Winner
Ketchum and IKEA: Man Lives in IKEA: Citizen Marketer Becomes IKEA Brand Evangelist
When online personality Mark Malkoff approached IKEA to ask if he could live in a store for a week, document his adventures, and post humorous webisodes about his experience, Ketchum, IKEA's AOR, weighed the risks of ceding control of the brand.
IKEA wanted to communicate its new brand message – home is the most important place in the world – in a breakthrough and honest way. It also sought to increase brand awareness and traffic among potential customers: Web-savvy guys and girls, age 18 to 35, and IKEA loyalists, typically moms 23 to 37 years old.
The firm determined the endeavor would be positive and an authentic way to accomplish the brand goals. Malkoff had produced 171 Starbucks webisodes for which he visited all New York City locations in one day and generated positive online traffic and media coverage. He was also motivated to get himself known and he did own a lot of IKEA furniture.
To leverage Malkoff's experience and entertainment value, IKEA gave him 24-hour access to the store and employees and permission to film at all times. The team would refrain from pre-reviewing his media outreach, giving him messages to deliver or offering products to highlight.
Prior to moving into the store in Paramus, NJ, from January 7-12, 2008, Malkoff announced his plan to the media. The PR team helped to coordinate interviews and lay out the week's schedule. Malkoff's production team documented his experience, including interaction with the night security guard and housewarming parties for customers. At the end of the week, singer Lisa Loeb stopped by to help get Malkoff back in good graces with his wife, which was a running joke on the webisodes. His team edited 25 short videos and put several up each day on MarkLivesinIKEA.com and YouTube.com.
The Loeb webisode was one of the featured videos on YouTube's homepage. During Malkoff's stay, Paramus store sales rose 5.5%; traffic to the IKEA Web site increased by 6.8%, compared with January 2007; and MarkLivesinIKEA.com generated 15 million hits. Webisodes were viewed nearly 1.5 million times on YouTube, tripling expectations, and more than 2,000 consumer posts on YouTube and social media sites were positive comments about Malkoff and IKEA. Media impressions in the US totaled 382 million.
“[It produced] outstanding results tracking to in-store sales,” noted one judge. “It worked off-line and online.” Another judge said, “It was hands-down a winner.”
Honorable Mention
Weber Shandwick and MilkPEP: Taking The Milk Mustache Digital to Break Through With Teens
MilkPEP wanted to take its Milk Mustache campaign beyond traditional advertising to deliver its health message to teens and increase traffic to bodybymilk.com. Weber Shandwick tapped teen star Miley Cyrus for an online Milk Mustache ad to reach teens in social media spaces. The site provided users with the tools to share content about their favorite Milk Mustache celebrity. The team sent an e-newsletter about the “first-ever online Milk Mustache ad launch” to Cyrus' 1 million fan club members; placed an ad on Cyrus' official fan site with links to bodybymilk.com; and created a widget featuring Cyrus' ad shoot that teens could post on social network profiles. The site urged fans to send a healthful “Miley wake-up call” to friends' cell phones. “[An] excellent overall media mix, [with] excellent audience engagement [and] good targeting,” said one judge. Site traffic rose by 58% over the preceding six-week average. The campaign generated more than 500,000 widget views, 22,000 downloads of the ad, and 12,000 wake-up calls.
Finalists
• Flashpoint PR and LEGO Systems: Go Miniman Go: Tapping Nostalgia to Bolster Adult Affinity for LEGO Brand
• Ketchum and IKEA: Man Lives in IKEA: Citizen Marketer Becomes IKEA Brand Evangelist
• Ogilvy PR Worldwide and Lenovo: Lenovo: Powering the World's Biggest Idea
• Ruder Finn and TiVo: Beyond the Usual Suspects: How TiVo Leveraged a YouTube Launch with Equal Parts Frugality, Street Cred, and Mind-Numbing Speed
• Weber Shandwick and MilkPEP: Taking The Milk Mustache Digital to Break Through With Teens
Sponsor: Cohn & Wolfe is a strategic PR agency dedicated to creating, building, and protecting the world's most admired brands. With offices around the world, the agency is committed to breaking new ground in the delivery of cross-channel media strategies, creative programming, and practice area excellence.
