The Campaign

IKEA Sleeptober was the BIGGEST and FIRST-EVER sleepover in Hong Kong, which hosted 100 Hong Kong people for a fun night out on 5 October, 2013. It was a night when 100 Hong Kong people spent 14 hours with IKEA over a night of fun and games, celebrity performances, a movie screening all amidst IKEA products and services. IKEA Sleeptober was a campaign for IKEA Hong Kong to drive its objective of creating awareness about IKEA’s new bedroom range i.e. mattresses, pillows, quilts etc. IKEA also wanted to give Hong Kong people an opportunity to experience IKEA like never before. It was an extensive consumer engagement campaign where the team was tasked to recruit consumers plus media and bloggers to give them an experience that would highlight IKEA’s products and services amidst a comfortable home bedroom setting. The project was a great opportunity to create top of mind awareness among consumers, and promote IKEA as a key opinion leader in the bedroom product category through experiential engagement. X Agency was selected as the lead agency to develop the concept, recruit the consumers, manage the event as well as build the narrative for media engagement throughout the campaign, reach out to bloggers, and manage the digital space. IKEA Sleeptober has demonstrated the integrated use of social media and traditional media on recruitment of participants, brand building and shifting from a traditional form of marketing to experiential marketing, driven by strong content.

The Brief

IKEA’s business idea focuses on good design, quality and function at a low price. Despite its colorful and young image, the brand does not only speak to the hearts of young people, but aims to reach a wider audience spanning all ages, from kids to teenagers, from singles to families. The objectives of IKEA Sleeptober were to educate fans on the bedroom offerings from IKEA, and to create a consumer oriented campaign through interaction and experiences. Research was conducted before the event to gain knowledge about participants’ sleeping habits and preferences to ensure a complete bedroom experience.

Results

The campaign generated 70 media reports with key messages perfectly communicated, almost every media featured IKEA’s engagement approach shifting from a traditional form of marketing to experiential marketing, driven by strong content. • In addition, 53 blog posts were generated, with an ad value of over HK$8 million. In-depth media interviews were conducted with IKEA marketing team, bedroom specialist and designer • 100 participants attended the event for over 14 hours, including 20 media and bloggers who were able to experience IKEA like never before • Most consumers got to know more about IKEA quality bedroom products which are at affordable prices, helping customers to achieve a healthier sleep lifestyle to enhance their lives physically and mentally • 96% of the participants gave an overall score of 4 or above (out of 5) to the event and 95% expressed their interest in participating in an IKEA event after this experience

Execution

Creativity, Personalisation and Surprise are the key elements of the campaign and were implemented throughout all stages. During the teaser stage, a 3-week incentivised photo submission campaign was developed to recruit participants through social media channel. Consumers were requested to submit their bed-head shots, and the most creative ones got the chance to participate at the actual overnight event. Prior to the event, a sense of personalisation was created for every participant – from their sleeping style to their favorite pillow and bed linens were surveyed to ensure the most tailored experience. At the actual event, 100 IKEA fans including 20 media and bloggers experienced IKEA over 14 hours of fun, engagement and interactivity. Celebrities’ performances, misconception videos, massage techniques and bedtime movie were planned throughout the night to surprise participants. After the event, the 100 participants were surveyed on their sleeping habits. Every detail was executed as planned.

The Situation

IKEA research revealed that their customers were not convinced about their bedroom product range despite having a wide variety of options, designs and styles at very affordable prices. In general, even though bedroom products are items that people spend the most time with at home, the time for product trial in-store is considerably short. Therefore, IKEA wanted to use IKEA Sleeptober as a platform to offer consumers a complete bedroom experience, where IKEA’s brand attributes of Creativity, Personalisation and Surprise were brought to life in every aspect of planning and execution.

The Strategy

As the biggest and first-ever sleepover event in Hong Kong, the event was very original and creative in its nature. The team proposed a creative way to tell the story of IKEA’s bedroom product range: the A-Z quality sleep dictionary and misconception videos. This created a soft-selling angle and made it easier to penetrate the information to media and consumers’ minds. Every minute detail was specifically tailored for the night: participants got to choose their own pillows and bed linen (based on the information gathered from them at the time of online recruitment), make their beds, interact with two local celebrities and play interactive games on stage, learn techniques to enhance their quality of sleep; Toy Story 3 was also shown on a big life-size ‘theatre style’ screen with individual wireless headsets as a bedtime movie for participants.