Inspiration: Ikea Catalogue Rent-a-Space
Published in Cream

Challenge

The IKEA catalogue is a cornerstone of IKEA’s entire marketing campaign. However, IKEA’s annual Global Brand Capital Research showed recall of the IKEA catalogue had been in decline for the last 4 years, reaching a low in 2010. 2011 was the toughest economic and retail climate in over a decade.

Consumer confidence was low. Unaddressed mail and letterbox distribution was at an all time high. IKEA had to get the catalogue into homes and get people to keep it there for a whole year. The longer people would keep it in their homes, the higher would be their inclination to make a purchase.

Insight

The thought process was to pay IKEA consumers ‘rent’ for the space the catalogue occupied in their homes. Creating enough space at home was the theme for the 2012 catalogue. The IKEA catalogue has over 370 pages of ‘inspiration’, and it takes up space - space that, in today’s tough climate, is worth something.

What if the catalogue ‘paid its way’ - for the space the catalogue takes up in the home? And, the longer people let the catalogue stay, the more they could make.

Solution

Key to the campaign was the creation of a simple mnemonic device that tied everything together: which was a dotted outline representing the catalogue size.

IKEA used print, television, radio, outdoor, online and instore to tell consumers about the promotion. When the catalogue was delivered, consumers registered it online and got ‘rent cheques’ for each month the catalogue stayed in their home.

The ‘rent cheques’ used the mechanic of a money-off coupon, but redesigned as beautiful ‘rent cheques’ they had a much greater perceived value.

Results

Visits to IKEA.com.au were up 30%, setting a new record. During the first week, Perth sales went up 59% and there were 50,000 sign ups in the first 3 weeks. Store visits increased 9.8% in first 8 weeks. ‘Rent cheques’ to the value of $2.2 million were mailed.

After 8 weeks, the volume of products sold increased by 18% against a goal of +8.5% previous year. As on May 1, 2012, over 10% of households signed up for ‘Rent’. The campaign spend was $1.3 million. After 8 weeks, IKEA had a return of $39.5 million in sales.