Every July 1st weekend, a cultural phenomenon happens. About 225,000 Montrealers move all at once. They call it “Moving Day,” and, as you can imagine, it leads to all kinds of chaos. Despite this, Ikea, like any retailer, is still under pressure to make an impact and increase traffic and sales, during a time when moving companies charge six times more than usual, and movers are wondering how to get their couch down the city’s narrow staircases, not what coffee table is going into their new space. For the past two years Ikea helped Montrealers move, but this year the idea was to lend a hand with a fresh perspective.

Moving into a new house means rethinking décor, fixtures and furnishings – the best ways to optimize new spaces. This can be difficult when you’re in a hurry to move, exhausted and familiarizing yourself with new surroundings.

This is when a human insight was drawn upon: that sometimes in life, seeing is believing, which also holds true for people when it comes to choosing furniture. I wonder what that side table will look like in my new space? Will the couch fit in our new lounge?

This insight of “seeing is believing” became the launching point for Moving Day 2014. Ikea decided to transform functional moving boxes into boxes of inspiration – the boxes would become actual-sized replicas of Ikea furnishings.

For the first time, Montrealers were given a way to test-drive Ikea products at home, while helping them move at the same time. Ikea products including the Malm nightstand, Stuva storage combination and Micke drawer unit were printed onto moving boxes that matched the exact size and colour of the real thing. But how could the team get these in people’s hands?

Over the Canada Day long weekend, Montrealers were on the move (literally). To reach people during their last-minute preparations, a free-standing, street-level pop-up board was constructed in a downtown location where people could easily claim their boxes of inspiration. The boxes helped people move and then served as inspiration once in their new space, encouraging consumers to go to Ikea and purchase a piece for their new home.

By recognizing the inspiration needs implicit at the end of the moving journey and not just the functional need of moving boxes, the team proved that Ikea understands its consumers and is able to provide purpose beyond purchase. The inspiration boxes ran out within hours of the board being put up.