There are strict regulations for advertising in public – especially in any kind of environment where traffic is concerned. So we had to get the people to engage in our event all by themselves.

Everybody knows and loves IKEA furniture. But hardly anybody knows that IKEA also offers great pillows and textiles. To promote them, we started the biggest IKEA promotion of all time:

Thus, we prepared 3.000 blue and yellow IKEA pillows, which our promotion teams gave to potential pillow fighters in the downtown area of the city of Cologne. Eventually, we turned the entire inner city into a blue and yellow IKEA pillow-ocean – and started the largest pillow-fight the world had ever seen. With more and more people wanting to participate.

Eventually, we started Germany’s biggest ever pillow fight. Within only a few minutes, the entire country was talking about our promotion. Via blogs and twitter, images of the event made their way around the world. Even Tagesschau, Germany’s most popular and respected newscaster, featured a video report during primetime. With a media budget of just 3,000 pillows, we helped IKEA reach over 2 million people, turned Cologne into a blue and yellow IKEA ocean, made every participant enjoy the world’s best pillow fight and let them go home with IKEA pillows as souvenirs.