We encouraged people to take part by using our purchased media. We asked them to post our newspaper spreads, door hangers and signs downloaded from Facebook in their windows to signal our Beautification truck to stop and offer a trade. The beauty of this approach was that it not only provided people with a great service but also acted as a targeted outdoor campaign in key neighbourhoods, peoples’ homes became IKEA billboards!The Beautification truck drove around Ottawa following the signs to let people trade in their old furniture for Beautification credits to use at the new store. People posted “truck sightings”and entire neighbourhoods followed our truck’s progress on Facebook and Twitter.

We even made a Beautification give-away board posting actual items from the new store and inviting the people of Ottawa to take them home. The social tactics and community camaraderie played a central role in driving awareness, engagement and participation in the Ottawa Interior Beautification Plan.

The excitement of the people of Ottawa is what built our campaign...

The entire City of Ottawa was a part of our project: in the 2 weeks of the campaign, up to 5,000 people exchanged old furniture for Beautification credits, 13,000 people visited the Beautification Plan tab, IKEA facebook fans were up 140%, wallposts were up 280%, visits were up 180% and sales were up 206% .On top of all this “Beautification Plan Ottawa” had prominence on the front page Google search results and #IKEA and #OttIKEA were trending in the top 5 on Twitter in Ottawa.+ Ottawa’s interiors got a lot more beautiful.