Ikea: Feline Groovy in the UK, Servicey in the US

英國IKEA推出新廣告，廣告的主角是一百隻貓，廣告標題是"happy inside" ，希望表達IKEA能讓你把家變成一個快樂、舒適的地方。會使用貓做為主角是因為貓最知道什麼能讓牠們感到快樂，誇張一點地說牠們天生就是為了找尋最舒適的生活方式而活。除了廣告，英國IKEA還同時發起一個競賽遊戲：猜猜看貓會選擇哪一樣家具來休息，若猜中了你就可以把這件家具帶回家。在大西洋的另一側，美國IKEA也推出一個競賽：如何用IKEA產品改善生活，若你的點子最終成為冠軍，將可以獲得十萬美金。雖然他們的廣告可能無法像貓廣告一樣讓人那麼印象深刻，可是他們想傳達給顧客IKEA 能幫你改善生活，讓你的生活更美好。

Ikea's latest UK campaign is sure to please fans of cat videos: 100 cats roaming their Wembley store to promote their 2011 catalog.
The tagline  — "happy inside"  — is part of a competition: guess which pieces of furniture the cats choose to settle on  — and win that piece. Linked, of course, to Facebook, the campaign gives "herding cats" (and keeping cats off the furniture) a whole new meaning.
The campaign, which echoes its highly praised "Malmo" Facebook-tagging promotion, comes from Mother London. Feh Tarty, Mother's creative director, tells Brand Republic that "The idea behind the work is that cats know better than anything what makes them feel happy inside. They live their lives in pursuit of their own comfort.”
Across the Atlantic, a new campaign is now breaking in the US.
Ikea's first American push in three years is repositioning the home furnishings giant as "The Life Improvement Store." Working with Ogilvy & Mather for the first time, the theme is simple: "improve your life with a customized home."
“Ikea was looking for someone to help them articulate who they were in a way an American audience would understand,” said Lars Bastholm, chief creative officer for Ogilvy & Mather New York, to the New York Times. Every ad is tagged with “Made by” as in “Made by the Johnsons” (above) and “Designed by Ikea.”
A dedicated microsite, The Life Improvement Project, goes live tomorrow. It will offer promotional events for employees and customers via ‘The Life Improvement Sabbatical’ contest worth $100,000 for winning ideas of improving the lives of others.
“The contest would help people who have the vision themselves but can’t afford to do it. Volunteering at a homeless shelter, a recycling effort in the community, those are the types of projects that we’re looking for,” said Ikea North America spokesperson Christine Scoma Whitehawk to the Times.
A series of 51 free Life Improvement Store Seminars will feature hosts from magazines including Family Circle and Cooking Light, running from October through July. There's also a Life Improvement Co-Worker Challenge for staffers in Ikea’s 37 U.S. stores, offering five $10,000 grants to support a local community initiative. 
Ikea’s social media presence joins with Oprah’s O for additional Facebook- and Twitter-branded content. Next in line is a series of spots targeting the Hispanic community with a "Made by" ad featuring the "Garcia family."
“It’s easy to think there’s an Ikea look, which there’s not,” said Bastholm to the NYT. “Some might be decorating a New York studio of 250 square feet and some might be decorating a newly purchased McMansion.”
It may not be as memorable as cats on the prowl, but Ikea US hopes to make customers paws and improve their lives — and others — with a helping hand.

LINK: http://www.brandchannel.com/home/post/2010/09/13/Ikea-UK-US-Campaigns-F10.aspx