How Ikea struck social media gold with a simple Christmas concept
Harnessing one of its most distinctive brand assets, the furniture retailer achieved viral success during the busy festive shopping season.
Christmas is one of the most challenging times of year for Ikea to achieve cut through with shoppers. As attention turns to food, drink and gifting, home furnishings inevitably fall off the agenda.
Working with creative agency Mother London, Ikea aimed to buck this trend and achieve strong top of mind awareness. With the cost of living crisis raging – and the price of Christmas dinner set to be 13% more expensive than the year before – Ikea planned to make itself the focal point of a fun festive story.
Harnessing one of its most distinctive assets – the meatball – the retailer unveiled a tongue-in-cheek alternative for Christmas dinner: the Turkey-Sized Meatball. Enormous, 4.5kg meatballs were created with the same ingredients as standard Ikea meatballs and served with the same signature creamy sauce.
The simplicity of the idea created a compelling visual for social media, which grabbed consumer attention and went viral. Ikea also launched a competition to give away 30 Turkey-Sized Meatballs and 30 vegan-friendly ‘Veggieball Christmas Trees’ via Instagram.
The brand even made its Turkey-Sized Meatballs available to buy online and in a handful of stores, inspiring user generated content from excited shoppers.
The campaign became Ikea’s most liked social campaign to date, resulting in earned media worth more than £2.5m. The story went viral globally, with broadcasters like CNN and Fox News reporting on the Turkey-Sized Meatball, while famous global brands and celebrities joined in on the joke.
Crucially, top of mind awareness in December rose by 21% compared to the annual average for the rest of the year, results which helped Ikea win the 2024 Marketing Week Award for Social Media.
