Curious about the entrepreneurial adventure behind inspiring brands, Brand and Strategic Professional Martijn Arets decided to quit his job, hand in his lease car, ignore all uncertainties and follow his dream. For five months, he travelled more than 15,000 kilometres across Europe in a one-of-a-kind 1971 Volkswagen T2 camper van, meeting with the founders, CEOs and brand managers of 20 authentic European brands in what was to prove a unique trip: Brand Expedition. On popular demand, he has bundled the lessons and stories behind 20 appealing European brands such as Lego, Mini, Skype, The Body Shop and Adidas to create Brand Expedition, the book. More information? Check www.brand-expedition.com or send Martijn a Tweet: @martijnarets.

1. READ OUT LOUD
THE STORY BEHIND
- LEGO-
LEGO IS REALLY ENJOYING THE CRISIS

2. BEFORE YOU START….
please look into your camera and tell
us slowly your name, city and
country… Then you can start reading
this paragraph out loud… Have fun!

3. The story of Lego started in 1932.
Carpenter Ole Kirk Christiansen
had been working in construction for
several years, when the economic
crisis hit the market. He decided to
make wooden toys and challenged

4. his seven employees to come up with
a name for the company. The prize: a
bottle of wine. Says Per: “In the end, it
was Ole himself who came up with the
winning name, Lego, derived from the
Danish words ‘leg godt’,

5. or ‘play well’. Later, they discover
that, in Latin, ‘leg godt’ means ‘I
assemble’.”
After the Second World War, Lego
took up the increasingly popular

6. production of plastic toys, giving birth
to the precursor to today’s
Lego brick, the automatic binding
brick, in 1949. In the initial design,
the bottom was still hollow, making it
impossible to interlock the bricks.

7. It was during this time that Godtfred,
Ole Kirk’s son, joined the company’s
management team. Nine years later,
he developed the Lego brick that we
know to this day, while he is also
responsible for introducing Lego
Technic.

8. - END OF RECORDING-