When Inter IKEA Centre Group decided to open the first shopping centre in Iberia, they chose to locate it in Oporto, next to Sonae’s biggest shopping centre in the north of Portugal. Sonae’s Group is the leader and very popular in that area. On the other hand, IICG didn’t have a strong awareness next to the media, stakeholders and the public. They weren’t famous for building retail properties; they were famous for selling furniture (the misunderstanding between IKEA and IICG).

Therefore, it was important to have good communication to increase its awareness and emotional connection with the public. Therefore, we wanted to start the communication long way before the opening of the centre but it was important to find a good reason to do it, 6 months ahead. In order to show they were building this centre for the community, it should be the population that would name it.With this idea in mind, we created a powerful PR campaign in order to collect as many names as possible. We did advertising, guerrilla, virals, and direct marketing, providing the public with an engaging and fun experience.

At the end, we collected 64,995 names to the new shopping centre and 93 news stories were published in national TV, radio, print and the Internet - the Advertising Value Equivalent reached 125,000 Euros.

1. Press conference: investment, stores, area and naming campaign presentation.2. Website: the public could submit as many names as they wish (www.omelhornome.com-www.thebestname.com) with an online game for a more engaging experience.3. Naming advertising campaign: local press and radio 4. Guerrilla Marketing: a bunch of promoters walked around the city with thinking balloons illustrated with several messages: “I already know what to name it”, “I think, therefore I give names”, etc.5. Brigades in strategic spots of the city and universities, distributing flyers and disposing laptops to raise names next to the public.6. Installations of brigades in the IKEA store. 7. It was important to create an event to communicate the big winner and the name elected. In order to invite everybody, we created an online event where we presented the winner.We awarded the owner with a Toyota Prius, according to the environmental IKEA Group responsibility.

The campaign had a big impact with the public and with the media.There were 93 published news in national TV, radio, print and internet and the Advertising Value Equivalent reached 125.000 Euros (advertising space = news space)The campaign was very versatile, simple and easy, fun and interactive, engaging many people.IICG was expecting between 12,000 and 15,000 name proposals. At the end, there were 64,995 names proposed by the public. The hard task for IICG was to choose the best name. MarShopping.