Six awesome examples of Facebook campaigns by Ikea

Ikea has managed to achieve a decent following across social media, with millions of Facebook fans and hundreds of thousands of Twitter followers.

Obviously social isn't just about the size of your fan base, but it's still an impressive number for a furniture retailer.

Having previously examined how Ikea uses the four main social networks, I decided to take a closer look at its various Facebook campaigns.

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UK store sleepover

In the UK Ikea hosted a sleepover in its Essex store in response to a Facebook fan group called 'I wanna have a sleepover in Ikea'.

Almost 100,000 people joined the group and Ikea gave 100 of them the chance to actually spend a night in the warehouse. 

The winners were given manicures and massages, and had a bedtime story read to them by a reality TV star.

There was also a sleep expert on-hand to give people advice and potentially help them choose a new mattress...

Malmo's Facebook showroom

During the autumn of 2009 Ikea used Facebook's picture tagging tool to run a competition designed to promote its new store in Malmo, Sweden.

Armed with very little budget, ad agency Forsman and Bodenfors created a Facebook account for the store manager, Gordon Gustavsson, and uploaded 12 pictures of the store's showrooms over a two week period.

Users could win the products on show by being the first person to tag their name on it. This obviously meant that thousands of other people were exposed to the campaign when it cropped up in their timelines and newsfeeds.

This makes it appear far more appealing than a usual sponsored story, as the user has willingly associated themselves with the promotion.

This is a good example of an innovative social media campaign on a low budget. There is no associated build cost, since all of the features already exist on Facebook. This makes it easy for users since they are already familiar with Facebook tagging.

However, a downside of this campaign was that it did not strictly comply with Facebook terms of services, which limits the potential for campaigns like this in the future.

Australian wedding

An Ikea-obsessed Australian couple got married in the retailer's Sydney outlet on Valentine's Day after winning a competition that saw 500 people apply for the chance to get wed in-store.

The hour-long ceremony was attended by 80 of the couple's closest family and friends, along with 80 random Facebook fans who secured an invite through IKEA's Facebook page.

The entire wedding was furnished using Ikea products, so it promoted the fact that you can "create a stylish and beautiful wedding with the affordable and inspirational Ikea product range." How romantic.

US 'Bring Your Own Friends'

In January 2012 the Swedish retailer offered US shoppers discounts and freebies if they went to its stores with their friends.

After registering for the event on the brand's Facebook page users had to nominate a friend to come with them and were then shown a page full of vouchers they could use in-store.

To top it off, for every friend invited on Facebook, IKEA has pledged to donate $1 to the Save the Children foundation, up to a maximum of $50,000.

Overall it's a clever way of getting people to share discounts and encourage footfall in-store.

Sleep like a Princess

In Spring last year Ikea ran a Facebook competition that gave entrants the chance to win a bed worth up to £1,500.

To enter the contest, which was only open to loyalty card holders, users had to upload a funny photo of a friend having a nap. Facebook users then voted for the best picture. 

As a result of the campaign Ikea achieved 44,000 YouTube views, 13,650 Facebook visitors and almost 4,000 new fans.

Bedroom makeover

In 2011 Ikea launched a competition called 'Bedroom Makeover' in Hong Kong giving people the chance to win HK$10,000 of products.

Fans had to submit a photo of themselves to the brand's Facebook page telling the story of how Ikea could help them overcome their worst bedroom nightmare.

A public vote decided 10 finalists who were then whittled down to three overall winners by Ikea. As this video shows, the winners had 90 seconds to load a trolley with as much loot as they could get their hands on. 

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