Tag: Contest

Ikea Social Catalogue

IKEA has been innovating every year with their classic paper catalog. In Norway they decide to take this classic paper catalog and make a social media version of it. With zero budget, they ask their 130,000 Facebook and Instagram fans to post the page of their favourite product on Instagram and add the hashtag #ikeakatalogen, for the chance of winning that product.

How the Social Catalogue works

The mechanic is intentionally lightweight. IKEA asks fans to pick their favourite item from the catalogue, photograph the page, and post it publicly so the product becomes discoverable through personal networks. Over time, more and more items get documented and shared by real people, effectively recreating the catalogue as a social feed.

Why print is the trigger, not the limitation

Most brands treat print as a one-way broadcast. Here, print is the starting gun. The physical catalogue becomes the prompt that drives people online, and the content that fuels sharing is already in consumers’ hands.

The growth loop is built into social behaviour

The “social” part is not a slogan. It is distribution mechanics. When someone posts their chosen page, their network sees it. That drives curiosity, repeats the behaviour, and compounds reach without buying equivalent media.

What to steal

  • Use an owned asset as the trigger. The catalogue is already shipped. The campaign rides that distribution.
  • Make participation effortless. One photo and one hashtag, then you are in.
  • Let the audience do the indexing. Fans effectively organise and surface products through what they choose to share.
  • Reward desire, not trivia. The prize is the exact thing the person already wants.

A few fast answers before you act

What is the IKEA Social Catalogue?

A campaign that turns the printed IKEA catalogue into a social feed by asking people to photograph and share their favourite pages with #ikeakatalogen for a chance to win the featured product.

What is the core behaviour it uses?

People naturally share things they want. The campaign turns that impulse into distribution and product discovery.

Why is this effective for retail?

Because it turns product browsing into social proof, and social proof into incremental reach, without asking people to learn a new behaviour.

What is the simplest version to replicate?

Pick one existing owned channel, define one shareable action, and reward the exact item the person publicly chooses.

Marmite: Bringing Home the Kiwis

A centenary gift that tastes like home

Sanitarium Marmite is a Kiwi staple and a national icon of 100 years. Today, one in five Kiwis live abroad. Many of these 600,000 Kiwis miss their Marmite, as it is hard to get overseas.

So to commemorate its 100th year in New Zealand, Ogilvy Auckland launched a contest which reunited long-lost Kiwis with their homeland and everything they love about it, including Marmite.

The mechanic: one-way tickets as a proof of intent

All the interested candidates had to do was tell the Marmite judges what makes them, or their loved ones, a deserving candidate to avail one of the 100 one-way free air tickets from anywhere in the globe.

A diaspora is the portion of a country’s people living overseas, often staying emotionally tied to “home” through food, language, sport, and ritual.

In small countries with a large diaspora, local brands can act as a bridge. Not by talking about identity, but by enabling a real reunion.

Marmite’s “Bringing Home the Kiwis” is a centenary contest that offered 100 one-way flights to bring overseas New Zealanders back home, using the return itself as the campaign’s emotional centerpiece.

Why it lands: it makes nostalgia actionable

Most “homesickness” marketing stays symbolic. This one turns longing into logistics. The prize is not merchandise. It is presence. That is why the story travels. It is instantly understandable, and emotionally high-stakes without feeling manufactured.

The business intent behind the generosity

The brand is buying disproportionate meaning. Marmite becomes a shorthand for “home,” and the campaign demonstrates it through a gesture people talk about long after the winners land.

It also solves a real friction point in the insight. If the product is hard to get abroad, then “bring them back” is a bolder way to dramatize what the brand represents.

What to steal if you want a diaspora idea that is more than a slogan

  • Use a prize that embodies the insight. Flights beat gift packs when the emotion is separation.
  • Keep entry simple, but make the stories rich. Let candidates supply the narrative energy.
  • Build a clear number hook. “100 for 100 years” is easy to remember and retell.
  • Make the payoff visible. Arrivals and reunions are the credibility layer, not a voiceover.

Nice idea, but it is clearly in the same family as “bring them home” diaspora campaigns, including JWT Argentina’s 2009 effort, titled “Bring Home the Argentinians”.

A few fast answers before you act

What is Marmite’s Bringing Home the Kiwis campaign?

It is a centenary contest that offered 100 one-way flights from anywhere in the world to bring overseas New Zealanders back home, tying the brand to the emotional idea of “home.”

Why does the “one-way ticket” mechanic work so well?

Because it turns nostalgia into action. The prize is a reunion, not a product, so the brand promise feels demonstrated rather than advertised.

What is the key takeaway for other brands?

If your positioning is emotional, make the mechanic physical. Design an action that proves the feeling, then let real people supply the story.

The Search for the World’s Greatest Salesperson

News just out…Ogilvy & Mather Worldwide as of today are looking for “The Worlds Greatest Salesperson”.

Ogilvy’s founder…David Ogilvy went door to door to sell stoves before he got into advertising. He was so good at it that the company asked him to write a manual for the other salesmen.

Now after decades of being one of the best advertising agencies in the world, it is creating this contest to celebrate the art of selling.

The three winners of this contest will win a trip to the 57th annual Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival. They will also get to make a presentation at the festival seminar on June 21.

Are you the one?
To participate visit www.youtube.com/ogilvy