In 2021, IKEA opened its first store in the Philippines with a vision “to create a better everyday life for the many people.”

However, with only one store out of 7,107 Philippine islands, they could not reach many Filipinos. Unable to open up new physical stores, they created an online store to service more parts of the country.

Hence, the brand is dependent on IKEA.ph for its business growth. Unfortunately, the website’s performance has remained flat due to (1) poor awareness, (2) intense competition from e-commerce marketplaces, and (3) the proliferation of fake online IKEA stores which caused public distrust for buying IKEA online.

Hence, the ff objectives:

- Business: Grow sales despite physical store limitations

- Marketing: Drive IKEA.ph website activity (the only official online store)

- Communications: Drive awareness for IKEA.ph as the go-to alternative to the one physical IKEA store

Our creative solution is inspired by a shopper insight: While e-commerce can offer IKEA products to shoppers, online shopping misses out on what makes IKEA, IKEA. The brand is all about bringing its wide-ranging catalogue to life, inviting shoppers to see, touch, and experience their dream spaces.

This shifted our perspective: More than product accessibility, the gap we truly needed to bridge was experience accessibility. We needed to deliver the IKEA physical experience at scale.

So we thought:Fans can’t come to IKEA? Then we’ll bring the shop to them!

We created and deployed an iconic “This is an IKEA store” in various online and offline touchpoints to recreate the IKEA shopping experience. This visual had a QR code linked to IKEA.ph, allowing consumers to enjoy and shop at IKEA wherever they are. This idea was an experience, an ad, and a store all rolled into one-replicated all around the country.

Our target audience are families, couples, and single homeowners in the ABC+ segment. Based on social media scans, they aspire to shop at IKEA, but have yet to do so because they think it’s inaccessible.

The challenge was to meet them where they are, showing them they can walk into an “IKEA store” wherever they are.

Key audience insights that informed our touchpoint selection:

Urban-dwellers:

- We identified spots relevant to their lifestyle and interests such salons, gyms, food establishments, and clinics

- We turned Grab cars (the country’s biggest ride-hailing service) into roving ads around the city

- We identified cities where customers with a high propensity to buy live

Values experiences with friends and family:

- We hijacked outdoor sites such as beaches, resorts, and camping sites

Avid social media users:

- We selected a range of influencers who were popular amongst our audience

To launch big and reimagine the immersive experience:

-Partner sites: To bring the catalogue to life, we placed IKEA products in public places such as restaurants, salons, gyms, clinics, and beaches. We attached the price tag for easier shopper consideration.

To close the physical accessibility gap:

-OOH placements: E-jeepneys, Grab cars (taxis), IKEA delivery trucks, and billboards were turned into IKEA stores.

-Geotargeted ads: Implemented in cities where our core audience was concentrated.

To create shoppable entertainment:

-PR & Influence: In a country-wide easter egg hunt, influencers searched and scanned the different This is an IKEA store visuals they could find.

To sustain impact through social currency:

-Instagram: A This is an IKEA store sticker enabled influencers and users to turn their posts into IKEA stores

-In-store: This is an IKEA store stickers were given away alongside in-store purchases to encourage customers to put up their own IKEA stores.

A single store turned into 927 IKEA “stores” across online & offline touchpoints.

Communications:

- New website visitors: 14% increase versus same period last year (compared to previous year performance of -30%)

- Website visits: 12% increase versus same period last year (compared to previous year performance of -36%)

- Influencer posts: Over-delivered by 185% in reach and 238% in engagement.

- We recreated 18x IKEA stores using the activation cost to mount ONE pop-up store (based on previous marketing effort)

Total Reach of Campaign: 46,651,823

Marketing:

- Volume of e-commerce transactions: 30% increase versus same period last year (compared to previous year performance of -17%) – the highest volume of e-comm transactions to date

Business:

- Website visitation: 101% achievement versus target

- Website revenue: 8% growth versus same period last year – an all-time high revenue for IKEA.ph.