Becoming Relevant When You’re The Last Thing On People’s Minds – now that’s a challenge.

How do you create relief for a city in urban chaos…and by doing so, turn that relief into unprecedented sales? Every July 1st long weekend in Canada, a cultural phenomenon happens unlike any other. The people of the province of

Quebec move, not one-by-one but all at once. This is Fête du Déménagement, or Moving Day: a remarkable event wherein every 1st of July weekend, Quebec residents move. All of them. Well, maybe not all of them, but it sure feels

like it when 13% of the entire Montreal population relocates on the same day.

Moving Day emerged out of a key insight that what people needed the most from IKEA was what was most scarce – utility that can’t be bought at any store. The campaign turned the ordinary, average dull brown cardboard box into a

compelling, central media vehicle. By tapping into the cultural fuel of urban communalism, IKEA moved into the hearts and minds of all Quebecers, and moved Quebecers into an IKEA store.