DEMOCRATIZING HOME-FURNITURE FOR PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES WITH 3D PRINTED ADD-ON
Category
C07. Customer Acquisition & Retention
Entrant
McCANN Tel Aviv, ISRAEL
Idea Creation
McCANN Tel Aviv, ISRAEL
Media Placement
McCANN Tel Aviv, ISRAEL
PR
McCANN Tel Aviv, ISRAEL
Production
McCANN Tel Aviv, ISRAEL
Credits
Name
Company
Position
Sigal Abudy
McCann TLV
VP Creative
Eldad Weinberger
McCann TLV
CCO
Nadav Pressman
McCann TLV
CCO
Adrian Botan
McCann Europe
VP Creative
Eldar Yusupov
McCann TLV
Copywriter
Dana Moshkowitz
McCann TLV
Art Director
Kfir Peretz
McCann TLV
Art Director
Eddie Goldenberg
McCann TLV
Creative Technology
Idan Kravitz
McCann TLV
Copywriter
Yiftach Sarig
McCann TLV
Copywriter
Michal Popov
McCann TLV
VP Clients
Bat El Assyag
McCann TLV
Account Supervisor
Sapir Zagury-Geva
McCann TLV
Account Manager
Neva Zerah
McCann TLV
VP Production
Emmanuelle Raz
McCann TLV
Producer
Meital Zeevi
McCann TLV
Digital Producer
Keren Goldenzweig
McCann TLV
Strategic Planner
Catalin Dobre
McCann Bucharest
VP Creative
Carmen Bistrian
McCann Europe
CEM
Sanjiv Mistry
McCann London
ECD
Jamie Mietz
ECD
McCann London
Catalin Paduretu
McCann Bucharest
Art Director
Jeremy Reichman
McCann London
Producer
Corina Nica
McCann Bucharest
Corporate PR Executive
Yuval Wagner
Access Israel
founder
Michal Rimon
Access Israel
CEO
Nachman plotinzky
Milbat NGO
general manger
Yael shaked bregman
Milbat NGO
Deputy general manager
Mariana ben david
Milbat NGO
Industrial designer
Tomer Fadael
Milbat NGO
Industrial designer
Why is this work relevant for Brand Experience & Activation?
This case presents the story of how IKEA managed to make its product experience accessible to an audience often neglected by furniture manufacturers: people living with disability. We achieved this by tapping into insights from special needs communities, and by implementing advanced 3D printing technology.
background
Ikea’s mission is “To create a better everyday life for the many people’”. Our ultimate brand experience is achieved when we provide well-designed furniture that is functional and affordable for the mass.
So when we found out that people with special needs struggle with our most iconic items, from opening our “Billy bookcase” closet to getting up from our “Karlstad” sofas, we knew that it’s an opportunity to take our brand experience to the next level.
The brief was simple yet challenging: how can we create a better everyday-life for people with special needs? How can we make IKEA more accessible?
Campaign objectives:
1. Provide a solution for people with disabilities, so they can enjoy IKEA’s products.
2. Make sure this solution is heard-of, easy-to-get, and affordable for people with disabilities. Anywhere, anytime.
3. Spark a bigger change, by building awareness and generating a conversation around the issue of accessibility.
Describe the creative idea (20% of vote)
Introducing ThisAbles: democratizing home-furniture for people with disabilities, with 13 add-ons, that simply hack our iconic items, making them finally accessible.
Each add-on is solving a different accessibility issue: Sofa elevating-legs for easier ascend, lamp button-enlargement, super-zipper for all of our pillows-covers.
To deliver a comprehensive and a total brand experience, we made our solution fully accessible - through each and every touchpoint. First, products were designed in a minimalist and precise way to simplify their use to the max. We made them free to download at thisables.com - as an open-sourced models, available for 3D-printing, anywhere, anytime.
For those who wish to watch and experience our add-ons, and to enjoy them at the ultimate IKEA experience (the physical store) - we constructed the first-ever accessible space in IKEA stores. And for further understanding and exploration we built a well-thought website designed to make installment and use super-easy.
Describe the strategy (20% of vote)
We turned our target audience, people with disabilities – into our no.1 advisors, and they taught us a painful but shuttering truth: it is in their own home where people with disabilities feel really “different”. Surrounded by bulky, unpleasant furniture that scream “Disabled!”, while all they want is to enjoy the same furniture as everybody else.
Our strategy was therefore to hack our most iconic products, and tweak them to be finally accessible.
But in order to create a real 360 comprehensive IKEA EXPERIENCE , we had to go far beyond, and make sure 2 major conditions are fulfilled: 1. It has to be IKEA = it has to be super-easy, functional, and affordable. We provided 3D printed models available to download, anywhere, anytime.
2. It has to be present in the ultimate IKEA experience = the IKEA physical store customer journey. So we constructed the first-of-it’s-kind retailer accessibility space.
Describe the execution (30% of vote)
Bringing ThisAbles to life started with one question: how can we tailor make our products specifically to our target audience and drive affective response? The answer: a one-week hackathon, hosted with our special need target audience, consulting with product engineers, accessibility experts and IKEA’S designers. Together we focused on inventing the right add-ons that would truly simplify the use of our products. Ultimately, we created 13 add-on - each answering the biggest pain points our target audience face.
To make sure it was heard-of and available for all – Online, we presented our complete project through a designated website: ThisAbles.com. Physically, we created an accessible space showcasing all our products, allowing the public try and 3D print the add-ons on the spot.
To make sure the products kept their IKEA look & feel even through 3-D printer - so we also designed a manual to recreate them around the world.
List the results (30% of vote)
The response rate within our target audience was high: Online visits of more than 45K people from 127 countries who visited our website ThisAbles.com, thousands of downloads of our 3D add-ons.
Offline, in IKEA’s stores, sales of our 13 iconic items grew up by 33% shortly after the project was launched and 37% increase of product sold (vs 2018). We also intrigued our target audience - and made them keep searching for more: +1500% in no. of visits to the websites of our non-profit organizations partners.
We met our target audience in 2 critical engagement touch points:
The IKEA space: we brought them in by creating a special physical store
The product itself: designed specifically for the audience, serving as a communication tool to deliver our message.
Thus, we were able to create a direct connection between IKEA and the consumers and change the way they used IKEA for good.