In 2011, IKEA moved into the hearts of Montrealers with its first-ever Moving Day campaign. It was a tremendous success, creating tons of buzz and business. However, with great reward would come great expectations the next year.

The challenge for 2012 was to evolve the campaign to not only increase sales vs. the previous year, but further demonstrate the commitment to making a move organized by IKEA, a move made better – a big challenge considering 2011 saw a 24% increase in sales on Moving Day weekend. To put this in context, that would be the equivalent to IKEA building, stocking and opening an additional 300,000 sq. foot store in Montreal.

But why is moving in Montreal at this time such a big deal? Well, every July 1st long weekend in Canada, the people of Quebec move, not one by one but all at once. They call it Moving Day and it leads to all kinds of chaos. Imagine 225,000 Montreal residents, in a city of 1.8 million, moving all at the very same time. In 2011, Leo Burnett saw this as an opportunity to demonstrate the brand's purpose – to provide a better everyday life for many people – helping move IKEA into the hearts and minds of all Montrealers, and Montrealers into an IKEA store.

The approach this year was to supplement the innovative ambient wild postings featuring takeaway boxes with a social media component that would allow even more people to take advantage of our free IKEA moving boxes.

As boxes and trucks are a big part of any Moving Day, a moving truck was turned into a giant moving box filled with thousands of free boxes for Montrealers looking for help on Moving Day. Word was spread about the truck through Twitter where Montrealers could follow the route of the truck via GPS to see when it would be coming to their neighbourhood.

The follow-up Moving Day campaign was a big success. Twitter hashtags #IKEAMovingBox and #IKEABoitePratik generated a total reach of 981,420 – the biggest Twitter trend that weekend in Montreal. From a business standpoint, visitors increased 5.2% and sales increased 9% versus the previous year. The second Moving Day continued to create fantastic momentum for IKEA Montreal, and further cemented its position as the city's favourite home furnishings helper.