Tag: IKEA catalogue

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.

IKEA: Catalogue Countdown Room

You walk into IKEA and find a room that is not finished. It is counting down. Each day the space changes again, styled with new catalogue products, like the store itself is teasing what is about to arrive.

That is the idea behind IKEA’s in-store Catalogue Countdown Room in Singapore and Malaysia. After previously re-imagining the 2013 catalogue with visual recognition technology that brought pages to life, this launch moment focuses on anticipation and theatre inside the store. It turns the catalogue release into a daily event that people can watch, not just pick up.

In practice, the countdown room is refreshed repeatedly as the countdown progresses, then broadcast live via IKEA’s Facebook presence so the excitement travels beyond the store floor.

In omnichannel retail marketing, the most repeatable “launch” pattern is to make one physical moment behave like media, then let social distribution carry it further than paid reach alone.

Why a countdown room beats “catalogue is here”

Catalogue launches usually arrive with a shrug. Everyone expects them, so attention is low. A countdown reframes the arrival as something you can miss, and that creates urgency. The room format also makes the catalogue feel less like a book and more like a living set of ideas you can step into.

What the mechanism is really doing

The room is a content engine. Each refresh creates a new “moment” for store visitors, and a new visual for social. This is why the idea scales. It can host small performances, demos, and micro-events without needing a different concept every day. The catalogue becomes the raw material.

What to steal for your next retail launch

  • Build one stage that can change. A single physical space that transforms repeatedly generates content without extra production locations.
  • Turn “arrival” into anticipation. Countdowns make routine drops feel like events.
  • Design for shareable proof. The room should look different enough each day that people want to show the change.
  • Let the store be the hero. When the in-store moment is genuinely interesting, social becomes documentation, not advertising.

A few fast answers before you act

What is the IKEA Catalogue Countdown Room?

It is an in-store installation that changes during a countdown to the new IKEA catalogue launch. The room is repeatedly restyled using catalogue products, and the changes are shared through social channels.

Why does a countdown create more engagement than a standard catalogue drop?

A countdown adds scarcity and rhythm. People know something is happening each day, so they return, check in, and talk about what changed instead of treating the catalogue as background noise.

What makes this an integrated campaign?

The same story runs across the store, social distribution, and supporting communications. The room creates the physical event. Social extends it beyond store visitors. The catalogue provides the content foundation.

What is the key lesson for retailers launching many new products at once?

Do not try to communicate everything at once. Create a single repeatable format that can spotlight different products over time, so attention compounds across multiple touchpoints.

What is the biggest risk with “live” retail content?

If the daily payoff is weak, people stop checking. The room needs visible change and a reason to watch each day, otherwise the countdown becomes decoration.

IKEA Beröra

To launch the iPad version of the IKEA catalogue in Norway, ad agency SMFB created a brand new IKEA product called “Beröra”.

“Beröra” is a sewing kit with a special conductive thread that you sew into the index finger of your favourite gloves. Once the operation is done, the gloves work on a touch screen.

The idea in one clean sentence: Beröra turns any winter glove into a touchscreen glove, so the IKEA catalogue app fits the reality of how people live and move.

A launch mechanic that feels like a product, not a campaign

The smart move is that the “ad” looks and behaves like an IKEA item. A needle, instructions, and conductive thread. Simple enough to DIY, tangible enough to talk about, and useful enough to keep around after the novelty fades.

Conductive thread matters because most touch screens register conductive contact. So the kit essentially makes a glove fingertip “readable” to the device without forcing people to buy specialised tech gloves.

In cold-climate retail markets, the fastest way to accelerate digital adoption is to remove the tiny physical frictions that stop people trying it in the moment.

Results and recognition

The promotion generated a lot of interest. As reported at the time, 12,000 kits went in roughly two weeks, and the IKEA Norway iPad catalogue app broke download records.

The work later picked up awards-circuit recognition, including a One Show merit award, and gold at the Festival of Media in Montreux in the Best Launch Campaign category.

What to steal for your next app launch

  • Turn the barrier into the giveaway. Do not “explain” the friction. Remove it with something people can hold.
  • Make the object shareable offline. A physical product travels through homes, offices, and friend groups faster than a banner ever will.
  • Keep the installation simple. If the user needs a tutorial longer than a minute, the drop-off kills word of mouth.
  • Let the product demonstrate the promise. When the benefit is self-evident, belief comes for free.

A few fast answers before you act

What is Beröra, in plain terms?

Beröra is a DIY conductive-thread sewing kit created for IKEA Norway. You sew the thread into a glove fingertip so it works on touchscreen devices, supporting the launch of IKEA’s iPad catalogue.

Why does a physical kit help launch a digital catalogue?

Because it removes a real-world usage barrier. If people cannot comfortably use a phone or tablet in winter conditions, they will not build the habit. The kit makes the app feel practical, not theoretical.

What makes this a strong “earned media” idea?

It creates a story that is easy to repeat. IKEA made a product that solves a modern annoyance, and it is tied directly to the app being promoted. That combination tends to travel well.

What is the key mechanism that drives engagement here?

Utility creates trial. Trial creates talk. Talk creates downloads. The kit is the trigger that makes the catalogue experience easier, then social sharing does the distribution work.

What should you measure if you do something similar?

Track speed of redemption, install lift during the distribution window, and repeat usage of the app. If you have it, add branded search lift and share-of-voice during the launch period.