Episode 102 - IKEA Window Shopping Ad Reviewed By Universal Music Group and IAB UK
On Advertisers Watching Ads this week we go window shopping with IKEA. The Swedish homeware brand is trying to win over the smaller downtown markets, starting with Toronto, where with their agency partner Rethink they’ve taken over actual people’s homes to create mini showrooms in city centres.
Does this ad chosen by Contagious work for our guests Victor Reznik (Vice President of Marketing at Universal Music Group) and James Chandler (CMO at IAB UK)? They rated this launch of an urban concept store at 3.5 only, but how does it land with you?
Watch the full episode and let us know what you think!
Automated Transcript
Episode 102 - IKEA Window Shopping Ad Reviewed By Universal Music Group and IAB UK
Tom Ollerton 00:00
Hello and welcome to Advertisers Watching Ads. My name is Tom Ollerton, and this is a show where brands watch other brands' ads. This week, we are brought to you as ever by our partners, Contagious who helped choose the ad this week. So please go and check those guys out after the show. So before we get to this week's ad, let's meet this week's guests.
Victor Reznik 00:26
How's it going? Vic Reznik. I'm a Vice President of Marketing in the music industry. Happy to be here. Thanks, Tom. Thanks, James.
James Chandler 00:33
I'm James Chandler. I'm CMO at IAB UK.
Tom Ollerton 00:37
So would you let IKEA use your house as their showroom? Well, it seems like a crazy idea, but that's what the brand did in Toronto. So let's see this week's ad. Okay, so it's voting time. One, two, three... A four and a three. Well... So what was going on? What was the bigger campaign here?
James Chandler 01:37
It's sort of smart in a way that there's an association with IKEA that you have to kind of go out of town to look around this very idyllic showroom. But IKEA are coming downtown as the ad indicates. So to showcase that they're coming downtown, they took over some downtown homes. So not only did they get the benefit of creating their own media placement, which I think is fairly smart, you get to fill these homes in situ, people walking past with all this amazing IKEA stuff. So the showroom kind of comes to you, which I think is a tiny bit of genius.
Tom Ollerton 02:11
Did you get an impression this actually really happened?
James Chandler 02:14
Practically, it would be pretty hard to convince someone to let you remodel their space. Perhaps like many things, it's not quite as it seems.
Victor Reznik 02:23
Is it a good ad? Absolutely. It's polished, it's crisp. It says up front what they're trying to sell you. It explains to you the problem they're solving. It's something that, you know, you watch and you can immediately understand. No matter what language you speak, no matter what kind of what your background is, it accomplishes those things. But is it going to be something that's going to sit with me forever that I'm going to tell my friends about that I'm going to share with somebody else online? No. I think where they failed was that it was too polished. Like I would have loved to see that ad. Like the other ad. I would have loved to see them literally setting up somebody's house like, you know, like one of those home flipper shows?
James Chandler 03:00
Yeah, yeah.
Victor Reznik 03:01
Remaking. You know what I mean? Like something to that effect with just IKEA furniture in a small space and be like, we can maximize your space.
James Chandler 03:09
I think they've gone, "Awe our catalog and look and feel of the site is pretty iconic." Because people recognize it instantly. Like, you know, you get the kind of, this is the table type thing, and it's kind of like they've taken that and they've just planted it onto some houses. So you kind of get the aesthetic as we're used to it in the catalog and on the site and they sort of framed it. But yeah, I mean, that photo with the guy and he sort of put that... There's no way that just sort of, it just feels like a picture maybe.
Tom Ollerton 03:42
Yeah.
James Chandler 03:43
That's kind of like just a, just a, just a poster but on a... Those poor people inside, can't even see out. What's going on here? The local decor or whoever the outdoor thing is, it's just kind of plunk this thing on for a photo and take it away. And that's exactly what's happened here.
Victor Reznik 03:58
All of these pictures look like they were taken by somebody who should be arrested for taking these pictures. I'm very uncomfortable with the whole premise. This is like very like somebody's watching me, like, I'm good.
Tom Ollerton 04:13
So, Vic, what would have made this better for you?
Victor Reznik 04:15
I think the disconnect is and what didn't resonate with me was the lack of reality in the process of how I buy furniture and how anybody else I know buys furniture. If they had shown how easy it is to move the IKEA box from the downtown IKEA into your home, that would have been a way better commercial to me. Like, if I could see how that whole, all the... The process of getting a table into a three story walk-up, right. Or like that kind of furniture into my walk-up downtown was made easier by IKEA. That would have hit me immediately. I was, "Oh, of course." I am... As somebody who lives in a city, I have the same struggles as anybody who's ever lived in the city. I think that resonates with me immediately, more so than somebody like picking up a hot beverage at their pristine IKEA table.
James Chandler 05:09
I wonder if it depends what they were trying to do. If they're trying to get people to think about IKEA as a place that can kind of exist or fit in with downtown rather than this, you know, this out of town place that kind of works. They kind of insert themselves in, you know, that sort of made for downtown living kind of works perhaps. So if they're trying to just change that perception maybe... Maybe it kind of works on that level.
Victor Reznik 05:41
Yeah, that's a good point. James, let me ask you a question. When we talk about downtown living, do you think that the furniture they're making or the kind of product that they're selling is made for downtown living or is IKEA made for downtown living? Like the process because I think that's interesting... You brought up an interesting point. Like, as a Londoner, you have to go somewhere else to actually even experience IKEA.
James Chandler 06:04
Yeah, Wembley is not downtown. I mean, this would have been nice if they had, you know, released a sort of exclusive collection, but, you know, from some cool downtown Toronto artists and put it together and you kind of put in those things in maybe and it's... Feels like it's been built up as part of the area it's going to be in. But, well, what I took from it is they're kind of saying, "Well, look, we can demo a product in downtown. You don't need to go out of the city to kind of get this thing. So we're kind of here." It's like IKEA is kind of here. So we're going to place ourselves within where you live to demonstrate that. If that's the objective, I think it does an okay job with that.
Tom Ollerton 06:44
We come to the end of the show here. So what can, what can the industry take away from this Vic?
Victor Reznik 06:48
The one thing that I'm left with is, again, the emotional resonance, right? Like IKEA has done a really good job of associating itself with the downtown experience, downtown living. They've kind of made that their trademark. They've kind of hammered it home and they've created a level of trust in that space. I think that's the thing that the ad does well. There's like authority there. There's trust there. They've made it clear that they can furnish the home, right? I think those things are like in terms of like how you communicate a very clear message. I think they've done that well.
James Chandler 07:31
I like the ambition and risk of kind of creating their own media placement, which in a way is pretty smart because you're paying for the production and you're not paying for the media space, so you're kind of saving up money. So I, I like the boldness of that and I, I'm kind of a sucker for pop up things that pop up in cities, you know, like golden elephants, bus shelters turned into space rockets and that kind of thing. So yeah, I like that. That's what I take away. Smartness of sort of, you know, we could buy some media space or just create our own. I think that's good.
Tom Ollerton 08:04
There you have it. Congratulations, IKEA. That is a high scoring ad. Vic, James, we'll see you next week.
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