Do lots vs. do good

On Brand Flakes for Breakfast, I heard about Ikea’s strategy to bring out one ad a day for 365 days to illustrate the variety of things you can do and buy from the store. Check out the video below.

But somehow I couldn’t help thinking about Pepsi Refresh and the results in the Social Activism 2.0 report brought out by TBWA last year, which mention that young people, who are on the receiving end of a barrage of marketing messages day in and day out, are more likely to connect with a brand if it speaks about causes they care about. So the sort of thing Ikea is doing doesn’t really make sense to me, never mind the +6% recall and other feel-good stats. I’m not saying we should extend the results of a study on young people to *all* people, but I don’t think it’s so off the mark. Call it a hunch.

Kitchens by Ikea

I don’t think I’ve met anyone to date who dislikes Ikea – or Ikea’s furniture as a concept. I never thought Ikea would have any relation to indie music though, of which I’m a big fan, but guess what – the day has come.

The latest Ikea campaign is around their kitchens, and features music by London-based band Man Like Me, who have covered Jona Lewie’s ’80’s hit ‘You’ll Always Find Me In The Kitchen At Parties’ (which was featured on Top of the Pops in May 1980, no less). Jona Lewie even makes a special appearance in the video.

If you watch the full-length 3-minute video on YouTube, you can click on the featured items and buy them from the Ikea Kitchens site. The 2 model-type girls in the video look a bit scary, but otherwise well done, Ikea!

Ikea’s Facebook Takeover

This Facebook marketing stunt by Ikea reminded me of this. Pretty smart, getting people to talk about Ikea to their network and letting people win stuff, which then spreads, based on the insight that people tend to trust reviews by their friends and family more than any advertising – which ultimately is a win for Ikea. I wonder what’s next. The #moonfruit stunt has already happened on Twitter, so that’s done. Hmmm…

[via Mashable]