IKEA Catalogue
IKEA
Issue 58 | March 2021
Agency
Ogilvy Social.Lab Brussels
Creative Team
Creative Director Gregory Ginterdaele Creation Gregory Ginterdaele, Antoinette Ribas
Production Team
Design Anne Debruyne, Xavier Vanderplancke Production Marianne De Meuleneire, Frank Machtelinckx
Other Credits
Account Team Carolines Charles, Barbara Hennin Strategy Julie Frederickx Social Media Strategy Elliot Steed
Date
December 2020
Background
With sustainability at the centre of its values and actions, IKEA was declared ‘Salesforce Sustainable Retailer of the Year 2020- 2021’. At the same time, the company announced the end of the catalogue. The 70th edition of the most distributed book in the world was to be the last.
Idea
Through its popular newsletter to customers, IKEA asked its customers to return their old catalogues to the store for recycling.
They were told that they could be rewarded with a Christmas gift. Teasers in social media repeated the invitation.
1,000 customers were mailed back their catalogues but now recycled into SNÖ: a 100% paper decoration kit containing eight Christmas baubles, 152 decorative stars and two small table trees to assemble by following the instructions. SNÖ was proof that Christmas could be both magical and greener.
Our Thoughts
A BCG survey of 3,000 people in right countries found that during the pandemic in 2020 people became more concerned about environmental issues rather than less. More than 40% declared they were adopting more sustainable behaviours. In this context, IKEA seem to have caught the mood of the times perfectly. The important part of this campaign is in mailing a thousand customers the Christmas decoration pack.
What we see here is the rise of the nanoinfluencer, someone who may not have millions of followers but is cheap (or, in this case, free), has authenticity and credibility and together with the other nano-influencers has incredible reach. IKEA’S one thousand have told millions about the company’s green credentials at a time when green is significant.