Amidst the many Asia-Pacific winners from Cannes Lions this year, the Philippines had a handful of winners, including for the campaign ‘This is an IKEA Store’ by IKEA alongside Ogilvy Philippines. Said campaign won a Silver Lions for the Media Category under the Single-Market Campaign section. For context, this campaign integrated IKEA’s physical products into diverse public locations, allowing consumers to check out the store’s catalogue on their mobile devices.
For our next Top Story feature, we recently spoke with Mona Nazario-Garcia, managing director for advertising, brand and content at Ogilvy Group Philippines to better understand their work with IKEA, the results the campaign had across Filipino consumers, and what can we look forward between IKEA and Ogilvy for campaigns in the future.
Making IKEA more accessible to Filipino consumers
It is worth noting that IKEA opened its largest store in the country back in 2021–encompassing 730,000 square foot of space and is located in Pasay City, Philippines. Despite all of this, the popular Swedish brand was still unable to reach to Filipino consumers, with many saying that the store is too far away from them.
With that in mind, an idea came to life: what if IKEA brought not only its store but also the experience much closer to Filipino consumers?
“‘This is an IKEA Store’ was born from a simple truth: despite having the biggest IKEA store in the world, the Philippines’ complex geography made it difficult for Filipinos to reach our store. We realised that if people couldn’t come to IKEA, we had to bring IKEA to them. This sparked the idea of turning everyday locations into interactive IKEA showrooms, by strategically placing IKEA products in public spaces with QR codes for easy purchase. We recreated the IKEA shopping experience in 927 locations, both online and offline. This not only made IKEA more accessible but also brought the brand closer to the hearts of Filipinos,” Mona said.
She also stressed the importance of accessibility not only physically but also digitally, given how many Filipinos are digitally connected, hence they added an e-commerce aspect with the campaign to highlight the brand’s accessibility to Filipinos.
“We recognised that accessibility is crucial in the Philippines, where traffic and transportation can be challenging. The rise of e-commerce also highlighted the need for a strong online presence and a way to combat unauthorised online sellers. By tapping into Filipinos’ love for experiential shopping, we created a campaign that was immersive, shareable, and personalised, ultimately driving traffic to IKEA.ph and building trust with consumers,” she added.
Understanding the campaign’s impact to Filipinos
As the campaign rolled out in various places in the country, ranging from coffee shops, beaches, camping spots, salons, to even gyms–Ogilvy Philippines noted that the “This Is An IKEA Store” significantly boosted IKEA’s presence in the Philippines by making the brand more accessible and relatable.
“The campaign’s success is evident in the 30% increase in e-commerce transactions and 8% growth in website revenue — an all-time high for IKEA.ph. This success, along with the Silver Media Lion win at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, solidified IKEA’s position as a forward-thinking brand,” Mona said.
She further added that from a branding perspective, the campaign positioned IKEA as a creative and consumer-focused brand in the Philippines.
“The campaign’s reach, with over 46 million impressions, and high engagement rates demonstrated strong consumer interest. From a consumer perspective, the campaign tackled the accessibility issue, resulting in a 14% increase in new website visitors and a 30% increase in e-commerce transactions,” she said.
When we asked what we can expect more from IKEA and Ogilvy PH in terms of new local campaigns in the Philippines, Mona said that IKEA and Ogilvy will continue to push boundaries.
“We owe it to the legacy of the IKEA brand to keep striving for creative and effective excellence. We’re committed to bring IKEA closer to Filipinos, through dialed-in data-driven work, and our goal is to deliver impactful campaigns that resonate with our audience and drive meaningful results,” she concluded.
