The Charity Brick Tribe

100 over volunteers. 10.30pm to 6.00am.  Thousands of Lego bricks were being sorted into 2,300 identical Lego fun packs to needy children and elderly in the wee hours of 2nd December 2009. The Charity Brick Tribe did their best to complete the task within the time window but still did not manage to pack all of it. Sore fingers and Panda eyes. The Tribe was tired but happy. Youngest tribe member is at the age of 6. City Care is the organizer for these volunteers.

We Are One is truly a unique charity event that MediaCorp and LEGO has jointly organized to raise funds for the Community Chest. For every $2 donated, a brick is added. If you are one of the thousands that supported this cause, I would like to give my thanks to you. You made a difference.

In the business of giving, there are always amazing tribes being assembled quickly. ERA agents form a 16-men team to help out in this event in the span of 24 hours. This is an excellent example of how flash mob are also formed virally. I was told that this ERA team did it through only one person who made a few calls. Amazing.

Right after the event, we all parted our own ways with handshakes, high-fives and picture taking. Like a Lego design, the tribe is quick to form and disband.

Question is, how do brands continuously engage their tribes for their cause and movement? Could there be a dedicated engagement program in the brand strategy that solely measures and looks after customer interests? Banks are infamous for such programs. They know it is far easier to keep a customer than to convert new ones.

Going beyond service levels to improve customer retention, tribe engagement is as much an art as it is science that is geared towards long term brand building. To Lego, you just earned another reason for keeping me as a customer.

Official news link here.

Please leave your comments, if any.

PS. I made a private art piece for someone special.