2022 Winners & Shortlists

Why is this work relevant for Social & Influencer?

For weeks, the world talked about Aliens and top secret Pentagon documents on UFOs. Social media went crazy about speculation and conspiracy, generating tons of conversation. This project brought IKEA at the centre of the conversation and re-established it as a global, relevant, fun brand, able to make people and media talk about it as part of the culture. IKEA is a brand with values of inclusivity at its core, with a funny and light-hearted tone of voice. The upcoming Pentagon reveals were a perfect opportunity for the brand to gain attention on social, leveraging it's brand essence.

Background

At the beginning of JUNE 2021 social media went crazy for some leaked images, documents and videos about UFO sightings. The origin of these unexplainable objects has been swooping major attention from the global media press (from The New York Times, CNN, WSJ to Gulf news, and even NASA and other space agencies). Aliens maniacs, conspiracy fanatics, and the simple curious sparked millions of conversations. Our brief was a long lasting brief: make the brand at the centre of culture and media conversation, riding topics with IKEA usual tone of voice being funny, humble and light hearted. The main objective was increase brand awareness and affinity.

Describe the creative idea (30% of vote)

IKEA is the biggest furniture retailer of the planet earth. So, if Aliens are coming, IKEA has to get ready for customers coming from another planet, in case they would like to build their dream home close to us. To do so, we turned the iconic IKEA assembly instructions into instructions for Aliens, changing the usual design and alphabet just to be Alien friendly. Just adding a few elements to the iconic design, it was possible to resonate instantly to a wide audience, both IKEA and Aliens lovers.

Describe the strategy (20% of vote)

"Aliens" is a very popular topic on social. At the same time, IKEA assembly instructions are iconic and universal. So universal that even otherworldly beings can understand them. And who better than IKEA, the biggest furniture retailer on the planet, to get ready to welcome Aliens that could be moving to Earth? We showed how IKEA is inclusive and funny, able to be part of the conversation and the culture. We resonated with a large target audience: IKEA lovers who also happen to be ALIENS and UFO lovers that represent a large community on a global scale. We "translated" almost 100 instructions, distributing them both on social media but also in stores.

Describe the execution (20% of vote)

We had to be fast so we crafted the iconographic universe of IKEA Alien design and applied them quickly to each instruction. The first three were ready in a very short time - 2 days - and we published them on IKEA UAE IG and FB pages quickly, in order to not lose the moment and be left out. The posts generated hundreds of positive and funny comments. This all took place just a few days after the news about the release of the report was announced, and the instructions were live for a couple of weeks, just until the day of the reveal. We reached also a huge active community of Aliens lovers on Reddit.

List the results (30% of vote)

The Aliens instructions reached a wide audience with a very small investment. They were shared hundred of times on social, generating a 100% positive sentiment from users, and some users also typed their comments in ‘alien language’. The campaign achieved a successful overall performance on the channels, with a very minimal media budget and a big organic part: Reach: over 5.5 Mil Traffic to website: +28% during the campaign Engagement: +38% compared to average IKEA posts ROI: 400%