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. The objective of IKEA Sleeptober was to drive 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. X Agency was selected as the lead agency to develop the concept, recruit the consumers, liaise with vendors and production house, work with celebrities as well as building the narrative throughout the campaign, reach out to bloggers, and manage the digital and social campaign. X Agency's digital team led the campaign, asking fans to submit their most creative “bed-head” looks for a chance to attend the event with a friend. The competition was driven by digital content and social media. A Facebook app was created, multiple teaser videos were released regularly, and local celebrities and bloggers were leveraged to grow the online community. The campaign received more than 1,200 submissions and gained over 12,000 new fans for IKEA Hong Kong’s Facebook page over the span of 3 weeks, surpassing the KPI’s by almost double.

The Brief

The objectives of IKEA Sleeptober were to educate fans on the bedroom offerings from IKEA; to create a consumer event driven through social media, and to generate awareness for IKEA for their bedroom specialists. The main focus of the campaign was on producing content that would act as a catalyst for conversations and participation, and grow IKEA’s online community. Young adults and couples were targeted, with an emphasis on the younger, more active audience. Research was conducted on identifying specific social channels, and key influencers that would best reach this group of audience.

Results

• The Facebook contest received more than 1,200 submissions • Gained over 12,000 new fans for IKEA Hong Kong’s Facebook page over the span of 3 weeks • Surpassed KPI’s by almost double. • Celebrity partners Kandy and Louis received over 11,000 total engagements through posts on their social media platforms. • 53 blog posts were generated throughout the campaign. Maria Kwok, Senior Marketing Manager, IKEA HK “From content generation, to fan acquisition, to submission rate, as well as overall engagement across all our social media platforms, the online strategy was clearly defined right at the beginning of the campaign and executed keeping a very clear outcome in mind. It was great to see the level of engagement from our fans on our Facebook page. Furthermore, the implementation of Instagram to reach our target demographic on a different channel helped to create more amplification and engagement with our fans.”

Execution

The teaser video and content posts were launched a week and a half prior to the campaign launch, creating a call-to-action for fans to participate. The celebrity videos were posted a week after the launch of the campaign to sustain the momentum of submissions. Content was released daily on Facebook to continue building excitement. Content was monitored in real-time. Posts highlighting giveaways were identified as more effective. Consequently the strategy was altered, resulting in a spike in submissions. A Facebook app was the content hub of the campaign where fans could submit their photos and view other’s as well. Fans were encouraged to share their photos to receive more votes to win. The paid media strategy was implemented on Facebook over three weeks. During the actual event, real time content was made available on Facebook and Instagram so fans at home could be part of the campaign.

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. One of the issues IKEA faced was targeting the correct audience to raise awareness. Moreover, Facebook brand pages only experience 6% organic reach. Another challenge was creating fans’ participation. Content is now the number one driving force for engagement. The challenge was producing content that appealed to fans and redirected them towards the IKEA Facebook page to drive participation.

The Strategy

Creating shareable content was a key factor in building buzz for the campaign. Due to low organic reach on Facebook pages, the focus was placed on creating a paid media strategy to drive traffic and engagement to the campaign Facebook app. Moreover, paid media provided the opportunity to amplify the content across social media. The team created content that lived online through the use of teaser and celebrity filmed videos, Facebook post promotion, and incentivising the campaign. We looked to leverage participating celebrities and bloggers to help tell the IKEA story, targeting their own fan base in order to convert them into IKEA fans through association. Through content, we leveraged the incentives for the campaign, which was not only the chance to participate in the event but also the many giveaways that IKEA was offering. The content was monitored in real-time in order improve future posts via a paid strategy.