The IKEA annual catalogue is the cornerstone of its business and is launched each year. But in a highly digitised world, readership was declining. We needed to re-engage people with the IKEA Catalogue and increase footfall and sales at IKEA Singapore and Malaysia.

The IKEA 2015 Catalogue launch media budget had shrunk by 50% from 2013. Our campaign success depended on PR to generate substantial earned media.

Despite losing salience to digital channels, we recognised a huge latent affection for the 'analogue' Catalogue. By contrasting the Catalogue directly against technology, we sought to reignite that affection.

Our campaign identified a timely PR opportunity –the launch of the iPhone 6– the most highly anticipated tech product launch in 2014.We parodied Apple’s slick product launches with our ‘IKEA bookbook’ film, posted on YouTube.

To reveal the Catalogue like a tech product, a week before launch, we sent our film link and press release to 50 influential tech and popular culture editors and 100 tech influencers. We simultaneously sent them a ‘product pack’ - the IKEA Catalogue in glossy white packaging and a user guide. The film generated 30,000 views overnight.

To fuel more ‘product pack’ content, bloggers were asked to create ‘unboxing’ videos and more ‘reviews’, generating massive buzz. The video was seeded to 10,000 bloggers who helped catapult the video to stardom, making headlines across major news sites. (12.7 million views during campaign period; earned media USD32 million).

‘IKEA bookbook’ became the world’s most shared ad on YouTube in September 2014.

The IKEA 2015 Catalogue launch campaign goal, given a 50% media budget cut from 2013 in Singapore and Malaysia was to:

• Drive store visitor footfall numbers year on year (Store sales data from IKEA Retail Performance Report)

• Increase IKEA same store sales year on year (Actual visitor data from IKEA Retail Performance Report)

• Create relevance for the physical IKEA Catalogue in a highly digitised society (Relevance digital analytics tools: Unruly Share Methodology)

• Generate substantial earned media

During the campaign period, Singapore and Malaysia saw an 8% & 13% lift in same store sales – year on year and a 2.2% lift and maintained equal store footfall (given 50% media budget cut) respectively.

PR Value of USD32 million (Source:Meltwater News)

Ranked as #1 most watched YouTube brand video in Singapore, and most shared ad globally in September 2014, outranking both Apple’s iPhone 6 launch videos.

Over 800 articles including: Half page Singapore Straits Times. Globally -TIME, Wall Street Journal, Buzzfeed, Forbes, The DailyMail, HuffPost.

IKEA ‘BookBook’ video: 16.8 million views on the official YouTube channel to date (12.7million at campaign period)

Over 1 million social media interactions across Youtube, Facebook, Twitter etc. - 480k shares on Facebook, 37k tweets. Over 6,000 people organically uploaded photos of themselves on Instagram, interacting with their own ‘bookbook’.

The campaign transformed the IKEA Catalogue in pop culture into the ‘bookbook’ (#bookbook)

Because our PR campaign for ‘IKEA bookbook’ was designed as a tech product release, we identified a very targeted media and influencer list – focusing on 50 tech and popular culture editors and 100 tech influencers with a large following.

We timed our campaign release a week before the Apple iPhone 6 launch and revealed the Catalogue like a tech product – sending the media and influencers our YouTube film link and press release.

To further amplify the parody, we simultaneously sent them a ‘product pack’ - the 2015 IKEA Catalogue in glossy white packaging complete with user guide.

To fuel content around the ‘product pack’, bloggers were asked to create ‘unboxing’ videos and ‘reviews’, generating massive online buzz. The video was then seeded to 10,000 additional local and global bloggers who helped catapult the video to stardom, making headlines across major international news sites and global television stations.

IKEA Singapore and Malaysia needed a launch campaign for the annual IKEA catalogue. The catalogue is the cornerstone of IKEA’s business and its launch a critical time for introducing the brands’ annual range. IKEA relies on the catalogue to deliver exceptional sales. But in a digital world, the printed catalogue has lost relevance and is in danger of extinction.

IKEA’s annual media spend is 5 times less than its main competitor, Courts. With no e-commerce presence, rising competition from lower and high-end furniture retailers and a shrunken marketing spend, we needed to reaffirm the relevance of the physical IKEA catalogue.

Despite losing salience to digital channels, we recognised a huge latent affection for the IKEA Catalogue. By contrasting the Catalogue directly against technology, we sought to reignite that affection.

Our campaign identified a timely PR opportunity – the launch of the iPhone 6– the most highly anticipated tech product launch in 2014.We parodied Apple’s slick product launches with our ‘IKEA bookbook’ film, posted on YouTube.

To reveal the Catalogue like a tech product, a week before launch, we sent our film link and press release to 50 influential tech and popular culture editors and 100 tech influencers along with a ‘product pack’ - the IKEA Catalogue in glossy white packaging plus user guide.

To fuel more ‘product pack’ content, bloggers were asked to create ‘unboxing’ videos and ‘reviews’ generating massive online buzz. The video was seeded to another 10,000 bloggers who helped catapult the video to stardom making global headlines.