Week Eight: Advertising and Public Relations

Ikea is very creative with their advertisements. It isn't just another flat surfaced advertisement. Just like the reason they first made a store, Ikea likes their advertisements to be touchable. Ikea's biggest advertisement is through their free catalog. For this year's 2011 catalog, Ikea sent previews out to different blogs to hike up interest.

Just like sending sneak peaks of their catalog, Ikea's street advertisements are the same way. In 2008, Ikea was opening a new store in Brooklyn. To let people know, they built a 20ft x 20ft "Apartment in a Box," in Borough Hall Plaza, Brooklyn. The 'studio apartment' was complete with a sofa bed, coffee table, rugs, lamps, pillows, a media center, and bookshelves. The shipping container read, "Studio apartment flat-packed for your convenience. Ready for home delivery." Other advertisements around the word are designed the same way. Ikea spends around $300 million a year worldwide on advertisements.

Ikea's advertisements around the world. 

Last year, in Austria, Ikea used movies to advertise their newest catalog. When their items appeared on the screen, they launched a small projection of the item and it's price. Their product information projections were featured in movies such as Burn After Reading and I am Legend. After each movie, the Ikea catalogs were distributed outside. Five thousand catalogs were handed out, which was five times the amount that was estimated. In the same year, Ikea launched a campaign on Facebook. The company made a facebook page where they would upload a showroom, and the first person to tag an item in that picture would win it. It was a great way to interact with customers. 

In 2002, Ikea launched Unböring, which was a multifaceted, year long campaign that included the Clio Award-winning commercial Lamp, directed by Spike Jonze (who is known for directing Where the Wild Things Are and producing MTV's Jackass). It challenged people to break their attachments over old furniture and bring in new items, preferably from Ikea.

Ikea is a big believer in cause-related marketing. In 2005, Ikea formed it's Social Initiative to manage their social involvements throughout the world. They chose UNICEF and Save the Children as their main partners. One example of their involvement is through their solar powered SUNNAN lamp. Since June 2009, for every lamp that is sold, Ikea donates a lamp to UNICEF and Save the Children for kids who cannot read, write, or draw after sunset. So far, more than 500,000 lamps have been sold.