DEMOCRATIZING HOME-FURNITURE FOR PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES WITH 3D PRINTED ADD-ON
Category
C01. Corporate Image & Communication
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
Background
A tenth of the world’s population suffers from disabilities. That is 1 in 10 people who not only fight to live normally outside, but struggle with the most basic home activities. Things that we take for granted -they battle with: turning on the light, getting up from the couch.
So if IKEA’s mission is “creating a better life for the many”, we knew we had to do better. Our new mission: take peoples disability into consideration - and change their reality for the better. The reality they currently faced was furniture that was as ugly as it was expensive. An added cost, on top of already expensive healthcare.
The mission was: to bridge the gap between IKEA’s products and people with disabilities in order to create a significant improvement in their ability to enjoy IKEA’s products - making sure that our consumers disabilities will no longer stand in their way.
Describe the creative idea (40% of vote)
After realizing that people with disabilities aren’t able to use IKEA’s items just like everyone else - we decided it’s time to hack our own furniture.
Introducing ThisAbles: IKEA’s first step to make its most popular items accessible in every home - no health disability to stand in their way. How did we do it? We developed 13 add-ons to our most essential products, offering them free to download and 3D print on our designated website alongside a full web-series of video-tutorials. Each add-on was designed to solve a different accessibility issue: turn a small button into a giant one or lift a couch a couple of inches from the ground to help make getting up a little easier. Additionally, for those who wished to feel and experience these add-ons physically, we constructed the first-ever accessible space in IKEA stores - making the new products easy to try out.
Describe the final product (40% of vote)
Bringing ThisAbles to life was a long and complex journey – yet rewarding journey.
We partnered with the leading non-profit organizations in Israel who specialize in improving the life of the disabled. We spent hours upon hours with our main target audience - people with disabilities - experiencing the world from their perspective. Then, together, we arranged a one-week hackathon, hosting product engineers, accessibility experts, psychologists, and IKEA designers - all focused on inventing the right add-ons, ones that could truly simplify the use of our products.
It started in Israel - but grew to answer health needs around the world. To make sure our products were heard-of and available everywhere, we created the ultimate exhibition no one could miss. Online we presented our project through a designated website while physical we created a space to showcase our products - allowing consumers to see and try.
List the results (20% of vote)
Allowing a whole new audience to enjoy our products equally - had a big impact on our business: the sales of our 13 iconic items grew up by 33%, shortly after the project was launched. More than 45,000 people from 127 countries visited our website ThisAbles.com, thousands of them downloading and 3D printing our add-ons.
ThisAbles drove one of the biggest organic international coverage in the history of Israeli brands, with PR value of $4M and reach of 489M unique users! Our story made waves in the biggest media platforms around the world including publications like the Washington Post, Fast Company, The Verge, Independent.
The project did great service for our partners as well: +1500% in no. of visits to the websites of the non-profit accessibility organizations we partnered with.
The bottom line: ThisAbles campaign disabled disabilities at home.