Ikea Asia: ‘We haven’t always done the best campaigns’
Despite being at the helm of some of the world’s most witty and eye-catching campaigns in recent years, the retail manager of Ikea South East Asia has admitted that hasn’t always been the case for the Swedish giant.
Mike King, who oversees the retail business in Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand, told Mumbrella Asia that the furniture brand would previously “blur the lines of responsibility” between themselves and their creative agencies leading to the campaigns’ “dilution”.
Speaking about Ikea’s recent Asia catalogue campaign, which featured World Memory Champion Yanjaa Wintersoul remembering 328 pages of the 2018 edition, King said he now simply tasked the agency, BBH, to “capture people’s imagination”.
“The whole point of having a creative agency is to give them a really good brief and to let them be creative,” he said.
“The process worked well on both the Yanjaa and the ‘Book Book’ campaigns. And we haven’t always done the world’s best campaigns. When we look back at that, it’s because the lines of responsibility became blurred.
“When you put an idea through too many committees, it doesn’t get better with every round; it tends to get diluted. Whereas ‘Book Book’ and ‘Yanjaa’ were quite pure because we trusted each other – and that’s an essential part of the agency relationship.”
Discussing the origins of the ‘Human Catalogue’, King admitted there were some initial concerns about hinging a campaign on Yanjaa in case she herself eclipsed the brand.
“We needed to be careful that the campaign didn’t just become about Yanjaa,” he said. “And then we had to focus on the catalogue, the new products and prices, and make sure that was all in balance. But then she was the launchpad of the campaign and so you cannot separate the two: we knew she would get a lot of attention, but in a way we trusted her as a brand ambassador.”
Following the first video release, Ikea then followed up the campaign with a Facebook Live interview, whereby Yanjaa was quizzed by journalists as nearly 50,000 people watched her online.
Asked whether using Facebook Live was a risky strategy for brands, King said: “There is a genuine part to [Facebook Live], but there’s an element of risk with that. For us, Facebook somehow became the neutral moderator: if we go on Facebook, everyone knows we are not in control on them.
“We felt that if we really trusted [Yanjaa’s] capability – and frankly we were quite sold early on – then what better way to crack the cynicism was to put her live in front of journalists. There were a lot of cynical journalists there who were trying to find the cracks, but she passed with flying colours.”
Now that 2018 catalogue campaign has finished, King and the Ikea team will begin planning next year’s catalogue from November. At the same time, the company is planning to open its next Asian retail outlet in the Philippines, although King was unable to reveal its opening date.
Speaking about whether the Ikea catalogue was even still relevant to today’s smartphone-addicted audience, King added: “I would say we are in the middle of a revolution when it comes to marketing and the digitisation of it. But that’s not to say all the old stuff is no good anymore: the catalogue is still super-relevant. Customers tell us they still enjoy getting it, and will keep it for the whole year.
“Our job online is to keep the catalogue fresh and inspire people throughout the year. The world has changed, but the catalogue still has it’s place.”
Interestingly enough, no campaign results provided.
50,000 people watching….cynical journalists asking questions….what about consumers?
This was the worst Ikea campaign Ive seen…the bookbook one was just a rip off.
Not a great report card.
ReplyBook Book was a bit gimmicky, and in-your-face borrowed interest. But it didn’t take itself too seriously either, so not too bad.
This Yanjaa one’s excruciating. A chore.
The creative link (memory) is tenuous, and while I’m sure it is possible to justify some sort of strategic tethering with Ikea as a brand or even product, it’s almost certainly going to be weak.
Then there’s the film, which this King chap clearly hasn’t thought through before signing off on the script. It’s an editor’s party, not a memory hack’s. Quite simply, it wasn’t an idea for film.
Finally, I agree with the bit about all talk and no results. How on earth can a strategy like this result in more sales? And if it isn’t about sales, what was King’s benchmark? Salience? For a retail concept that has no rival?
Replyany campaign that’s talked about is exactly that – talked about
ReplyTim just proved that the work is improving
A product recall after crap wardrobes kill toddlers around the world also gets talked about.
The video gimmicks may be improving. Sadly not Ikea’s product safety.
ReplyNot sure how you say the work is being “talked about”…unless you mean the fact that we’re here discussing how crap it is.
50,000 people watching live….thats like running an ad on a tv channel with a circulation of 3 million and saying 3 million people saw and are thinking about your ad! How do you prove who these 50,000 people are and what they were doing while this event played out? 30,000 of them could be Ikea employees FFS!
That is a very high cost per viewer I’d say.
I was just flicking through their catalogue in the office today. Not one thing in it ties back to this memory game crap. Bookbook, while being a rip off, at least had a strong link to the catalogue. This memory execution is nothing but a one off.
Anywhoooo….I find Mike King’s choice of words very interesting.
ReplyIf you read between the lines, he is making it clear that, unlike previous years, Ikea has given the agency FULL leeway and trust in accepting their recommendation. Thats also a way of saying if this doesn’t play well, it’s all on BBH. Let’s see what happens now.
I’d like to see the full results of this campaign.
Agree with you and RIP.
There’s no fucking strategic sense in this Yanjaa bird crap. Book Book was a rip off, but tied back nicely to the popular catalogue, so ok. No daft extensions into memory which has nothing to do with the core Ikea brandspace.
King, hello King. You there? Could you please enlighten the next generation of marketing tykes about what went through your mind when signing off on this? Or are you too embarrassed? Everyone makes mistakes. Could you at least acknowledge yours?
Yanjaa isn’t even entertaining. Take a look at the Ikea work from the link below. Learn from it. Brings a smile to my face. If you can’t, please go away. http://creativity-online.com/work/ikea-to-the-wonderful-everyday/53064
ReplyI find it refreshing that a BBH creative admits that their own current IKEA work is still not the best it can be.
ReplyIt shows rare humility and honesty.
I think we all had enough of creatives trumpeting in Trumpian tones how their work is always the bee knees.
“And if it isn’t about sales, what was King’s benchmark? ”
“Capturing people’s imagination” (roll eyes).
I don’t know how you can prove if that objective has been met.
Having journalists wanting to trip her up is not consumer interest…
it’s just content creators looking for a story. The brand is relegated to the backseat.
Im sure the folks at BBH disagree….as does the one apparently desperate freelance writer who seems to want to get into their good graces by sucking up to them here.
ReplyHerge kinda facial expression, King. But that’s not linked to the article, so let me just say that the Yanjaa work is childish, irrelevant and something I wish I’d never done.
ReplyI hate cocky and presumptuous pricks. Moreso, when they’re oafs.
Oaf: “Capture people’s imagination”
>>> That’s the generic responsibility of every creative process, spanning non commercial and commercial disciplines. That wasn’t a brief, oaf.
Cocky & Presumptuous Oaf: “…give them a really good brief…”
>>> Since you were oaf enough to confuse the overarching raison d’etre of creativity with the brilliance of a tailored brief, guess you won’t even have the requisite intelligence to comprehend this point.
Cocky & Presumptuous Oaf: “The process worked well on both the Yanjaa and…”
Reply>>> You really don’t get it, do you?
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