CASE STUDY: How Ikea built anticipation for 2013 catalogue

Background
Launched every year and distributed to almost every home in the world, the Ikea catalogue is one book that doesn’t need any introduction. Earlier, the brand appointed Leo Burnett Singapore to take charge of its full suite of creative services.

Aim
With the problem of how to make people excited for something they know they get every year, Ikea built anticipation to the arrival of the catalogue in the mailbox via an Ikea countdown—the '2013 Ikea Catalogue Countdown Room'.

Execution
The 2013 Ikea Catalogue Countdown Room includes furniture from the new Ikea Catalogue, positioned to form the numbers of the countdown—from 9 to 0. It was promoted via print, OOH, social, digital, in-store and PR.

The nine-day event across three Ikea stores in Singapore and Malaysia was designed to inspire moments around the new items in the Ikea catalogue. Beyond the numbered arrangement to reflect the countdown day, the room also took on the designs for core areas of the home, including the living room, kitchen, children’s room and bedroom.

In the 'bedroom', local artists reminded Ikea fans of the moment they sang their first love song. The ‘children’s room’ was highlighted by stories and learning that saw artist Denise Jillian Tan helping to bring children’s imagination to life on the room walls.

Renowned chefs including Anis Nabilah and ‘Mami’ shared their famous recipes in the ‘kitchen’, while the ‘living room’ was home to family fun such as karaoke with local entertainment talents Jack and Rai.

The countdown room became an online television channel, where the activities of the nine days from the three Ikea stores were streamed live to Ikea’s Facebook app.

Fans also shared their favourite events on Facebook and invited friends to do the same. Highlights of these events and the most engaging moments of each day were added to YouTube.

Fans also shared their Ikea moments at home via the Facebook app or Ikea’s mobile site, which were collated as #IKEAMOMENTS. They stood a chance to win the Ikea room (bedroom, children’s room, kitchen and living room) that the ‘moment’ was tagged to.

Results
The campaign made more than 20,000 new Facebook fans and 35,000 new stories, reaching 3.7 million people (2.7 million from Malaysia) via social media in Singapore and Malaysia.

The number of people talking about Ikea in Singapore increased from 801 to 10,669 and from 2,346 to 21,175 for Malaysia.

Online users submitted over 1,000 moments on social through pictures, videos and posts.

Credits
Client Ikano Retail Asia
Brand Ikea
Client credit Irene Lau
Creative agency Leo Burnett Singapore
CCO Ted Lim
Senior art director Shawnn Lai
Creative group head Stephen Kyriakou
Art director Linus Chen, Joshua Lim
Creative technologist Martin Loo
Planner Shailesh Iyer
Account management Asuka Yokota, Kelly Leong
Media agency OMD
Media planner Jean Lee, Sarah Chen, Debbie Teo