A BCom Blog by Monique Wong

In a world where we shut off the traditional marketing means of billboards, newspaper ads and TV commercials …
Also a world where we think Facebook ads, Google Search ads are slightly creepy …

How are businesses able to get our attention in a honest and truthful way? Well, Ikea has a great idea. Watch the video below:

So Ikea decides to build and furnish a 54 square metre amount of space at a Paris metro station and gets 5 volunteers to move in and live there for a week. A simple, yet brilliant idea. A couple reasons why:

Ikea plays on the innate curiosity within all of us – instead of forcing ourselves to ignore advertising messaging, we will actively seek out this live advertisement because it’s cool.

Ikea really is able to demonstrate the value of their products. Instead of looking like delicate displays under the spotlight in a typical Ikea showroom, their furniture undergoes the test of space and use in the tiny “apartment”.

Ikea knows where their target market is. Known for being the college student’s (or just anyone with a tight budget) go-to spot for inexpensive furniture, the Metro most likely transports the crowds of people who can’t afford to travel in cars. On top of that, in a what is usually a dull transit journey, Ikea is there to lighten up the day.

Finally, who can possibly forget seeing a tiny apartment erected in the middle of a Metro station? Ikea must already have been generating buzz as they were building the apartment (curiosity!), and when it was finally built, I’m not surprised if it became a part of conversation amongst friends. Even in the video, you can see passerbys taking photos, some probably shooting some video footage of their own. Inevitably, some of that content is going to make it online. Be it the buzz of face-to-face conversation or online buzz, this user-generated viral marketing is something that’s hard for companies to start themselves.

A simple idea, executed effectively.

Inspired by this article.

A similar marketing strategy locally is live@YVR when a gentleman was selected out of a contest to live at the airport for 80 days and blog about the stories that he sees there.