2019 Brand Experience & Activation

THISABLES

Grand Prix

Case Film

Presentation Image

TitleTHISABLES
BrandIKEA
Product/ServiceDEMOCRATIZING 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.