An agency in Sweden, Åkestam Holst, has had a busy past year using Ikea to explore the different shades of family dynamics – from the longevity of relationships to divorce, and most recently, a harrowed piece between a father and daughter.
And while those ads are ingenious in themselves, their latest effort is in no way as subtle. “Retail Therapy” places the campaign “Where Life Happens” by Ikea in a more direct light; A website where products are renamed to match common searches on Google in Sweden.
It’s a great approach to SEO, however the phrases are definitely not ordinary. Each phrase refers directly to a common problem in relationships and then ties each query to a product that Ikea can apparently solve it. The video below goes into depth about the process.
The “Retail Therapy” solutions have a very witty approach: “My daughter is out all night” leads the customer to a disco ball, “My partner annoy me” directs the user to a double-desk separated by a thin cubby wall, and “The attraction is gone” points to set of magnets. Of these cheeky recommendations, one of the highlights is “My family doesn’t respect me” which opens up the product page for a white queen costume.
However other recommendations are less clear with their directions. “My son plays too much computer games” delivers users to a pair of scissors. The directions are left to the users imagination – are they hinting at a day of scrapbooking, or the final solution of cutting the cord?
If none of these seem to fix the issue you’ve come upon, you can always find solace in the “Related Relationship Problems” that may provide a better solution.
With that in mind, it’s not expected that you take “Retail Therapy” seriously. In concluding the video, it sells the brand quite well, “Whether it’s a snoring husband, a never-ending gaming son or any other relationship problem you have, Ikea can come to the rescue… or at least put a smile on your face while you keep Googling for an answer.”
What is fantastic about what they’ve done is how searches such as “He can’t say he loves me” will lift Ikea’s product listings to the top of the Google Adwords list – an incredibly clever tactic that is hard to be mad at.
