2018 Winners & Shortlists

VIRTUAL REALITY STORE

BrandIKEA
Product/ServiceVIRTUAL REALITY
EntrantTAKELEAP Dubai, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES
CategoryImmersive Customer Experience
Idea Creation TAKELEAP Dubai, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES
PR ACTIVE CREATIVE Dubai Media City, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES
Production TAKELEAP Dubai, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES

The Campaign

The agency worked with IKEA to develop virtual reality POPUP stores across three countries and five cities in some of the busiest shopping malls in the Middle East. Visitors had the opportunity to place signature IKEA products in their own virtual living room using VR technologies. Users chose from pre-set room layouts (L-shaped, square or rectangular) to match the dimension of their living space and purchase the products on site if they wish.

Creative Execution

Virtual Reality Pop up store has had its first launch in Jordan, Casablanca and Kuwait in October 2017. 5th October 2017 - Jordan - Amman 13th October 2017 - Morocco - Casablanca 19th October 2017 - Kuwait - Kuwait City 21st October 2017 - Morocco - Tangiers Nov 2017 - Morocco - Marrakesh First the user approaches a touchscreen where they enter their name, phone number and email, right after they choose their living room type amongst 3 types of shape/size available.Then the VR starts, and users decorate their new living room. Once they are done, they step out to another touchscreen which shows them their living room with couple of photos from different angles and gives them the list of items with article numbers. So if they wish to purchase any of the items, they just approach to the cashier with this print out, or the email.

Describe the success of the promotion with both client and consumer including some quantifiable results

We offered shoppers an inventive, new and solutions-driven experience. Within only two weeks of this activation, the footfall to the IKEA stores rose by 19%. The current results are yet to be shared but we are positive that numbers have increased as it raised consumer awareness and impressions all around the world. “We are very thankful to have the agencies support in helping us push the way we design things and give our customers a completely different kind of experience. This is something that none of our competitors have done before and a monumental step for the future of IKEA shopping.” Diana Sabouni, IKEA Regional Interior Design Specialist. “The agency opened a new door for IKEA to offer our customers an excellent innovative experience. This is only the start of a great and promising journey of developing more and better solutions for our customers.” Elisa Albndea, Marketing Director IKEA Kuwait, Jordan

Explain why the method of promotion was most relevant to the product or service

If you are looking for an engaging, interactive and face-to-face customer focused brand experience, our virtual reality store is the one. It is both memorable, immersive and raises brand awareness like never done before. Virtual Reality Store gives potential clients an opportunity to immerse themselves in a real life based scenario, which in this case would be their home and proceed as they were their own home interior designer.

The IKEA POPUP Stores, were placed around the Middle East and targeted specifically Jordan, Casablanca and Kuwait to help increase brand awareness of the store located in isolated areas away from the cities. Everyone from the age of 15 to 70s were very keen about the application. Though the targeted audience was the main decision makers of the household. Which would mainly be the ladies between the age of 25 to 45. The approach was so successful that promoters had to intervene a couple of times to remind the consumer that they had exceeded the spared time allocated to the experience.

Credits

Name Company Role
Bosco Pereira Takeleap Project Manager
Joanna Brady Takeleap Creative Designer