IKEA - GLOBALLY LOCAL
TAKING A GLOBAL CONCEPT AND ADDING A TOUCH OF LOCAL FLARE
THE INSIGHT
In this region, homes aren’t just places you live in, they’re extensions of who you are. People want their spaces to reflect their culture, memories, and everyday rituals, not just look like something copied from a catalogue. IKEA is loved for its clean, Scandinavian style, but there was a gap. Customers here were already mixing global design with local touches to make their homes feel more “them.” That tension between global aesthetic and local identity became the opportunity. If homes are personal, then design should feel personal too.
THE IDEA
We turned IKEA from a global brand that sells furniture into a platform that celebrates local creativity. By inviting regional artists to reinterpret iconic IKEA pieces through their own cultural lens, the products became more than furniture, they became stories. These one-of-a-kind pieces lived in stores, sparked conversations, and showed how global design can adapt to local life. Instead of asking people to fit into IKEA’s world, we showed how IKEA can fit into theirs.
Then we expanded the stories across the region, tackling one IKEA hotspot after the other. Starting with OMAN and expanding to the UAE, Qatar, and Egypt. Next…the campaign keeps going.
THE ROLLOUT
THE SOCIAL CONTENT
The campaign lived primarily on social, where each artist became a storyteller of their own piece. Through a series of short-form videos, reels, and posts, audiences followed the journey from blank product to finished artwork, seeing the inspiration, cultural references, and craftsmanship behind every transformation. Behind-the-scenes content captured the messy, human moments of creation, sketches, experiments, setbacks, and breakthroughs, making the process feel as meaningful as the final result. By letting each artist speak in their own voice and style, the rollout felt less like brand content and more like a window into real creative stories, building anticipation before the pieces were revealed in store.
OMAN
WE UTILIZED OUR PR INITIATIVES TO BRING MORE ACTIVATIONS AND COVERAGE TO THE CAMPAIGN
EXPANDING THE CONTENT WITH BTS AND PRODUCT DISPLAYS
We didn’t stop at the artist stories. We pushed the content further by showing the pieces up close and in real settings, so people could really see the thought, detail, and effort behind each one. More BTS moments captured the craftsmanship, the tiny decisions, the trial and error, the parts you usually never see. At the same time, the finished pieces were placed in-store and shot in ways that showed how they could actually live inside someone’s home, not just as art on a pedestal, but as part of everyday life. It helped people imagine these pieces in their own spaces and made the whole idea feel tangible, not just conceptual.
IN-PERSON WORKSHOPS AND MORE PRODUCT DISPLAYS
We brought the idea into the real world by hosting intimate, in-store workshops led by the artists themselves, giving people the chance to hear the stories firsthand and even try the techniques behind the pieces. It made the whole thing feel less like a campaign and more like a cultural exchange happening inside IKEA. Alongside the workshops, we expanded the product displays across the store, placing the customized pieces within everyday room setups so customers could see how they’d actually live in a home. The combination of live interaction and immersive displays turned passive browsing into a hands-on experience, where people didn’t just look at the work, they connected with it.
QATAR
UAE
EGYPT
AWARDS
STILL GATHERING THE GOLD
CREDITS
Saad Abu Touq
Yasser Hamdy
Rawan Mahmoud
Meryem Raji
Farah Talaat
Haya Khalil
Bana Shennak
Sami Abou Fakhr
Chantelle Burchett
Nada Mukhtar
Sally Mezher
Rasha Al Moghrabi
Rajeev Nair
Yara Maalouf
Sameeha Saidalavi
Ayisha Alka
Shady Fekry
Zain Basalat
Paul Medina
Karl ElHitti
Juan Mendoza
Layan Abdo
Wateen AlMoghrabi
Joseph Al Khabbaz