit.

After the departure of chief operating officer Paul Ploughman, its top global marketer Henry Poulsen took over as the new European chief.

Mads Nipper, who was previously senior vice-president for Lego Central Europe, took on Poulsen’s global responsibilities and is overseeing the media review.