UAE – Families are at the core of IKEA’s business: old and young, traditional and modern, family by birth or by choice. And in the UAE, IKEA faces a bigger challenge to be relevant to all of them, as the population is composed by mostly of expats. To show that IKEA has relevant solutions to all cultures, the brand recreated rooms everyone loves; the perfect inspiration to sell furniture in a way our diverse audience could connect to.
In this campaign, IKEA replaced all the furniture of a few famous families by its own. The Swedish brand chose three iconic family rooms on TV and then replicated them using IKEA furniture only.
First, hundreds of items were collected from the IKEA catalogue and website to find the perfect furniture for these iconic spaces. After a two-month search, the near identical TV show pieces were chosen. The selects were then sent to a 3D studio, that brought these iconic living rooms to life, using only IKEA furniture. This created visually striking versions of their living rooms, made for real families in the real world.
Vinod Jayan, Managing Director – IKEA UAE, Qatar, Egypt and Oman, said, “The IKEA team worked closely with the creatives for months. They went through hundreds of items to find the perfect pieces that would bring those iconic rooms. It was a great collaborative effort that lead up to a stunning result. A true testament of what IKEA represents: a place where everyone can bring whatever idea they see or have to life.”
The IKEA Real Life Series is currently being expanded beyond print ads and POS posters, as the brand goes through an exciting digital transformation, entirely focused on creating seamless digital experiences. A new website has just been launched with more content and new features, where the users can find a lot more inspiration and rooms, including the ones from our campaign: we’ve grouped all the products for each room on www.IKEA.ae/RealLifeSeries, so people can easily find all IKEA articles used to recreate each room and make their living rooms also iconic.
The new series will also come to life on our social media channels, catalogues and at a live event where the three iconic rooms will be recreated in IKEA stores in the Middle East. That will allow people to visit the fictional spaces in real life. All the rooms families loved to see on TV, now they can have in real life.
Credits
Agency: Publicis Spain
Chief Creative Officer: Eduardo Marques
Creative Director: Juliana Paracencio
Creative Director: Luiz Vicente Simões
Art Director: Diego Fernández-cid
Copywriter: Guillermo Laureano Ley Núñez
3D Artist/Illustrator: Bruno Rodrigo de Miranda
Client: IKEA, UAE
IKEA Regional GM Marketing, Com., Interior Design, Consumer engagement: Carla Klumpenaar
IKEA Regional Marketing Com. Manager: Amer Yaghi
