THISABLES

Innovation eurobest Award

Case Film

Presentation Image

TitleTHISABLES
BrandIKEA
Product/ServiceDEMOCRATIZING HOME-FURNITURE FOR PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES WITH 3D PRINTED ADD-ON
Category A02. Applied Innovation
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 Innovation?

With 13 open-source 3D-printed add-ons we set out to change the way millions of people with disabilities are living their daily lives - in their own home. Introducing IKEA ThisAbles: revolutionizing home furniture for people with special needs - in what turned out to be the biggest inclusive worldwide operation IKEA has ever done.

Background

1 in 10 people in the world suffer from serious disabilities and struggle everyday to accomplish the very basic activities in their own home. Things that most of us take for granted: turning on the light, getting up from bed. It is in their own home where people with disabilities feel neglected the most. Surrounded by clunky, unpleasant and mostly expensive furniture, crying: “Disable!” while all they want is to enjoy the same furniture as everybody else does. So if IKEA’s mission is “creating a better everyday life for the many”, we knew that we had do better. We must become the first brand to spark a change: bridging the gap between IKEA’s products and people with disabilities.

Describe the idea

By listening to the insights coming from the community we have found out what people with disability truly want – to be part of the mainstream, not singled-out as being different. They wanted to enjoy what the same things everyone else did, including furniture. We understood that sometimes, just a simple (yet smart) tweak in the product could make the whole difference. So instead of inventing a whole new line of products - we decided to hack our designs by using scalable, affordable and innovative technology and created 13 open-source, 3D-printed add-ons, that make our most iconic furniture finally accessible for people with disabilities. Free to download, 3d print and use, for anyone, anywhere, anytime. Each add-on sought out to solve a different accessibility issue in an original way: Sofa elevating-legs for easier ascend, lamp button-enlargement, super-zipper for pillow-cases and more.

What were the key dates in the development process?

12 July 2018 - Kickoff meeting: IKEA, our agency and the non-profit organizations specializing in disabilities: Milbat & Accessibility Israel 6 September 2018 - Tour and exploration of the IKEA store in Netanya with the entire team. The mission: choosing the products to be hacked. 20 September 2018 - The start of the developing process by Milbat alongside a weekly team meeting. 23 September - 30 September - We ran the hackathon, hosted with our target audience turned advisors, consulting with product engineers, accessibility experts, psychologists, and IKEA’S designers 15 October - 20 October - three rounds of tests, modification and improvements based on feedback from our target audience. 3 November - Creating our open-source models and 3D print prototypes with leading 3D printing engineers. 8 November - verification process: we sent our models across the globe to make sure they could be printed properly. 12 December: Buying ThisAbles.com domain and constructing our new website - that showcases and explains each and every add-on, simply and easily. 10 March 2019 - The launch of the first-of-it’s-kind accessible space in IKEA store in Netanya by a press conference.

Describe the innovation / technology

The open-source 3D printable models are free to download at the website – you can 3D print it yourself or contact one of the 3D printers listed on the website and wait for it to arrive in the mail. Easily and efficiently, the new add-ons slip on or plug into your chosen furniture - making it much more accessible. A total of 13 designs hack IKEA’s most popular items and are available today - affordable and accessible - to anyone from anywhere. These hacks include items like the EasyHandle, a big, Rubbermaid-looking grip that can be added to the seamless door of a Pax shelf, and the Glass Bumper, a plastic pad that protects the bottom of a glass-doored Billy bookcase from the bump of a wheelchair. From enlarging pads for small lamp buttons, through huge zippers for pillow cases all the way to handles for your curtains - this is only the first stage of our revolution. The future big vision: make easy to use add-ons for all our products.

Describe the expectations / outcome

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! And by allowing a whole new audience to enjoy our products equally – we made big impact on our business too: the sales of our 13 iconic items grew up by 33%, shortly after the project was launched, and more than 45,000 people from 127 countries visited our website ThisAbles.com, thousands of them downloading and 3D printing our add-ons. Additionally, we lighted immense coverage for our campaign across multiple design and lifestyle outlets, including The Verge, Design Taxi, Trend Hunt and more - generating interest throughout the entire furniture market, becoming the first spark to a change in the industry at large.