IKEA in Quebec and Leo Burnett Toronto have won a North American Gold Effie for “Moving Day”, an experimental media campaign providing people with boxes for moving house on July 1, 2011. Many people are required to move house on July 1, due to the number of leases ending on June 30. Finding boxes can be hard in the weeks leading up to Moving Day. IKEA provided branded boxes that people could take with them, printed with moving tips, checklists, a dinner offer for those yet to set up their kitchens, and a discount offer for IKEA furniture. Boxes could even be transformed into a chair for moments of exhaustion. Boxes were posted all over town, hung flat on walls and designed to be the hardest working posters ever. When the boxes were taken, we had messaging underneath telling people to keep coming back for more. 14-foot pyramids of boxes were placed at giveaway sites around the city and at the Ikea store. IKEA also sponsored a radio playlist of songs.
Ikea needed to help Quebecers in a way that was relevant to their situation at hand. We saw a huge opportunity to tap into the cultural fuel of urban communalism – peoples desire to return to a time when neighbor helped neighbor, and a sense of “we” versus “me” was felt around the block. In doing so, we could help move our Anxious Urbanites from a feeling of disorganized desperation to a state of composed and organized optimism.
Store traffic increased +14% from the same weekend the previous year. Sales increased by +24.5% compared to the previous year. The only variable in this year vs last was the Moving Day promotion. For Ikea, the sales increase from our ‘cardboard box’ was equivalent to building, stocking, and opening an additional 300,000 sq. foot store in that market.
The Moving Day campaign was developed at Leo Burnett Toronto by chief creative officer Judy John, creative group head/art director David Federico, creative group head/copywriter Morgan Kurchuk, account director Jennifer Kelly, producer Anne Peck, working with IKEA deputy marketing manager Hilary Lloyd and communications manager Mathias Karlsson.
Media was planned at Jungle Media by connection planning director Brooke Leland and media planning assistant Graham Campbell. Other agencies were Optimum Events, Grassroots Advertising and Titan Outdoor Advertising.