For me, Ikea's furniture campaign would be the best: Amish Dash Sabharwal

Which do you consider your best campaign and why? When was the campaign launched?

For me, the Ikea talking furniture campaign would be the best. Though it’s a recent campaign, I chose it because of the creative work that went into it. It delivers on the brand promise and at the same time, the work is soul-satisfying, a rare mix. I have worked on campaigns that managed to seep into pop culture and have been super differentiated. This one has managed to further a brand tone that no one else can own this strongly. Each one of the eight films required some crafting, a character, a voice, a writing style and a stance and our team’s talent has shone through. To me, it is like doing a Pixar for Ikea but without the CGI (computer-generated imagery) effects.

What did the campaign achieve for the brand? Could you also share some numbers to corroborate your claim?

The campaign was the start of building the Ikea tone of voice in India. So far, it has registered close to 5 million views on Facebook and another 4 million on Youtube. It has significantly moved metrics on brand scores too. With all the combined initiatives on the brand, our social reach has touched 21 million, 30,000 visits per day.

Originally meant to be only digital films, they also ran as TVCs due to the novelty and the performance of the idea. It has also managed to pave the way for doing original work in a category that has learnt to communicate in a certain format. Close to 2,700 online stories covered every movement and news on the brand since the launch of the campaign.

What was the key idea behind the campaign?

It was to celebrate the innovative and delightful range from Ikea and do it in a way that it did not seem to push it on to people but pull them to Ikea. Our approach to communication was very clear and in an inverted funnel format, the main TVC set the philosophy and the ethos of the brand in India and showed Ikea inspirations for the entire house; the outdoor and print was to glorify innovations in specific rooms or spaces and these digital films were to focus on individual products.

We too believed in the craftsmanship of the products and the team made sure the only celebrities involved with this idea were the product themselves.

What was the industry response to the campaign?

The campaign has received love from all quarters including the Ikea universe. It has been covered by various publications across the world. And hopefully, it will become a global asset — something that was crafted here by Dentsu Impact and Team Ikea.

I feel the entire premise and the flexibility of the format will help us create a reservoir of interesting content over the course of time. We have done a part two for it also for the festive season. The ways to innovate within this format are endless. And for us the award season is yet to start, so keeping our fingers crossed.

What were the execution challenges?

What we had were just products. We had to breathe life into them, imagine how they moved, what they said, where they came from. Me and my team laboured over all that, we tried many different styles, different characters till we said, ‘yes, we have it. This guy can be no one else. Now let’s go find a person who can talk and sound just like that’.

We shot all the eight films in a span of two days. The products have been lovingly brought to life with all the last minute value additions from the shoot to the dialogues and voices in the post.  Kudos to the entire team.