Posted on 09/08/2014 1:21:34 PM PDT by nickcarraway
A MADE-IN-SINGAPORE video advertisement about an Ikea furniture catalogue which spoofs tech giant Apple has become a YouTube hit, surpassing six million views on YouTube in just a few days.
The video showcases the Swedish home furnishing company’s 2015 product catalogue but bears an uncanny resemblance to the glitzy commercials by Apple, which is about to launch its iPhone 6 tomorrow.
In the video launched on Wednesday, the catalogue rotates suspended against a white backdrop while fictional “chief design guru” Jorgen Eghammer plays up the beauty of its features.
There is no need for cables and it comes fully charged with “eternal” battery life, he says in the video.
“Introducing the 2015 Ikea catalogue. It’s not a digital book or an e-book. It’s a bookbook,” he adds.
The concept for the campaign was hatched by two creative directors of advertising agency Bartle Bogle Hegarty (BBH) Singapore.
Tinus Strydom, 36, and Maurice Wee, 40, had been briefed by a client to make their customers in Malaysia and Singapore excited about the printed catalogue in a world where electronic devices have largely replaced books.
The two creative directors had returned to work one day in April to brainstorm ideas in the BBH office in Clarke Quay where, like many other creative agency offices, a lot of devices tend to be Apple products, said Strydom.
When asked if the campaign was meant to spoof Apple, Strydom declined to comment but said that they took reference from common ways in which the tech industry launches products in general.
Wee said: “We live in gadget-crazy times. I once saw my kid trying to drag a cursor arrow across my desktop screen like a tablet.
“There is much social commentary on the loss of touch with the everyday. Digital innovations are great but the way technology is sometimes more overblown than how good it really is – it is comedic. We were simply holding up a mirror.”
The online clip is just one part of the campaign, which also includes newspaper, radio, cinema and outdoor advertisements here. A team of over 15 people were involved.
The video was shot here and features the metal letterboxes in the void deck of a Housing Board flat in the west and a landed property in Upper Bukit Timah.
International media such as British newspaper The Telegraph and American news magazine Time have praised the video.
Marketing and branding experts here were also impressed. Sharon Ng, an associate professor from Nanyang Business School’s division of marketing said: “It is brilliant. It mocks modern technology. When people look at it, they will have this knowing smile – it speaks to our inner understanding of technology.”
Saw this over the weekend and laughed hysterically. Well played IKEA!
Now, now, careful laughing at the fan boyz, they have very thin skin.
Already posted here:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/3201627/posts
By an Apple fan, and pinged to the Apple ping list for their “thin skinned” enjoyment.
You say that as if IKEA didn’t have its own cult following.
I do not know what an IKEA is, sorry............
Once upon a time, IKEA made inexpensive Scandinavian furniture that you assembled at home.
Now, enormous IKEA stores (and the catalog) serve mankind (including a disproportionate number of hipsters, college students, young professionals, young singles, young couples, and the "I'm bringing my own hemp shopping bag' crowd) around the world.
Now, you "Join the IKEA Family" and shop for the bathroom, bedroom, children's IKEA, cooking, decoration, dining, eating, food, hallway, kitchen, laundry, lighting, living room, office furniture, outdoor, secondary storage, small storage, textiles and rugs, IKEA FAMILY products, and more. Those are the departments in an IKEA store.
I'm not knocking the quality of IKEA's products. It's just that IKEA has a core group of IKEA FAMILY members who wouldn't think of putting an object in their home that didn't come from IKEA. Fan boyz pay more attention to Windows when buying a new computer than the IKEA FAMILY does to any other source when shopping for furnishings.
BFL
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