Title	IKEA HANDCRAFTED
Brand	IKEA
Product/Service	IKEA FAMILY
Category	B01. Flat Mailing
Entrant	LIDA London, UNITED KINGDOM
Idea Creation	LIDA London, UNITED KINGDOM

Name	Company	Position
Dan Wright	LIDA	Copy Writer
Andy Preston	LIDA	Art Director
Vaughan Townsend	LIDA	Creative Lead
Nyig Tin	LIDA	Designer
Philippa Sidney	LIDA	Production Director
Eleanor Howle	LIDA	Account Director

The Campaign

Our idea needed to convince our members that regular emails from IKEA FAMILY are like no other, and are worth signing up for. We did this by creating the world’s first cross-stitched email, made entirely from fabric. The outer envelope mimicked the email notification we are all familiar with on our mobile devices, with the headline ‘You have 1 unread message’. Once opened the ‘email’ was revealed. This very analogue solution captured members’ hearts and in turn their email addresses. Memorable, unique and ‘hand-crafted’, it gave members a hands-on demonstration of the lovely stuff they’d get in their inbox, in a very IKEA way.

Creative Execution

Purposefully mixing the executional norms of two separate channels, our cross-stitched email blurred the lines between online and offline. Showing members what they were missing with a disruptive, engaging idea that encouraged them to opt in-to our regular emails. We knew the execution had to be special, and needed to reflect the care and craft we put into creating all emails. So, we designed the world’s first cross-stitched 'handmade' email. The outer referenced an email notification, with the headline ‘You have 1 unread message’. Once opened the cross-stitched fabric ‘email’ was revealed. This very analogue solution captured members’ hearts and in turn, their email addresses. A seamless customer journey continued online, with the handcrafted feel evident from the signup process to the first welcome email. Memorable, unique and ‘handcrafted’, it gave members a hands-on demonstration of the lovely stuff they’d get in their inbox, in a very IKEA way.

Results

The opt-in rates exceeded our best predictions by 3%, at an average of 13.2%. Test send: 4,000 members, of which 13.9% opted in to email, 2.3 times the 6% in the control. Members opting in have each spent £774 & visited 7.9 times since. A £97 uplift and 2 additional visits when compared to those who did not opt in (£677 spend & 5.8 visits each). Full send: 36,000 members, of which 12.5% opted in to email, a 70% uplift on 7.1% seen in the control Members opting in have each spent £436 & visited 6.5 times since. A £104 uplift and 1.7 additional visits when compared to those who did not opt in (£332 spend & 4.8 visits each. Whilst our ongoing tracking of customer spend levels is still underway, we are on course toward achieving our forecast of an additional £5.4 million worth of annual sales.

Unique, ground-breaking and never been done before, the idea crosses media boundaries using something analogue to get members more digitally engaged. And more importantly in a direct medium it speaks to the recipient in a personally relevant way, engaging them and eliciting a response. In this case, we were asking the reader to sign up to our emails. A difficult sell. And with a 13% response rate, the execution surpassed our goals and engaged even more IKEA FAMILY members than expected.

The IKEA FAMILY has around 5.5 million members. When considering how to build a stronger relationship with these members, we spotted a valuable opportunity. Our highest spending segments of members are more valuable to IKEA, by at least £35 a year, if they are opted in to receive both mail and email. When we looked closer, we found that 1.3 million were currently only contactable by post. We needed to convince these members to sign up for email. We started with a mailing to 40k DM-only members from our most valuable segment. We needed to demonstrate to members that regular emails from IKEA FAMILY are like no other, and worth signing up for. So we created the world’s first cross-stitched fabric email. Our strategy was to gain access to their inboxes via their post boxes, giving members further incentive to opt-into email communications by offering a £5 voucher.