Cannes Lions

Soffa Sans

RAPP, London / IKEA / 2020

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Overview

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Overview

Background

Everything IKEA does has hidden creativity that solves problems, often problems people don’t really notice.

The inherent problem with hidden creativity? It’s hard to get people to see it, never mind talk about it. Our task was to do just that, using a Sofa Planning tool (which isn’t that exciting unless you’re planning your sofa).

Only 50 of the 250,000 IKEA.com daily visits were to do that, so we definitely didn’t have a viral meme waiting to be unleashed. With no budget, our brief was to show the hidden creativity in everything IKEA does and make the Sofa Planning tool the most famous tool in the UK.

Our objective was to be patient and use social listening until something…anything conversation-worthy about the Sofa Planning Tool cropped up; then jump on it, make it a bigger story and put it in front of an audience who’d find it interesting and memorable.

Idea

We found a small group of techsters subverting the Sofa Planning tool for their own amusement, drawing spiral sofas, words, letters (and lots of phalluses). Who knew a Sofa Planning tool could be so creative?

In response we released IKEA SOFFA SANS; a real, downloadable, usable font, built from 38 different sofa configurations on the Sofa Planning tool in multiple colours, both 3D and 2D.

The font encouraged consumers to engage with the tool’s hidden creativity and we

promoted it by integrating with pre-existing social threads; supported across owned social platforms, IKEA.co.uk and a PR push.

The creative approach intersected an audience of design geeks and mainstream tech interests. To make sure design and tech blogs (and mainstream nerdist types) took up our story, the font was also co-created. We rewarded people who created the punctuation marks with a free sofa, so the final version was completed by the public.

Strategy

We needed to find something, anything, conversation worthy about the Sofa Planning Tool, make it a bigger story and put it in front of a bigger audience who’d find it interesting. The approach was to social-listen, wait, then react fast with a creative response and broader media against a relevant audience.

We found a small group of techsters subverting the Sofa Planning tool for their own amusement, drawing spiral sofas, words, letters (and lots of phalluses). Who knew a Sofa Planning tool could be so creative?

Execution

By listening, we found a small group of techsters subverting the Sofa Planning Tool for their own amusement. In response, we released SOFFA SANS; a real, downloadable and usable font. The initial font was created and released within 48 hours of picking up the trend, built from 38 different sofa configurations, with multiple colours and in 3D and 2D.

Between 28th June - 8th July, we integrated with pre-existing social threads – promoting SOFFA SANS across owned social platforms, IKEA.co.uk and a PR push; encouraging customers to engage with the tool’s hidden creativity.

To make sure design and tech blogs types took up our story, the font’s punctuation marks still needing creating. We even rewarded people with a free sofa to help us finish it. The final SOFFA SANS version was completed by the public; extending the conversation, driving to the tool and encouraging the sharing of designs.

Outcome

Within 24 hours of release, 84.2m impressions were generated, with over 13,000 references across social. The day after release, we’d collected enough traction to become a UK Twitter moment, earning £358k of free media.

With minimal PR, we were picked up by Mashable, The FT, The Verge, CNET, FAST Company, Hypebeast, Design Taxi, Ad Age, Trend Hunter, The Drum, Marketing Week and many more keynote UK publications and accounts, as well as in the US and Asia (where the meme itself was meme’d).

We generated an increase in organic traffic of 6,695% in the 2 weeks either side of the campaign. In the same period, we generated an increase in traffic to the Sofa Planning tool of 4,247%.

The tool had an average 7,000 hits per day, and average hours spent engaging with the planning increased by 1,023% as people experienced the hidden creativity that lies in everything IKEA do.

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