Working with Mother London and IKEA is always an amazing experience. The spots are playful, fun and always look brilliant.
This one, entitled; ‘Let Play Unwind Your Mind’ is about how stressful life can be and what can happen when you rediscover the 'Art of Play'. Face it, constant notifications, emails piling up and endless Zoom calls can be crippling.
In the spot, our everyday hero is distracted from the day-to-day when her partner chucks a ping pong ball in her direction trying to break the spell she is under, shrugging as if to say “might as well play”.
She gives in, returns a shot, but the more she hits the ball, the more we see her relax and loosen up. She embraces play, the more fun and carefree she becomes, the more we start to see that the table grows longer and longer. From there on we see her letting go of the everyday.
On to the song, the fun bit - Wake The Town needed to find something that reflects the playful switch and have a sense of freedom afforded by play. The key elements the team needed to look for in a song was; fun, pace-y, quirky, cool and with tonnes of energy. Yet without ever being too overpowering.
Oh and it needed to be a bit trippy.
IKEA is different, never the same and always adventurous so we can really reach beyond the well-known and explore deeper, contemporary cuts. After three rounds visiting the realms of percussive, left field British free form artists to out-there Northern European beat makers. A different artist came into play.
Her name is Raja Kumari, an Indian/American singer and rapper mostly known for being a talented songwriter to other artists. Her co-writing roster covers big names such as Gwen Stefani and Dr. Dre.
However, as well as being an awesome writer for other artists, she also creates very exciting music performed under her own name.
One track that stood out to Wake The Town was ‘Shook’. From the melodic hook to the swag-filled beat. From lyrics that ooze with confidence and pride, there was no question - this track has you hooked from the very first seconds until its last moments. The team believed it to be a perfect match and so did IKEA.
It is always great to find a spot for an artist with such originality and charm.