IKEA gets people talking... again

Continuing his weekly quest for great marketing ideas, Joss Davidge, managing partner of brand experience agency BEcause, highlights some great recent campaigns.

This week he looks at a way that IKEA Norway got people talking about its new catalogue.
 
IKEA is no stranger to innovative marketing campaigns. From its conception the brand set out to be for the people, bringing a refreshing approach to home furnishing. Over the years I have seen some great activations from the brand, personalised for the local market and designed to get people talking and through the doors.
 
This week I came across IKEA’s Social Catalogue. Again, an area where IKEA has not been shy to innovate with an augmented app last year and very smooth digital catalogue experiences online.
 
The Social Catalogue was a campaign run in Norway, where IKEA encouraged anyone who had already got the new catalogue to take a picture of their favourite item and post it online to be in with a chance of winning it. A simple competition mechanism that, when combined with social media, enabled the brand to reach out to thousands and piggyback on people’s personal recommendations. In the end every item in the catalogue was documented online by the public, compiling a ‘social catalogue’.
 

IKEA Social catalogue from SMFB on Vimeo.

The key for me here is the simplicity. Yes, there are some fantastic campaigns out there that add layer upon layer to a single experience in order to delight and tempt consumers. But this IKEA campaign simply asks the public to talk about its products and, with the almost ubiquitous appeal of IKEA products, the public were clearly more than happy to oblige.
 
Here are some other campaigns from IKEA:

IKEA opens its doors for a giant sleepover

IKEA builds excitement with experiential tour
IKEA – a new kind of catalogue

Read more from Joss Davidge.