IKEA wanted to push their green agenda through the use of influencers. But the idea of hiring famous people to spread a predefined message don’t play well with the brand DNA of IKEA, which is to be at eye level with “the many people”.

We had to find a more credible way for IKEA to inspire people to live a greener everyday life.

So, instead of paying well-known influencers to share green tips on their Instagram, IKEA teamed up with all the climate conscious Danes, who have already shared green tips on their Instagram – and turned them into influencers. Simply by boosting their already existing green content.

This way IKEA democratizes influence by giving reach and voice to those, who don’t have a great number of followers, but have a great message to share. Ultimately making everyone with a green idea an influencer.

Instagram thrives off consumerism. Looking up the term ‘influencer’ in a guide to Instagram would define it roughly like “a content creator with a social media following that has the ability to influence someone else’s purchase decisions”.

Working with influencers in the context of a non-tactical branding campaign revealed the true dimensions of influencer marketing. Because the truth luckily is that everybody influences each other everyday.

People across the world come to Instagram to start movements and drive social change. Classic influencer marketing at its core, is a disruption of the democratic dynamics of the internet. People like Kim Kardashian or Jake Paul are clear signs that if we go with the flow, soon, all influence is in the hands of the few. We saw the potential to launch an initiative to celebrate and support the sustainability grassroot movements of Instagram - and the fact that everybody is an influencer.

By trawling social media, we quickly realized: Instagram is boasting with green tips and ideas that don't get the attention they deserve due to a very low reach. But what if IKEA could give reach to these great, but often overlooked, green ideas?

For every green idea we found on Instagram, we contacted the person behind it and asked if we could sponsor it, allowing us to spread their green tip to thousands of new Danes – finally giving it the reach, it deserves.

At the core of the ‘Grøn Rytme’-initiative is the ambition to “create” reach and engagement for people, who don't have any, by promoting pieces of their greatest content. This tactic reverses the traditional KPI’s of influencer marketing. We are actively looking for low organic reach.

What we have achieved:

until now, we have given a selection of completely average Danes, a reach over 15.636.649 on Instagram. Together the green ideas selected, has achieved more than 84.261.090 exposures, inspiring new green ambitions and ideas.

How do we know it works?

On the Instagram profile, close to a thousand people have made their individual vow to a more sustainable lifestyle – which clearly documents that the initiative is already working well, even though it has only been running for a few months.