Our idea needed to convince our members that regular emails from IKEA FAMILY are like no other, and are worth signing up for. We did this by creating the world’s first cross-stitched email, made entirely from fabric.

The outer envelope mimicked the email notification we are all familiar with on our mobile devices, with the headline ‘You have 1 unread message’. Once opened the ‘email’ was revealed. This very analogue solution captured members’ hearts and in turn their email addresses. Memorable, unique and ‘hand-crafted’, it gave members a hands-on demonstration of the lovely stuff they’d get in their inbox, in a very IKEA way.

The handcrafted email was sent to 40,000 members from 01/09/16 to 15/10/16.

Our idea needed to convince our members that regular emails from IKEA FAMILY are like no other, and are worth signing up for. We did this by creating the world’s first cross-stitched email, made entirely from fabric and posting it to 40,000 valued members.

The outer envelope mimicked the email notification we are all familiar with on our mobile devices, with the headline ‘You have 1 unread message’. Once opened the ‘email’ was revealed. This analogue solution captured members’ hearts and in turn their email addresses. Memorable, unique and ‘hand-crafted’, it gave members a hands-on demonstration of the lovely stuff they’d get in their inbox, in a very IKEA way.

With a clear CTA and £5 opt-in incentive, members were directed to a simple landing page to update their opt-in status. 2 days later they received their first lovely email from IKEA FAMILY. Each stage mimicked the charming cross-stitched design.

The results were a success from the start. Over 13% of IKEA FAMILY members went online to share their email addresses with us. Whilst our ongoing tracking of customer spend levels is still underway, working towards our forecast of an additional £5.4 million worth of annual sales, we can already detect within the first two months that the DM communication has had a positive impact on the spending behaviour of members contacted who went on to opt into email communications.

The £5 offer also had a very healthy redemption rate of 6.5% (1.5% above predicted), proving this is a suitable solution and offer for the purpose of an opt-in action across audiences.