The other day the topic of ‘who’s the best global advertiser’ came up in a conversation. I think there are three solid answers: Nike, VW and IKEA. The Gunn report data backs this up as well.
Consistently across multiple countries the creative advertising and marketing that these companies approve is industry-leading and, in two of their cases, within categories that are either very crowded (cars) or traditionally not creatively amazing (home furnishings).
To this point, IKEA’s latest is very fun... It’s this ad with ghosts. Purely enjoyable and memorable while making the point of easily improving a home for not much money. Mother is the agency.
IKEA’s core brand purpose is to “be the leader of life at home.” One way they do this is the brand constantly has ethnographic studies in-market to see first-hand what people need and how they live in their homes. IKEA even publishes a quarterly report called “Life At Home.”
Consistently across multiple countries the creative advertising and marketing that these companies approve is industry-leading and, in two of their cases, within categories that are either very crowded (cars) or traditionally not creatively amazing (home furnishings).
To this point, IKEA’s latest is very fun... It’s this ad with ghosts. Purely enjoyable and memorable while making the point of easily improving a home for not much money. Mother is the agency.
IKEA’s core brand purpose is to “be the leader of life at home.” One way they do this is the brand constantly has ethnographic studies in-market to see first-hand what people need and how they live in their homes. IKEA even publishes a quarterly report called “Life At Home.”
Creatively, they do fun stuff like this that riff on pop culture, important stuff like this when Deutsch was their agency, they make retail interesting with stuff like this, and they surprise people with guerrilla marketing like this.
The brand has been winning “life at home” for a very long time. So every time I see great work & thinking from IKEA I always root for them. If you'd like to read more, Leontyne Green Sykes was their Dir. of Marketing for a long time and she has a very good interview here.
From John’s Pinboard:
- Under Armour has done an incredible job taking share in sports apparel. Campaigns like this from Droga5, featuring a range of athlete and led by Dwayne Johnson is partly why. The brand has been winning “life at home” for a very long time. So every time I see great work & thinking from IKEA I always root for them. If you'd like to read more, Leontyne Green Sykes was their Dir. of Marketing for a long time and she has a very good interview here.
From John’s Pinboard:
- Two very interesting examples about how data, such as the weather, can be crossed to improve relevance yet not become creepy or invasive.
- Starbucks is shutting down company-owned stores on May 29 for diversity training. This is very important to do. It will cost them ~$24 million dollars in revenue.
- National Geographic reveals some new branding and new fonts.
- Reddit’s redesign is explained by their head of design. The user involvement during creation is unique—much like how Mozilla included users too in their redesign.
- Fake influencers are beginning to rise. Anyone follow Lil Miquela on Instragram?
- Rosanne's return is doing great in the ratings, as DF reminded us of in #Outreach.
- The way we dress is largely the way we feel. I watched Harrison Ford talk about the critical nature of wardrobe one time and here’s another example from Charlie Chaplin:
I had no idea of the character. But the moment I was dressed, the clothes and the makeup made me feel the person he was. I began to know him, and by the time I walked on to the stage he was fully born. When I confronted the director, I assumed the character and strutted about, swinging my cane. Gags and comedy ideas went racing through my mind.
I had no idea of the character. But the moment I was dressed, the clothes and the makeup made me feel the person he was. I began to know him, and by the time I walked on to the stage he was fully born. When I confronted the director, I assumed the character and strutted about, swinging my cane. Gags and comedy ideas went racing through my mind.
Finally, SY found this photo of George Bush Sr.'s socks of books that he wore to honor the late Barbara Bush's commitment to promoting literacy.