Like just about all retailers IKEA has had to close its stores for the safety of its staff and customers during the time of coronavirus. Online orders are still being processed, and the brand’s marketing continues, though in a different tone.
The IKEA: I Stay Home video shares the general public service message for people to remain home as we saw in the Pinterest email. But the house that is speaking in the video reminds us that it is there for us, offering us a place where we can not just remain safe but feel we belong and have fun.
The full text is:
Hello, I’m your house. Your home. I’m the place where your children have grown up, where you have celebrated good news, and taken refuge from the bad. I’m the place where you can be yourself. Do you remember when we first met? Come on. Feel me. Smell me. Enjoy me. We can turn everything around. Maybe this is the time to rearrange the furniture, or get our heads in order.
IKEA is not appearing opportunistic in using this message as a way to remind people to order things to enhance their homes. However, the connection is implied that the furnishings, rugs, and accessories that fill our spaces do make them feel like home. That’s what makes the message feel appropriate to the brand.
While the captions on the video are all in English, the spoken words toward the end of the video are in Spanish because the idea for this campaign was born when Spain first imposed stay at home measures to slow the spread of coronavirus.
McCann executive creative director, Raquel Martínez, explained in an interview with Muse how IKEA pivoted away from the running campaign to find more appropriate messaging for the situation. Given that “the restrictions imposed prohibited any shooting,” she explained, they had to work with “mages from a campaign already produced in another region.”
Even the video’s creations represent the adaptability we need to show in times of crisis. It’s important for brands to retain the right tone in communicating with their customers. It’s not the time to demand business but to demonstrate connection.
For more information on how to speak with your customers during such turbulent times, see Optimove’s Email Marketing Best Practices in the Wake of COVID-19.