Cannes Lions 2007 Media Gold: IKEA LAUNCH COMMUNICATIONS IN JAPAN

Name	Position	Company
Ken Shimizu	Campaign Director/Creative Director	ADK
Osamu Enari	Executive Producer	ADK
Yasuhiro Ikeda	Art Director	SUN-AD
Akio Yamauchi	Art Director	ADK
Makoto Tanaka	Designer	SUN-AD
Takeshi Tsuji	Copy Writer	ADK
Ryuji Ueno	Promotion Director	Drill
Manami Kishira	Producer	SUN-AD
Hiroko Uchigaki	Account Director	ADK
Kazuha Okuda	Account Supervisor	ADK

Our communication goal was to support the successful launch of IKEA's first store in Japan and to persuade consumers that IKEA understood the market and could help revolutionise Japanese homes and family life. In order to achieve this goal, we concentrated the communications within 15km of the new store, using symbolic OOH installations targeting local "homes/families". For national publicity, we conducted a unique launch event communicating the solution to the major problem in Japanese homes.

Communications concentrated on the trading area, covered different target touch points such as a balcony and wrapped bus and staircase ads so that we clearly communicated the store opening to our core target consumers while maximising their anticipation. At the same time, the launch event in Tokyo was conducted to attract attention not only from the public but also from the press in order to reach a broader potential target.

We targeted mainly housewives and young couples, living within 15km of the new store. We tried to get attention from them with fliers, bus wrapping and also a balcony signage, while we also delivered the messages to their workaholic husbands to remind them of home, using the staircase ads at the train stations. For a broader potential target, the outdoor museum in Tokyo succeeded in gaining national media coverage communicating IKEA's Japan launch.

TV, newspapers, online and other media made the IKEA launch event/store opening a major story, creating extensive WOM. Opening week sales set the world record for IKEA stores with 1 million customers in the first five weeks.