Ikea

Ikea had set some pretty ambitious goals for kitchens in fall 2007. The challenge to Zig: achieve an aggressive increase in kitchen sales and grow top-of-mind awareness without any additional media support. As well, the agency had to continue to chip away at the notion that Ikea’s low price equals low quality, while spreading the word about the furniture retailer’s design and installation services.

Building on Ikea’s tradition for smart design, Zig developed the “Beauty and Brains” strategy: get on consumers’ awareness list by pushing style, and move up the consideration list by showcasing function in a fun Ikea way. The structure of the campaign was simple: TV and radio were used to build mass awareness of the kitchen offering (inside and out), while newspaper and magazine ads showcased the product range in detail.

In “Fight,” a 30-second TV spot, for example, a couple is in the middle of an epic argument when the audience realizes that the kitchen’s brilliant self-closing drawer dampeners have rendered it slam-proof, and the cabinet doors don’t rattle or crash. To combat questions surrounding its ease of assembly, Ikea distributed a handout made to look like one of their standard instruction manuals at the Interior Design Show in Toronto. Visitors learned they didn’t have to lift a finger to get their kitchen properly installed.

In the end, results outpaced even Ikea’s initial goals: the absolute number of kitchens sold went up 45% in a year when retail sales in Canada grew less than 4% and home improvement spending grew by only 6%. Ikea Canada actually exhausted the global supply of “Nexis Black/Brown,” the cabinet style featured most prominently in the magazine and television advertising.