Episode 107 - Visit Sweden Ad Reviewed by Unilever, CvE and Rich Brett FinOps Ltd
All publicity is good publicity, right? But what if some of your country’s best landmarks are associated by the whole world with mundane IKEA items?
Visit Sweden decided to do something about it - running the Discover the Originals campaign, created by Forsman & Bodenfors and chosen for us on Advertisers Watching Ads by Contagious.
How did this ad land with our guests James Channon (Brand Manager for Magnum at Unilever), Robert Webster (Global VP for Strategy at CvE), and Richard Brett (Founder of Rich Brett FinOps Ltd)? They marked it 3.6 out of 5, watch and see what you think!
Episode 107 - Visit Sweden Ad Reviewed by Unilever, CvE and Rich Brett FinOps Ltd
Automated Transcript
Tom Ollerton 0:00
Hello, and welcome to Advertisers Watching Ads. This is a weekly show where brands watch other brands' ads.
Hi, my name is Tom Ollerton. I'm the founder of Automated Creative. And we are brought to you this week by Contagious, so please go and check these guys out after the show. So, before we see this week's ad, let's meet this week's guests.
James Channon 0:26
Hi, I'm James. I'm the Brand Manager for Magnum at Unilever.
Robert Webster 0:29
Hi, I'm Rob. I'm the VP for Strategy at CvE.
Richard Brett 0:33
I'm Rich, the founder, owner, and only employee of Rich Brett FinOps Ltd.
Tom Ollerton 0:37
So I would just like to point out that Rich is a fan of the show and asked to be on the show today, which was such a... Our first moment of pride, so Rich, thanks for being our first fan.
Richard Brett 0:47
Can't wait. It's been a dream.
Tom Ollerton 0:48
Did you know that the name for IKEA products often comes from Swedish town names? Well, this can be a bit of a problem if your town is associated with a toilet brush. So here's a campaign that showed how the Swedish Tourist Board tackled the IKEA problem.
It's customary to give a vote of five. One, two, three... A three, a four, and a four, that is a high scoring ad! This seems like a really good idea but I'm a bit confused is that, what actually happened? Can you help? Help us understand the wider campaign here.
James Channon 3:25
When people were searching for some of their locations, but actually what was popping out first, rather than the locations themselves was IKEA products, which meant that they were facing a challenge in that not enough people were finding out about their amazing places and their hidden gems, and not enough people were visiting Sweden. So they decided to reclaim the names in a way and do some billboards and advertising to highlight the fact that a lot of the IKEA product names were named after locations in Sweden.
Richard Brett 3:49
It's kind of a nice idea to associate those things. But does it really make me think, "I must go to there because it's named after a toilet brush." But... The place is great anyway and I mean... I think, it feels like Sweden can sell itself on what it looks like without having to associate it. I can understand why you do it. And I always love things to be cheap. So no media spend, no real budget to do it. It's great, but it does... I do question whether many people would go to Sweden because of it. Yeah, they might look at it and go to the website. But if you really want to encourage people to go to Sweden, is this the right method to use? I'm not so sure.
Robert Webster 4:25
I guess, I'm probably one of the few people in the world who has never been to IKEA, but then I actually really liked the ad. I thought that despite not knowing about it, I thought it was quite funny. I think in these things you need a little bit of a hook, don't you? Ultimately what you want is to go and show people some really beautiful scenery. I think it plays on the sort of the Swedish sort of sense of humor that kind of came through. Yeah, I liked it.
Tom Ollerton 4:42
Is it a nice hook that like, "Oh, this place in Sweden isn't a toilet brush?" Like toilet brush is not a good association for any brand. Unless you're like a toilet brush company. James, am I looking into this too much?
Robert Webster 4:54
Yeah, the toilet brush thing was just a little joke at the start of the video, wasn't it? The major piece here is that everyone's heard of IKEA, apart from myself. Kind of using that very famous brand as a way of amplifying the country that's behind it. I like that we see as well to kind of go to the more, some of the smaller parts of Sweden. Most people think of Sweden, you think of Stockholm. When you start to use some of these other places, it's a really great excuse to kind of branch out and look at other parts of the country.
James Channon 5:17
I think part of the reason that has worked is because of the storytelling within it. It's a little bit self-deprecating. They can they can take the mickey out of themselves. And it does the whole story around it leads into that element of an underdog story, which I think everyone always really likes to get behind. You have this element of like, "Oh, the plucky, upstart local town, it's really beautiful. This name has been tarnished by a big company." And then you sort of want to buy in and you have more positive feeling towards them, you're sort of already on their side in a way. So I think the storytelling behind it is really strong as well. And it fits with what they want to try and do as an underdog and the positioning that they take to start off with.
Richard Brett 5:53
The IKEA sign a bit. It's like it's piggybacking it a little bit, though. Is there more you could do with that? You know, a partnership... If Sweden, they're not into it. And they want to get people to Sweden, and IKEA is the biggest name in Sweden apart from Zlatan Ibrahimovic... Like, could you not do a partnership with IKEA where you go onto their website and instead of seeing the bog brush, you see a picture of a beautiful picture of Bolmen? Yeah, the more you can do with it. I think that's the bit that I got. It felt like it was almost an advert for IKEA and I get the self-deprecating part of it. But it wouldn't make me share it unless there was something that really made me go, "That's actually really funny." Because you kind of have to look into it to share it. It's not like a simple, "Huh, yeah, Bolmen toilet brush, it's actually a beautiful place." It's kind of not enough there for you to go, "I'm gonna share this with someone." Like, it's just a nice, it's a nice thing.
Tom Ollerton 6:38
But one thing I don't understand, I might be being thick here, it's like going... Oh whatever it's called, "Oh, that's a town!" Like, I vaguely remember... I don't remember any names of any IKEA products. Like I don't like go, "Oh, I love... whatever." Like, just go completely... In fact, I just moved into a new house, assembled some flat pack furniture this morning. I have no idea what that thing was called. I know it was a table and chairs. So the whole thing hinges on the fact that like, it should have a name that you give a shit about, "Oh, did you know that... is a small town, somewhere." Like that feels like such a creative leap for me. And ultimately, I feel like the idea here is, it's like, it's toilet humor. This town is famous for being named after toilet brush. Like, it doesn't it doesn't feel clever enough to me. However, in the top right hand corner of the campaign video, it's got the Cannes Lion logo. So I assume it's won 10 awards or something, which quite often happens with ads on this show.
James Channon 7:34
They won a few Cannes Lions, and they all... Well, they speak about the number of countries it was picked up by in the media. So I think, yeah, they're regarding it as a success. Definitely. I completely agree with the point around, I think the area that it could have been stronger on was making more of it with IKEA. I think what they've done here is, is giving away a hell of a lot of coverage for IKEA without necessarily getting that many counterparts or that much back for it. So I think there there could have been a little bit more pushing of it because all of this is in IKEA's best interest as well. I think IKEA want to celebrate the fact that they're Swedish. They would want to hear where these names come from. It's building even more brand love for them.
Robert Webster 8:11
But IKEA for years have been famous for getting free marketing, right? I mean, wasn't the, the film Fight Club back in the late 90s, early 2000s where those... the protagonist had his own apartment, famously decked out in all the IKEA stuff, right? Yeah, leave like a little mini info, infographic, info TV sort of thing where they kind of showed his apartment assembled with all different products.
Tom Ollerton 8:32
And Deadpool as well, I think. They, there was a whole IKEA bit that run through that. I'm curious from a sort of performance perspective, do you think there's a missing story here where this might have not converted from those 2.2 billion impressions?
James Channon 8:45
It's almost a little bit suspicious that they haven't reported on more metrics when things like page views would be such an easy number to pull live. It does make you question why they haven't done the translation from number of impressions into that. But I suppose again, it does speak to the point that this was more awareness focused that isn't, it isn't a very action-orientated campaign, given the 90% that people are going to hear about this via the press talking about it, you're going to be a consumer, sitting watching a bit of news reading a bit of news hearing about, "Oh, Visit Sweden reclaimed the names of IKEA furniture to highlight the original place names." You hear about that and go, "Oh, that's fun. That's a nice idea." It doesn't immediately make you go, "Okay, and I'm gonna go and visit Sweden website and look up those locations." There is no, it's not a particularly action-orientated piece. But that's not what they set out to do, and it's more of an awareness driver, then I think it has done its job.
Tom Ollerton 9:35
James. Rob, Rich, thanks so much for your time.
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