Social Media Case Study: Ikea

This campaign highlights just how effective social media marketing can be. A simple concept, but brilliantly executed…

We all know IKEA is about connecting different components to make something practical (preferably with none of said components left over at the end!). That’s exactly what the company’s Facebook campaign to promote the 2009 opening of a new store in Malmo, Sweden, successfully set out to do – without spending a small fortune on fancy widgets or sophisticated web design.

How they did it…

Forsman and Bodenfors, a Swedish ad agency, created a Facebook page for Malmo IKEA store manager, Gordon Gustavsson. Immediately there was a face and personality to the store, one real person with whom consumers could interact on an individual level, as opposed to a fan page staffed and moderated by faceless marketing digerati. (And what a stroke of luck that he was called Gustavsson – the name alone conjures up images of a yellow and blue flat-packed paradise!)

They then launched a 12-day campaign during which Gordon uploaded images of display rooms, and the first person to tag themselves on a picture of a specified item won that piece of furniture. Beautifully simple, the promotion quickly went viral and had furniture-loving folk watching the page like cyber-hawks.

Why it worked

Social media marketing is all about converting brand buzz into brand success. Like any campaign, a good strategy is essential. In this case, the campaign went for a specified time period (short enough to maintain hype and long enough to capitalise on its popularity) and achieved accessibility by utilising a tool almost every Facebook user is familiar with – the tag function.

It also kept people coming back. Unlike a traditional ‘enter to win’ promotion, the carrot was that at any time over those 12 days an opportunity to win could pop up on Gordon’s profile, which generated undivided, round-the-clock attention for the page, with the added bonus of being talked about incessantly in countless status updates. Who wouldn’t want to brag about getting something for nothing?

The results

Swedes visited Gordon’s profile in their thousands, literally (and virtually, for that matter) begging him to release a new winnable item. Everyone knew about the store opening (meaning the campaign achieved its objective), and as an added bonus, IKEA’s online catalogue was distributed betwee
Facebook friends for free.

On a corporate scale, IKEA discovered the power of social media marketing, which it has since gone on to embrace with its YouTube campaigns and online community.