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IKEA, Wonderful Everyday

The IKEA company was founded by the remarkable 17 year old Ingvar Kamprad, who began by selling goods like pens and wallets in his home county of Småland, in Sweden.

But dreaming of being able to create a better life for people everywhere, Ingvar in 1948, with a small sum of money his father gave him for doing well in school, started selling furniture with great success. His low priced, good quality furniture proved to be highly sought after, and subsequently became the IKEA range as we know it today.   

Ingvar’s low price and good quality initiative remains a cornerstone of the IKEA culture and identity. There are however, three other signature dimensions to be taken into account when developing today’s products: Function, Form, and Sustainability.

IKEA’s designs require all five dimensions to be in balance, before being passed as being satisfactorily ‘democratic’, a term that was introduced at the Milan Furniture Fair in 1995, as a descriptor for the development and evaluation of products.

1. IKEA, Kings & Queens

Advertising Agency: Ogilvy, Dubai, United Arab Emirates

Chief Creative Officer: Juggi Ramakrishnan

Group Creative Director: Youssef Gadallah

Copywriters: Fernando Montero, and Maya El Kai

Art Directors: Nicolás López, and Andre Souza

Production Company: Bigfoot Entertainment, Cairo, Egypt

Production Service Company: Studioset, Bucharest, Romania

Director of Photography: Daniel Lindholm

Ogilvy Dubai’s epic ‘Kings &Queens’ IKEA film-scenario, brought to entertaining life by filmmaker and director Virgil Ferragut, in a superbly produced commercial, won a well deserved Gold Film Craft accolade for Cinematography at the Loerie Awards in 2020.

2. IKEA, Our Little World

Agency: Rethink, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

Chief Creative Officer: Aaron Starkman

Creative Directors: Joel Holtby, and Dhaval Bhatt

Copywriter: Jacquelyn Parent

Art Director: Hayley Hinkley

Production Company: Scouts Honour, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

3D Animation and VFX Studio: a52, Los Angeles, California, USA

IKEA’s 2021 surreal ‘Our Little World’, directed by renowned Canadian filmmaker Mark Zibert, and filmed over three days on a soundstage in Toronto, is an insightfully metaphoric depiction, of the small actions in our individual little worlds, that make a global difference to the world at large, that we ultimately all share.

The integrated campaign’s impressively produced commercial, features a resonant soundtrack of “Book of Dreams”, by American songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist Daniel Tashian.

On the ‘adRuby’ website, marketing head at IKEA Canada, Johanna Andrén, explained the motivation of Rethink and IKEA’s “A better world starts at home” brand communication initiative. “We wanted to show that sustainability and positive change is still possible with small actions taken at home”.

3. IKEA, The Hare and The Tortoise

Advertising Agency: Mother, London, UK

Executive Creative Directors: Ana Balarin, and Hermeti Balarin

Creative Directors: Thom Whitaker, and Danielle Outhwaite-Noel

Art Directors and Copywriters: Anthony Montagne, and Oli Rimoldi

Agency Producer: Jenny Fann

Production Company: Pulse Films, London, UK

Director of Photography: Stephane Fontaine

Post Production Company: NineteenTwenty, London, UK

Sound Design and Music Studios: 750MPH​, London, UK

Mother London agency’s 2020, Aesop’s fable inspired ‘The Hare and The Tortoise’ film-scenario, for IKEA’s sleep-inducing Ofelia Vass, sustainable cotton bedding, was brought to entertainingly engaging life by filmmaker and director Sam Pilling.

The impressively produced commercial, with its life-size hare and tortoise portrayal of how ‘a good night’s sleep is key for a brilliant tomorrow’, features a ‘voiceover’ by Swedish actor Per Mattson, and English Rapper, Roots Manuva’s ‘Witness The Fitness’ music track, composed by British arranger and music producer, Rodney Smith.

4. IKEA, Recipes for Delicious Kitchens

Advertising Agency: BBH Asia Pacific, Singapore

Executive Creative Director: Scott McClelland

Creative Directors: Tinus Strydom, and Maurice Wee

Senior Art Director: Gaston Soto

Senior Copywriter: Omar Sotomayor

Production Company: 4 Humans, Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Director of Photography: Juan Maglione

Sound Design and Music Studios: Noroeste, Buenos Aires, Argentina.

BBH Singapore’s 2015, brilliantly conceived ‘Recipes for Delicious Kitchens’ film-scenario, of the many versatile, modular kitchen options on offer, waiting to be explored at IKEA stores, is a visual delight, brought to masterly life by award winning animation and mixed media director, storytelling filmmaker and art director, Javier Lourenco.

5. IKEA, The Lamp

Advertising Agency: Rethink, Toronto, Canada

Creative Director: Aaron Starkman

Art Director: Joel Holtby

Copywriter: Mike Dubrick

Production Company: Scouts Honour, Toronto, Canada

The original IKEA “The Lamp” commercial, by Advertising Agency Crispin Porter + Bogusky, Colorado, USA, directed by filmmaker and director Spike Jonze, is ranked as one of the most iconic commercials of all time.

The Grand Clio and Cannes Grand Prix, multi award-winning film-scenario, about a discarded lamp, was voted for inclusion by Boards Magazine in their 2009 list of the “Top Ten Commercials of the Decade”.

Sixteen years later IKEA Canada released a sequel ‘lamp’ commercial, skilfully directed by Mark Zibert to be as faithful to the original as possible, but with a more upbeat tone and mood, and a new message.

The message delivered by Swedish actor Jonas Fornander in the original commercial was about not feeling bad or guilty about discarding the old to make room for the new.

This time Fornander’s message is that instead of discarding old items, there is much pleasure to be had for other people, by recycling them for a renewed lease of life.

6. IKEA, The Joy Of Storage

Advertising Agency: Mother, London, UK

Creative Directors: Tim McNaughton, and Freddy Mandy

Copywriter: Rich Tahmesebi

Art Director: Pilar Santos

Production Company: Blink, London, UK

Puppeteers: Jonny & Will:  Blinkink Production Studios, London, UK

Post Production and VFX Studios: MPC, London, UK

Part of ‘The Wonderful Everyday’ IKEA campaign series of commercials, Mother London agency’s 2017, film-scenario about the joy of having proper storage at home and the order it can bring to one’s life, was brought to spectacular life by filmmaker and director, Dougal Wilson.

The superbly produced flock of t-shirts taking flight across land and sea, in all conditions, as they embark on a  cinematic journey home to their designated wardrobe units, is magical to behold.

7. IKEA Beds, The Dream

Advertising Agency: Mother, London, UK

Production Company: MJZ, London, UK

Creative Directors: Freddy Mandy, and Tim McNaughton

Art Director: Diego Cardoso de Oliveira

Copywriter: Caio Maroni Gianella

Production Company: MJZ, London, UK

Director of Photography: Eric Gautier

Service Production Company: Stillking Films, Cape Town, South Africa

Post Production and VFX Studios, MPC, London, UK

Sound Design and Music Studios: 750MPH​, London, UK

Mother London’s imaginatively conceived ‘Dream Beds’ commercial, without doubt in my mind, is the most famous IKEA commercial of the last decade.

Directed by multi-talented, filmmaker extraordinaire Juan Cabral, much of the action was caught in-camera, using many IKEA beds hung from cranes, and suspended over buildings, during three-days of filming in Johannesburg, South Africa.

The superbly produced epic, of spectacular live action footage and post-production special effects crafted to seamlessly filmic perfection, remains an enduring delight to behold.

8. IKEA, Start Something New

Advertising Agency: SCPF, Madrid, Spain

Creative Director and Copywriter: Toni Segarra,

Creative Director and Art Director: David Caballero

Production Company: Garlic Films, Madrid, Spain

SCPF agency’s inspired 2013 IKEA film-scenario, brought to impressive empathic life by filmmaker and director Pep Bosch, is an insightful portrayal about how a small change in one’s daily routine can become a life enhancing experience.

The simple decision of buying a fold-up chair, becomes an enlightening metaphor for the empowering ability of even a small change to the monotony of everyday life, to broaden one’s horizons.

9. IKEA, Happy Inside

Advertising Agency: Mother, London, UK

Creative Director: Feh Tarty, Mark Waites, Robert Saville, and Stephen Butler

Art Director: Tim McNaughton

Copywriter: Freddy Mandy

Production Company: Stink Films, London, UK

Director of Photography: Richard Stewart

Inspired by the insight, that most cat owners consider their cats to be part of the family, a hundred cats were released inside Britain’s IKEA Wembley store, for an integrated TV campaign to promote IKEA’s new catalogue.

Director and filmmaker Adam Berg, had no idea what to expect once the cats were released. But with skilfully obtained film footage, that was masterly edited, a multi-award commercial was produced, of popular viewing appeal by a global audience.

Underscoring the classic commercial, is a soundtrack of English, singer, songwriter, producer, and arranger, Mara Carlyle’s beautiful song, “Pianni”, from her debut album ‘The Lovely’.