Title	IKEA MÜPOLASH
Brand	IKEA BELGIUM
Product/Service	ALL
Category	B02. Community Management
Entrant	OGILVY | SOCIAL.LAB BELGIUM Brussels, BELGIUM
Idea Creation	OGILVY | SOCIAL.LAB BELGIUM Brussels, BELGIUM
Media Placement	OGILVY | SOCIAL.LAB BELGIUM Brussels, BELGIUM
PR	OGILVY | SOCIAL.LAB BELGIUM Brussels, BELGIUM
Production	OGILVY | SOCIAL.LAB BELGIUM Brussels, BELGIUM
Post Production	OGILVY | SOCIAL.LAB BELGIUM Brussels, BELGIUM

Name	Company	Position
Gabriel Araujo	Ogilvy Social.Lab	Creative Director
Gregory Ginterdaele	Ogilvy Social.Lab	Executive Creative Director
Antoinette Ribas	Ogilvy Social.Lab	Senior Art Director & Concept Provider
Caroline Charles	Ogilvy Social.Lab	Account Director
Morgane Morel	Ogilvy Social.Lab	Account Manager
Pieter Decanniere	Ogilvy Social.Lab	Senior Copywriter
Sadaf Naqui	Ogilvy Social.Lab	Senior Motion Designer
Lara Silber	Ogilvy Social.Lab	Motion Designer
Xavier Vanderplancke	Ogilvy Social.Lab	Graphic Designer

Why is this work relevant for PR?

Through a great deal of questioning and observation, a very limited-edition “thing” and a social media campaign, IKEA Belgium managed to further increase user-generated content on social platforms around its brand and became one of the first local brands to use the AR filters of Instagram. With almost a million people reached directly and 127K of them reached through earned media, the goal of putting the brand on the map again and catching the attention was reached in a short while.

Background

With more than 1B users and 95M photos shared every day on the platform, Instagram has become ubiquitous for both people and brands alike. For IKEA, the connection with the audience exists quite naturally. Every two seconds, a fan shares a photo of their IKEA interior on the platform, representing an almost endless inspiration source and authentic content for the brand. So, when IKEA Belgium wanted to further increase user-generated content around its brand, we set out to work to come up with a new idea to spark interest.

Describe the creative idea (20% of vote)

In order to stand out from the crowded Instagram landscape, we analysed all the content shared on the platform around IKEA. Quickly, we realized we were constantly faced with the same four items: mugs, pots, lamps and shelves. Our idea was then to create a one-off object that would be the most instagrammable thing in the world: the MÜPOLASH, a contraction of MUg, POt, LAmp & SHelf. Existing in physical and virtual form, the MÜPOLASH was aimed at generating conversation around the brand all across Belgium.

Describe the PR strategy (30% of vote)

Because this object took its roots on Instagram, it had to live on Instagram. Our campaign started by explaining what the MÜPOLASH was, then we followed-up with a participative layer featuring an augmented reality filter available through Stories, making IKEA one of the first advertisers in Belgium to use this technology. By using this filter in their own environment, customers were invited to tag @IKEABelgium and the two campaign hashtags (#MonIKEA & #MijnIKEA) to win one of the five physical copies of the object.

Describe the PR execution (20% of vote)

Thanks to a simple social media approach and an idea that included audience participation at its core, we invited local (and international) IKEA fans to take part in this campaign. But with a limited media budget, we mostly relied on the idea’s creative potential to stimulate word of mouth.

List the results (30% of vote)

Thanks to a relevant audience targeting, we managed to reach 979.196 people on Instagram with our campaign. But further than just being made aware of the campaign, 13% of our reached users had an interaction with our filter, through organic exposure in people’s Stories. This is where true value of this campaign takes on its full meaning. The earned impressions and reach were ultimately what IKEA was after. With 127K users were reached through earned media, we beat our estimate by over 10% and made the MÜPOLASH famous across the country. By spotting a trend on Instagram and making it come to life in the users’ hands and screens, we bridged the gap between the virtual and physical environments. We also made something Instagram had never seen before, just from observing what Instagram sees all the time.