Ikea and Vox Launch Digital Tiny Home Campaign

In March, Ikea and Vox Creative, Vox Media’s in-house brand studio, had plans to take a tiny home on a road trip across the U.S. with influencers to inform consumers how to live more sustainably. But when the pandemic hit, the brands had to rethink how to deliver its campaign message to consumers through a computer or mobile device. Six months later, the brands have unveiled a fully digital version of the Ikea Tiny Home Project, which uses branded content, behind-the-scenes video and quizzes to show how consumers can improve their sustainable and green living practices, particularly with some Ikea products. The program has taken over Curbed, the real estate and urban design publication acquired by Vox Media and New York Magazine in April, and will also be distributed across Vox Media’s ad marketplace Concert. The experience includes a 360-degree tour. Vox Creative’s creative director Lauren Delarato said instead of viewing the physical experience’s cancelation as a lost opportunity, both brand teams were motivated to develop a new method of delivering the same campaign objective with the added incentive of a wider audience reach. “The digital pivot is the ultimate form of sustainability,” Delarato said. “When we were looking back at the pitch and how we wanted to present it, we realized how this shift was the best way for us to democratize sustainable living.” Heather Pieske, Vox Creative’s executive creative director, added that going virtual allowed Vox and Ikea to offer a more “ccessible entry point for consumers to see the brands’ green values, and offer a unique way to “challenge people’s assumptions about sustainability and what small and big things we can do to live more sustainably.” For Ikea, the new program extends the brand’s Why We Make campaign created in partnership with Ogilvy, which boosts awareness of its commitments to sustainability, inclusivity and innovation. The tour invites users to click to learn more about featured products. To promote the 187-square-foot home, which was built in March with Ikea’s media agency Wavemaker, the partners created an explainer video that takes viewers behind the scenes of the construction of the tiny home, which is equipped with a variety of Ikea furnishings and gadgets. Additionally, the campaign offers a 360 tour of the tiny home with a shoppable element, where guests can buy Ikea products featured inside. The program also features three pieces of advertising content that offer advice from tiny homeowners and Ikea representatives on making living spaces more sustainable, and a guide to Ikea products that complement tiny home living. The final aspect of the campaign is a sustainability quiz, inviting readers to figure out their impact on the environment. Based on responses, the quiz delivers a reader’s sustainability archetype along with recommended actions to live a more sustainable life and tailored links for Ikea products to help them do so. A sustainability quiz offers another interactive element for readers. “This was very different from [recreating] a live panel on Zoom,” Pieske said. “All of the senses we needed to hit our audiences with were removed. We had to find a way to translate a more holistic experience where you’re touching, feeling and walking into a space.” Pieske said Vox Creative will measure the experience’s brand lift and cause adoption through IQ, the studio’s proprietary set of tools and technology that analyzes campaign performance.

Experiential Marketing

Ikea and Vox Creative’s Digital Tiny Home Campaign Promotes Sustainable Living

Experiential tour pivots to offer behind-the-scenes content and a shoppable experience

Ian Zelaya

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Ian Zelaya