There has never been a better time for the residents of 24 Sussex Drive – or any of their Ottawa neighbours, for that matter – to trade in their musty old furniture for a new Poäng armchair or Billy bookcase.
As part of a local campaign promoting its new Ottawa store, home furnishings retailer IKEA is inviting the citizens of Canada’s capital city to participate in “The Ottawa Interior Beautification Plan.”
Developed by agency of record Leo Burnett Toronto and Jungle Media, the print, radio, out-of-home, online and social media campaign is supporting the Dec. 7 opening of the new store – which, at 425,000 square feet, is the largest of IKEA’s 11 Canadian stores.
Morgan Kurchak, group creative head with Leo in Toronto, said the campaign is intended to mimic federal government initiatives such as the Home Renovation Tax Credit.
The ads, which utilize IKEA’s distinctive blue and yellow colour scheme, are likely to resonate in a city of politicians and bureaucrats, he said.
“Because Ottawa is a government town and the government’s gotten a lot of good PR recently for all those home renovation tax credits, we thought it would be fun to take a tongue-in-cheek approach to creating a government-inspired program that helps beautify the interiors of people’s homes,” he said.
“We were playing a little bit with the language that you might expect from the government,” added Dave Federico, fellow group creative head.
In addition to traditional media elements, a Beautification Plan truck will circle the city issuing “Beautification Credits” – otherwise known as $50 IKEA gift cards – to those people donating unwanted furniture and home furnishings. All of the items collected by IKEA will be donated to charity.
A schedule of the truck’s appearances is posted at IKEA’s Facebook page. Leo has also created a newspaper ad that doubles as a window sign indicating a “notice of beautification.” If the truck driver encounters the sign, he might stop at the door to enquire about trade-in items.
IKEA is also distributing more than 250,000 door hangers promoting the new store. “You name it, we’ve got it – in terms of bought media and also media we’ve created,” said Jennifer Kelly, account director with Leo.
The new IKEA store will feature 55 “inspirational” room settings, a 640-seat restaurant and more than three times as many checkouts as its predecessor. The store will sell up to 9,500 items… 9,497 of which will be peculiarly named.
