IKEA partners with Barnardo’s, the UK’s largest charity supporting vulnerable children. In order to raise funds, we wanted to create a new kids’ product range that would be a sure-fire hit, with all proceeds going directly to Barnardo’s.

We wanted the range to be fun, and able to capture the imagination of children everywhere. IKEA’s designers are world leaders in creating innovative furnishing and storage solutions. But even the wonderful creations they dream up pale by comparison to the unrestricted creativity of our intended audience – kids under the age of 11.

So that’s exactly who we turned to for new ideas.

Doing things differently is in IKEA’s DNA. So, when we asked ourselves ‘how do we help children play, develop and have fun’, we went straight to the experts.

The creative ideas really lay in the hands (or minds) of IKEA’s youngest designers, aged 5-11. What grown-up would think up a magical ‘Mer-dog’, a four-limbed fried egg or a cuddly peanut butter and jelly sandwich as the solution to help vulnerable children?

It was our job to find the most imaginative young designers, engage them and encourage them to let their designs run wild. Then bring our IKEA Family community together to vote on the best designs and use our manufacturing expertise to make the incredible creations a reality.

First, we turned to our own Family, inspiring parents on our database to get their little ones designing, targeted to land in the run up to half-term holidays.

Our campaign page helped capture as many entries as possible. With over 66,000 global submissions with support from the local community. So we handed over our Instagram feed to allow the nation to vote for their favourite designs from almost 1,500 UK entries.

The most-voted for designs were entered to the global judging team (made up of the types of adults that could create the creatures and make them safe for those that would hug them in the future).

Once our glorious creations took their cuddly form, it was back to the parents who held the purse-strings. Our limited edition huggables took over our digital channels, targeted at those we knew had children – or had bought for children in the past.

We kicked off our call for entries on 12th October 2020 via email to our IKEA Family loyalty base. We targeted parents of children, or those that bought presents for kids in the past. Aunties and uncles can be powerful advocates too!

No-one knows IKEA quite like our co-workers, so from 14th – 20th November, they helped us shortlist the initial entries down to 15 of the most imaginative and IKEA designs. It was then to the public to vote for their favourites. Voting took over Instagram Stories from the 2nd – 4th December.

The top UK entries were then submitted for global judging. And it took almost a year to select, create and perfect the loveable designs. No ‘imperfection’ was overlooked, this was about replicating the designs exactly as the imagination of the designer intended.

The finished collection went on sale in stores and online from 15th November.

Achieving these results was far from child’s play.

When it came to voting, over a 3-day period we engaged with over 150k IKEA family members who placed over 170k votes for their favourite designs – that’s equivalent to the number of children in 500 UK primary schools!

At the tills, the Sagoskatt campaign clearly struck a chord with our shoppers. Within two months of selling the Sagoskatt launch, soft toy sales increased by 50% . On our best days for sales, we even outsold our famous Billy Bookcases!

In the UK and Ireland, a massive 13,029 units were sold, raising an impressive £38,330 for the UK’s largest children’s charity, Barnardo’s. This money goes towards many of Barnardo’s UK childrens’ support schemes, such as their 180 Ofsted-accredited children's centres, where skilled staff help over 100,000 children and their families every year.