January is the time for companies to unveil reports on how well they performed in the fourth quarter of the previous year (and the year on the whole), but this review is not about loss and profit figures. Instead, it focuses the buzz ranking, the index that might be as important for brands as financial data.
IKEA
IKEA, The Life Improvement Store, announced the grand prize winner of the second year of its Life Improvement Sabbatical Contest: Melissa Matthews of Wake Forest, NC. After a month-long, online public vote, Ms. Matthews has won a year-long sabbatical (worth $100,000) to improve the lives of others through her Special Technology for Special Kids! program, and over the next year, will share her experience online at www.thelifeimprovementproject.com. Additionally, IKEA is donating $50,000 to Save the Children’s U.S. Programs, $1 for every vote cast in the contest (up to the first 50,000 votes—the program received a total of 50,191 votes).
IKEA believes that its stores are not the only space where the brand’s houseware goods can be showcased and often takes them to city streets, opera or underground to demonstrate that IKEA goods perfectly fit any settings and can create proper atmosphere anywhere. Now, the international furniture retailer has come to a metro station in Paris again to promote its items with a new twist: the brand is not just exposing sofas and bookcases—it got five Parisians to spend almost a week in a small apartment fully furnished with IKEA pieces. The new live installation, which is developed by the UBI BENE agency, is currently on display in the Auber metro station.
LIDA, the direct and digital marketing specialist, has re-launched the flagship IKEA FAMILY loyalty welcome programme in the UK and Ireland, following its appointment in September 2010. The new welcome programme uses segmentated communications for the first time, to increase customer loyalty and improve the overall customer journey.
Men are like kids—this notion, well-known to all women, underlies the new initiative, launched by IKEA in Australia, following the release of the Have a Gö marketing initiative in the country. For this year’s Father’s Day weekend, the non-public holiday celebrated in Australia on first Sunday of September, the international furniture retailer created one-of-a-kind recreational space for men who come to the company’s Sydney store with their girl-friends or wives.