Music, for Gen Z, is no longer exclusively for listening to. The production, distribution and use case is changing. Songs are a creative tool for producing content on entertainment platforms like TikTok. As a creative tool; having an authentic, joyful and let’s face it, silly track increases a song's odds of going viral. Why? It’s entertaining.

IKEA’s “Build The Flapack” is at the forefront of this new use case for music. The song shows agencies and brands what’s possible, as thousands of creators use the song to entertain millions. Music is no longer a backing track. It’s the “big idea.”

Gen Z and Young Millennials have the lowest Home Furnishing Interest (31% include it in Top 5 Interests). As such, IKEA isn't a relevant brand for younger audiences. When they do experience IKEA it is primarily through sales channels online, so they do not see IKEA as a fun, playful and human brand.

Music is an essential part of the TikTok experience that adds an additional storytelling element to creator content. Because IKEA wanted to become a memorable brand for Gen Z, they decided to release a pop song that you cannot get out of your head. No matter how hard you try.

The song “Build The Flatpack” celebrated the affordability of IKEA’s simple solutions while reinforcing iconic products and core elements of the IKEA brand that often get lost when browsing IKEA online; for example the Blue Bag “Frakta”.

The features of TikTok meant that anyone could use the song as a creative element in their content, therefore organically and entertainingly spreading the reach and relevance of IKEA to the many people. For every video that used the song, the IKEA logo would be displayed as a record icon.

Music is one of Sweden’s biggest exports. As a Swedish brand, IKEA honored their Swedish legacy by producing a pop song that was inspired by Swedish pop and influenced by artists like Robyn and Loreen. The song was written and produced by the up and coming indie band Ill Peach.

To ensure the song “Build The Flatpack” was relevant globally, the lyrics used the universal language of IKEA product names, specifically hero products like Billy, Poäng and Frakta, while reinforcing key IKEA traits like DIY and flatpack furniture.

To launch the song, IKEA tapped into the power of the #HomeTok community, 49 Creators were activated in 17 markets, transforming their home with the power of the song. Stores around the world created omnichannel installations around the pop song and hero products. The press picked up the story and celebrated the transformations of creators.

The success of this launch led to unsolicited creators, from many different communities, using the song in their own videos. The song was so widely used that it became a “Recommended Song” within the TikTok platform, competing for attention with chart topping singles. Marketing creators created unsolicited case studies for teaching users how to advertise on TikTok.

Although the song had the number of streams necessary to become Double Platinum, when an application was sent into the official governing body, it was denied as TikTok does not count as a streaming platform, yet.

Digital results are hard to comprehend so we have put them into context:

285m views over the campaign - The equivalent of going double platinum for digital streams according to the global governing body IFPI.

41000 videos created with the soundtrack - 2.75X the amount of visitors for Cannes Lions.

52000 quality hours spent with the content (measured as 100% view through rate) - 6 years worth of hours.