IKEA Launches Brand Revitalisation Campaign

22/10/2012

Mother

Advertising Agency

London, UK

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22/10/2012

‘Playin’ with my friends’ encourages children and adults to entertain together

IKEA, the leading home furnishing company, has announced the launch of a new brand strategy for the UK and Ireland that is being spearheaded by Peter Wright, the IKEA UK and Ireland Marketing Manager who was appointed in September 2011.

The new strategy will demonstrate IKEA’s knowledge and understanding of the challenges people face every day in their homes and will provide practical ideas, solutions and inspiration, marking a shift from communications focused on rooms in the home to campaigns discussing activities and needs in the home.

The first work in the new brand campaign, ‘Entertaining’, explores the insight that adults and children all behave better when they’re sat around the same table together, rather than the children being sat at the end of the table. The ad is seen through the eyes of a young girl and the IKEA solutions enable the children to cook, dine and interact together with the adults.

The campaign launches with a TV advert in the UK and Ireland on October 20, during the ‘X-Factor’ on ITV1. Three versions of the advert have been produced and include 60” and 30” adverts that run until December 9 on TV and cinema, as well as a full length two-minute ‘music video’ running exclusively online at http://www.youtube.com/ikeauk.

The 60" version can be viewed below:

The ‘Entertaining’ advert, created by the agency Mother, shows a family gathering hosted by a young girl and her father for a group of their friends and their parents. Their IKEA products enable them to prepare and execute the perfect gathering where the adults and children can come together side by side.

But this isn’t just any gathering, it’s all seen through the imagination of the little girl, who’s having such a great time she sees the adults as giant toys. The teddy bear, robot, action figure and charismatic monkey that join the party are only revealed to be adults at the end of the film. Throughout the party, the toys and the children they accompany use IKEA products and solutions to make the perfect gathering that the children and adults enjoy side by side.

The giant toy characters also appear in the press ads in the campaign which focus more explicitly on IKEA solutions that can help children and adults enjoy dinner parties together such as IKEA junior chairs that lets kids sit at the table with grown-ups to the IKEA extendable table that ensures you always have room for last minute guests.

Peter Wright, IKEA UK and Ireland Marketing Manager, said, “IKEA has now been in the UK for 25 years and we believe this is a great time for the us to remind consumers that we are more relevant than ever to help with their everyday lives at home. With the new brand campaign it is our ambition to revitalise and transform the IKEA brand, which we hope will result in more consumers choosing us more often for their home furnishing needs.”

Thom Whittaker, creative at Mother, said: “IKEA have a range of products that are designed to let kids and adults socialise together. So we thought that it would be cool to show how much fun a family gathering is for a kid by showing it through the eyes of a child. In the ad we show that hanging out with adults becomes like playing with your favourite toys.”

IKEA recently updated its website with a mobile version as a result of increased mobile traffic to the site. Customers can browse products, create shopping lists, find the latest offers and locate their nearest store with the updated user-friendly mobile site.