Ikea had a problem it couldn’t seem to shake. Whilst Canadians loved the brand in their 20s and 30s, as they progressed in life, they reached a point where they believed they’d outgrown Ikea. The retailer fell off their consideration list, and this crucial audience stopped coming to stores.

The challenge was how to get 35+ Canadians who think they’ve outgrown Ikea to realize the retailer has actually grown with them, in terms of quality and style, so that they come back.

The team dug deeply into the relationship 35+ Canadians have with their homes and uncovered that each home is full of unique and personal behaviours that enabled that home to function harmoniously. In short, each home had its own set of unwritten but well-understood “rules.” As these Canadians had reached 30 and moved into their own homes, they’d typically taken some of their parents’ rules and then mixed them with their own. And some similar theming of rules between different homes were observed.

By celebrating these unwritten rules of every home, Ikea’s relevance could be reasserted, not only to Canadians of every age, but also the 35+ family shoppers by showing the retailer truly understood them. The idea was to get Canada sharing, talking about and reading all the interesting #HouseRules that make our houses our homes.

The team started with the hashtag #HouseRules, and was immediately inundated with all the unique and interesting ways Canadians live at home. Communications then focused on receiving, organizing and sharing back these rules across a variety of media. And to make it easy, a space was created to pull in rules from all social spheres, as opposed to being confined to just a few. The voyeurism of reading others’ rules proved irresistible, so the most popular ones were used in mass advertising, sharing the rules most Canadians could relate to. Some also received Ikea gifts that connected with their personal rules, showing the role the retailer could play in their day-to-day lives.

Same-store sales increased 12% versus year ago, significantly above the home furnishings category, which achieved only a 1% increase during the same time period. Top-of-mind and spontaneous awareness increased 10% versus year ago, with an increase of 12% claiming they had bought from Ikea recently. Moreover, “House Rules” was the highest engagement of any social campaign Ikea Canada has run to date.