The Campaign

Our Future Baby takes couples on a journey to discover their future family. By participating in this immersive experience, couples and expectant parents experience their soon-to-be-born baby. Through AI imaging technology, we let couples and expectant parents experience how their baby could look like. We used artificial intelligence to combine both parents’ faces and predict the face of their future baby. The technology is so intelligent, it could predict the baby’s face, depicting the different stages of growth. Then, we fill the showroom with pictures of the baby. The showroom consists of a living room, a bedroom, and a baby room. When visitors leave the showroom, they could opt to receive the baby's photos by scanning a QR code. That will also generate digital images of the baby which they could print or share with others.

The Brief

The overall budget is 200,000USD. Programme development 80,000USD. Hardware and devices 40,000USD. Paid media 80,000USD.

Creative Execution

We created a live event at the IKEA branch in Beijing. The event ran from 20th December 2017 till 8th January 2018. We used an entire showroom, which consists of a living room, a bedroom, a baby room and kitchen. We fitted screens and hung them up on the walls and/or place them on the tables in these rooms, much like how families display their photos. To participate, couples need to have their faces scanned at the showroom entrance. Then they are allowed entry and to discover the surprise of their future baby. The rooms are decorated with images depicting different stages of the baby's growth. When the visitors leave, they could opt to receive the baby's photos by scanning a QR code. That will also generate digital images of the baby which they could print or share with others.

Describe the success of the promotion with both client and consumer including some quantifiable results

Our Future Baby had more than 30,000 participants during the campaign period. The number of visitors to IKEA Sanyuanqiao branch increased by 25% compared to the year before. The project was reported by more than 100 media outlets, and that is not even including sharings on social media. Most importantly, IKEA managed to inspire thousands of people to make room for life through the power of innovation and technology.

Explain why the method of promotion was most relevant to the product or service

Our Future Baby offers participants an engaging and immersive entertainment experience through interactive and smart devices, which help them gain a deeper understanding of what their future family could be. This experience explores the emotions of living with a baby, through an interactive showroom which couples can visit. We let them explore the IKEA showroom as if it is their own house, and let them discover portraits of their future baby. The experience is both beautiful and touching.

IKEA have defined the target to be those that are about to get married or the newly-wed. That’s because, in China, the cultural norm is for those that are about to get married to own an apartment; all ready to start their own families. We wanted to inspire couples and expectant parents to make room for possibilities by showing them their future home with their baby. Therefore, we decided to immerse them in an experience, using the IKEA showroom as a backdrop.