In 2021, IKEA opened the world’s biggest store in the Philippines with a vision “to create a better everyday life for the many people.”

However, with only one store in one out of 7000+ Philippine islands, they did not reach that many Filipinos. Despite the online requests, fans were left to long for a visit to IKEA.

And so a campaign was launched with the following objectives:

- Business: Grow sales despite physical store limitations

- Marketing: Pique the interest of IKEA fans and introduce them to IKEA.ph

- Brand: Bolster consumer perception of the brand’s accessibility

- Communications: Give consumers the chance to experience the IKEA store wherever they are

Filipinos are huge IKEA fans, because when it comes to home improvement, Filipinos prefer “soft renovations” – something they can easily do on their own.

But having the largest IKEA store in the world did not mean anything if not everyone could buy IKEA.

As an archipelago, Filipinos are separated by hours of air and sea travel. Cities are extremely congested and public transportation is inefficient. These make a trip to IKEA very difficult.

In response, IKEA created their own e-commerce website. However, with online stores like Shopee, Lazada, and even Facebook Marketplace already established (and also re-selling IKEA products), IKEA.ph struggled to introduce itself to Filipino users.

So, we drove interest in IKEA.ph by letting Filipinos shop online without losing what makes visiting IKEA exciting:

1 .The immersive, tactile experience of trying out the IKEA items yourself

2. The inspiration of seeing many combinations and arrangement of furniture

3. The social currency of letting others know you’re in an IKEA store

In short, we gave them the IKEA experience they crave for without the hassles of traveling for hours.

The campaign is anchored on a simple human truth: out of sight, out of mind. So we needed to put IKEA in sight, everywhere—literally.

To catch people’s attention, we turned unexpected places into IKEA stores. By switching ordinary benches with an IKEA, dental clinics, gyms, cafes, camp sites, beachfronts, and more became legitimate IKEA outlets. We even placed real price tags and IKEA decals to be faithful to the real store experience. Scanning the tags led shoppers to purchase online.

The engaging experience led fans to request more IKEA stores, and even made their own IKEA stores which they proudly shared online. Social media personalities joined the conversation and news outlets picked up on the news that IKEA was putting up “new stores” across the country.

Our audience are families, couples, and single homeowners in the ABC+ segment. Most of them are already fans of IKEA; the only challenge was to meet them where they were and drive to buy through IKEA.ph.

- We identified and hijacked relevant spaces for their lifestyles and interests: salons, gyms, food establishments, clinics, resorts, and camping sites.

- We turned Grab cars (the country’s biggest ride-hailing service) into OOH placements, becoming roving ads around the city.

- We implemented geo-targeted ads in cities where consumers with a high-propensity to buy live.

- Lastly, knowing our audience are avid social media users, we activated key influencers and turned their online content into IKEA stores too.

Optimizing awareness in a scalable & talkable way:

- OOH: E-jeepneys, Grab cars, and billboards on major commute routes were turned into IKEA stores via stickers.

- PR & Influence: Influencers searched for and documented our IKEA stores. Their content too became IKEA stores.

- Geo-targeted ads: Implemented within key areas of the metro

Optimizing the commerce experience by reimagining the brick-and-mortar IKEA experience

- IKEA placed actual products in public places such as restaurants, salons, gyms, clinics, and beaches. Each furniture had real IKEA price tags that lead shoppers to purchase online.

This hero offline-to-online execution became opportunities for consumers to “walk into” an IKEA store.

Optimizing advocacy by recreating the IKEA’s social currency:

- Instagram: IG stickers enabled IKEA fans to turn their posts into IKEA stores.

- In-store: Physical stickers were given away to encourage customers to put up their own “IKEA store.”

Within three months, the campaign generated significant results, particularly:

Communications:

- 185% achievement rate of influencer reach

- 238% achievement rate of influencer engagement

- Click-through rate of geo-targeted ads was 12% higher than benchmark

Marketing:

- 33% increase in new website visitors versus last year

- 30% increase in volume of e-commerce transactions versus the past three months

Business:

- 11% increase in website revenue versus the past three months

Both the brand and IKEA lovers’ entries made 900+ new IKEA “stores,” and still counting.