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. Here, “mechanic” means the single action IKEA asks for. One public photo of a catalogue page plus one hashtag. 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.
In retail and consumer brands with large owned distribution like catalogues, the cheapest growth loops come from turning existing browsing moments into public signals.
The real question is whether your owned channel can become a prompt people want to publicly share, instead of a one-way broadcast they only consume.
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. Print is not the limitation. It is the trigger when you design the handoff into social indexing.
Extractable takeaway: If you can turn an owned, offline touchpoint into a simple public posting behaviour, you get both social proof and a self-building product index without paying for equivalent distribution.
The growth loop is built into social behaviour
The “social” part is not a slogan. It is distribution mechanics. The hashtag makes individual posts browsable beyond the poster’s own network, so every new post increases discoverability for the next one. 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.
What does the hashtag do in this mechanic?
It collects individual posts into one browsable stream, so products stay discoverable beyond the original poster’s friends and followers.
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.