This was a print campaign that ran in national newspapers & magazines, standing out amongst other glossy interior ads from competitors.

Our campaign tapped into a key cultural insight: Norwegians rate honesty above all else when it comes to advertising. In a "Life at Home" report conducted by IKEA, Norwegians were proven to respond better to honesty and authenticity over aspiring picture-perfect communication - with 48% of Norwegians claiming that they don't relate homes depicted in the media. So where aspirational advertising might work well in other markets, Norwegians don’t buy it – literally.

For decades, IKEA catalogues have been showing us how beautiful our homes could be. But recent research has shown that Norwegians don't feel seen in lifestyle ads. 48% of our target audience feel detached, claiming that glossy catalogues and furniture ads don't reflect their life at home. At the same time, we're in an economic climate that has made it even more important to prove why it’s worth spending money at IKEA.

With this new campaign, IKEA wanted to candidly acknowledge the gap between aspiration and reality. By boldly declaring that "Life is not an IKEA catalogue", IKEA wanted to establish and strengthen brand loyalty and trust among Norwegian consumers, whilst demonstrating why their products offers great value for money.

Through a series of brutally honest print ads, we showed Norwegians that we understand the life isn’t as picture perfect as our catalogues have shown them to be over the last 70 years. Real homes are lived in, peed and puked on, and furniture will inevitably get stained or broken. By invading our own glossy universe with real life, we proved that our furniture and products are made to withstand everyday life – no matter how real it gets.

By daring to show life in a more honest way, IKEA shifted its brand image from aspirational to relatable. IKEA was embraced as a rare brand that actually understood the realities of everyday life. Turns out a little bit of puke resulted in the best performing IKEA campaign ever tested in Norway – as well as all-time high visits to IKEA, both online and in-store, in the weeks following the campaign.

When we learned that our target audience craves honesty and realness in our ads, we realised that not only could we use it as an opportunity to mock our own brand, but we needed to go all in. If we held back in fear of what was “appropriate” to show, the idea of daring to show real life at home would collapse in on itself. Because real life is not appropriate, so neither should our ads need to be.

By mocking the universe our audience said they don’t relate to, we showed them that we get it – life doesn’t work that way. And then, when we used brutal humour to demonstrate how our products are made to deal with life, it just made our message even more believable.