Title	IKEA BLANKET FORTS
Brand	IKEA
Product/Service	IKEA GOODS & HOME FURNISHING SOLUTIONS
Category	C04. Co-creation & User Generated Content
Entrant	INSTINCT Moscow, RUSSIA
Idea Creation	INSTINCT Moscow, RUSSIA
Media Placement	INSTINCT Moscow, RUSSIA
PR	INSTINCT Moscow, RUSSIA
Production	INSTINCT Moscow, RUSSIA

Name	Company	Position
Agency: Roman & Yaroslav / Antonina & Evgeny / Elena / Marina / Irina / Anna. Client: Inna / Anna / Olya / Yulia Agency: Firainer & Orlov / Pirogova & Golovan / Kravchenko / Vershinina / Gornova / Za	Agency: Instinct / Instinct / Instinct / Instinct / Instinct / Instinct. Client: IKEA Russia / IKEA Russia / IKEA Russia / IKEA Russia	Agency: Creative Directors / Associate Creative Directors / Creative Designer / Client Service Director / Group Account Director / Strategic Planning Director. Client: Marketing Manager / Marketing Co

Why is this work relevant for Direct?

2020 year, COVID-19. Parents are running out of ideas to keep kids entertained within four walls. IKEA decided to help and ran a unique project ‘IKEA Blanket Forts’ using only one post in IKEA social media. We had targeted on parents of school-age kids, those who had to stay with their kids 24/7 at home and offered them six illustrated instruction manuals for building a series of at-home forts using IKEA goods. Zero budget, reach over1.6 million people, more than 150 posts in international media and millions ‘Thank you’ from parents.

Background

Situation: Self-isolation during COVID-19 and quarantine put a lot of pressure on parents to be teacher, disciplinarian, friend, and everything else. Parents were running out of ideas to keep kids entertained within four walls. Brief: Suggest easy, affordable and creative ways to help change-up playtime for many families staying within four walls during the lock down. Objectives: Inspire as many people as possible with the idea how to spend more quality time with the little ones and have fun with what one already has, create word-of-mouth and stimulate “the movement”. Budget: Zero budget. Project scale and volume: National.

Describe the creative idea (30% of vote)

According to the consumer research data, nostalgia was very definitely in the air during the lock down, as people stayed at home and reminisced about different times. When the world outside is a dumpster fire, what’s better than making a big fort in your house and hunkering down for the day as many of today’s parents did in their childhood looking for feeling comfort and safe. As a response to the situation, IKEA released the unique project ‘IKEA Blanket Forts’ – six illustrated instruction manuals on Instagram for building a series of at-home forts using some of its most popular offerings like tables, chairs, couches, blankets, pillows, string lights and more. Each at-home fort design mimicked the visual guides of a traditional IKEA black and white instruction manual showing a list of items one'll need to create the fort, as well as a drawing of the final result. #IaminIKEAhouse

Describe the strategy (20% of vote)

According to the consumer research data, nostalgia was very definitely in the air during the lock down, as people stayed at home and reminisced about different times. When the world outside is a dumpster fire, what’s better than making a big fort in your house and hunkering down for the day as many of today’s parents did in their childhood looking for feeling comfort and safe. Target audience: parents of school-age kids, those who had to stay with their kids 24/7 at home. Approach: IKEA released six illustrated instruction manuals on Instagram for building a series of at-home forts using some of its most popular offerings like tables, chairs, couches, blankets, comforters, pillows, hangers, string lights and more. We offered parents the idea and help, and they responded to us by thousands of photos, posts and messages with their own home made forts from IKEA.

Describe the execution (20% of vote)

Implementation: Each at-home fort design mimicked the visual guides of a traditional IKEA black and white instruction manual showing a list of items one'll need to create the fort, as well as a drawing of the final result. Timeline: 1 post in IKEA social media in May, 2020, 6 weeks. Placement: IKEA social media channels, main was Instagram. Scale: National.

List the results (30% of vote)

• Value added to brand: a lot of PR support during the lock down, maintenance for the brand awareness and strengthening the love for the brand when stores are closed; • Value for consumer: branded entertainment, easy-to-install solutions to enjoy family time in isolation; • Reach / cultural impact with zero budget for production and media placement we have received +139% in reach, +391% in interactions, thousands of photos are the response from consumers with their at-home forts, local and international media mentions of IKEA campaign (150 publications), Media OTS was 1 230 858 748; • Sales not applicable as the objective of the campaign was to entertain and emotionally support IKEA lovers during quarantine; • Reach: 1.6 million people; • Engagement: 144 user’s photos with at-home forts implementations just in 4 days since the start of the campaign, thousands of photos from all around the world.