Title	THE BIG TIGHTENING DAY
Brand	IKEA NORWAY
Product/Service	IKEA NORWAY
Category	E02. Low Budget / High Impact Campaign
Entrant	SMFB Oslo, NORWAY
Idea Creation	SMFB Oslo, NORWAY
Media Placement	MEDIACOM Oslo, NORWAY
PR	SMFB Oslo, NORWAY
PR 2	TRIGGER OSLO, NORWAY
Production	SMFB Oslo, NORWAY
Production 2	STIR Oslo, NORWAY
Additional Company	JCP COMMUNICATION AS Oslo, NORWAY
Additional Company 2	IKEA NORWAY Billingstad, NORWAY

Name	Company	Position
Pia Ølstad	SMFB	Creative
Linus Hjellström	SMFB	Creative
Alexander Gjersøe	SMFB	Creative
Hans Magne Ekre	SMFB	Creative
Mari Engen	SMFB	Account manager
Kristian Kristiansen	SMFB	CEO
Hanne Danielsen	SMFB	Content manager
Tobias Lien	IKEA Norway	Marketing manager
Sveinung Arnestad	SMFB	Creative
Cathrine Boije	IKEA Norway	Marketing manager
Kristian Willanger	IKEA Norway	PR manager
Maria Oljemark	JCP Nordic	Producer
Anniken Sletten	JCP Nordic	Account Director

Why is this work relevant for PR?

Black Friday is a sensitive matter, because no matter how much people actually want new and shiny thing – we all know what our overconsumption eventually leads to. IKEA is working hard on it's sustainability efforts, but it's a sensitive topic to talk about ang get press on. You have to prove that you're serious about it, to avoid any backlash. So when IKEA, as Norway's biggest retailer, cancelled Black Friday – it was clearly a PR move aiming to get attention to their sustainable efforts, but it was also a message that had substance.

Background

Black Friday has exploded in Norway the last six years. In 2017 a population of only five million Norwegians spent more than 32 billion US dollars within 24 hours! Crazy numbers. Market research done by Opinion, shows that more than 360 000 Norwegians actually take time off from work, to hunt down Black Friday offers instead.

Describe the creative idea

The idea was to replace Black Friday at IKEA with a brand new day: The big tightening day. Inspiring Norwegian's to tighten their furniture instead of buying something new. Most people forget to tighten their IKEA furniture after they've used them for a while, making the furniture appear as of lesser quality than it is. Through personal interviews done by IKEA, Norwegians express growing resistance towards Black Friday. So even if sales on this day are increasing, our strategy was that a different angle would get a positive reaction.

Describe the strategy

The initiative is not a one-off, butsomething IKEA Norway means todo every Black Friday for the foreseeable future. By declaring that IKEA has quit Black Friday for good, it became a much stronger message. Also, the sustainability message of repairing, not selling, implies taking a (financial) risk and would increase IKEA's credibility. We targeted most Norwegians, starting with the near 1 million IKEA Family members (from a population of 5 million!). But also spent time specially targeting environmentally engaged people and organizations, triggering them to spread the word. The press release was sent out over a month before Black Friday, making sure every reporter knew that IKEA was not doing BF – so we became the natural spokesperson when the press startet writing about BF later in the month. Aiming, and succeeding, to make IKEA the center of the debate.

Describe the execution

We took our whole media budget and spent in on this new day instead: The big tightening day. A day celebrated in all IKEA stores across the country! We started off with a newsletter to the IKEA Family fanbase, and the message was immediately picked up by the media, and the response in social media was overwhelmingly positive. We then followed up with Facebook ads, films in Youtube and IKEA's own channels. The campaign kicked off 14 days prior to Black Friday, and ended the day after – leaving behind a debate that lasted for several weeks.

List the results

The message was perceived as close to IKEA's core business. More people connected IKEA to sustainability after this campaign. The shopping experience at IKEA this day was received way better than when having "wild offers". Opening rate on email newsletter was a record high 32,4%, meaning it was read by more than 300.000 people (population: 5 million). Visitation at IKEA.no rose to an index of 109 (yearly goal: 105). FB ads reach: 1,1 million, spending only 25 000 USD (CPR way lower than benchmark). Instagram posts: reach 160.000 people / 200.000 views, organic only. The best achieved posts for IKEA ever. Coverage in most national news media, also TV2 and NRK, the most important TV broadcasters. Total media effect due to PR: over 1,5 million people reached. Most important, it sparked a debate in parliament on how to get people to repair and reuse – using IKEA as prime example!