2022 Winners & Shortlists

Cultural / Context information for the jury

Have you ever been inside a house that hasn’t been refurbished, in Saudi or Bahrain? It’s like going back in time. it’s sentimental, floral, kitsch and it’s everywhere, because they are sentimental and holding on to memories, handed down in the shape of furniture. The old furniture style shows how Saudis used to furnish their houses back in the days, by commissioning a carpenter that has a few templates that are very French baroque or retro, sometimes a mix and match, and that’s the style of all big houses of parents and grand-parents. And the more they spend time with their inherited furniture, the more it grows on them and the less they feel the need to change it. So, at IKEA, we created visuals that illustrate how, when you own furniture for too long, well, you start blending into it. We used them to promote a 70% sale.

Please tell us how disruption in your market place inspired the work

For the first time ever, we had an IKEA furniture sale ad, showing zero IKEA furniture. Actually, it was the first IKEA ad with more than 100 pieces of furniture NOT from IKEA. And we were able to host an IKEA sale with no sale of percentage or discount stickers in the ad. That’s real market disruption for the whole furniture category.