Are Swede Dreams Made Of This? IKEA, Wicker And The Art Of Staying On Brand
“If you know, you know”. That was IKEA’s caption on a recent social media post responding to Wicker, the new film featuring Swedish actor Alexander Skarsgård as a husband made entirely from wicker. Since the steamy trailer was released at the end of July, it has quickly attracted attention online, with much of the conversation centred on the rather unusual appeal of a Swedish hunk made of wicker.
Swedish giant IKEA was quick to join the conversation in Australia, featuring its TOLKNING rattan bench with the line “Made from husband material”. The post playfully weaves IKEA into the online reaction to Wicker, while keeping the product at the centre of the communication. The response has certainly been enthusiastic, with comments ranging from “Advertising of the year” to “IKEA wins the internet today”, even the official Wicker account replying “Sturdy and supportive.”
Cultural moments like this present an interesting opportunity for brands. Whether it is a film, sporting event, celebrity or meme, connecting communication to something people are already talking about may provide another opportunity to attract attention and engagement. But in the rush to join the conversation, there is a risk the cultural moment becomes more recognisable than the brand itself, which is risky business. After all, getting people to notice and remember your communication is of little value if they don’t know which brand it was for. Think of the many brands that adopted pink around Barbie, or pink and green around Wicked. These cues might make the cultural reference immediately recognisable, but when every brand uses them, they do little to distinguish one brand from another. This raises the possibility that people notice the cultural moment, but the brand gets lost along the way.
This is what makes the IKEA execution interesting to consider. Rather than changing its identity to fit Wicker, IKEA taps into the online conversation through the brand’s distinctive style of advertising. The product remains central, accompanied by familiar Distinctive Assets such as its logo, font and iconic Swedish product naming. The product being sold also has a connection to the movie. IKEA sells wicker and rattan furniture, so Wicker can be woven into something the brand actually sells rather than simply becoming a topical reference with a logo attached.
So why might keeping these branding elements matter? Research from Jarod Walter at the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute shows Distinctive Assets can play both a branding and attention grabbing role in social media. The research finds brand recall can be improved by up to 38% when Distinctive Assets counter program with the surrounding creative. For example, using a tagline in an image-based advertisement and vice versa. So, when joining a cultural moment, brands should look to use the right type of Distinctive Asset to ensure the brand sufficiently grabs attention and remains a big part of the conversation.
Read the full article in Campaign Brief.