Mother London's Fantastical New IKEA Ad is All Kinds of Fun

IKEA, the leading home furnishing company, is encouraging parents to “Come Home to Play” in its latest campaign inspiring adults to learn from childish enthusiasm by throwing off the shackles of “serious” and embracing the power of play.

“Come Home to Play”, the next installment in ‘The Wonderful Everyday’ campaign, sees an unlikely group of fantasy friends – a bat, an eagle and a robot – strolling along a path. As the bat and eagle take flight, whirling in happiness above Robot’s head, they realise that their earth-bound friend has never flown before and take it upon themselves to teach him. After some shaky beginnings, soon Robot has shaken off the shackles of gravity and is soaring high with his friends. As the friends climb upwards, we are transported to a family lounge where two children are dressed as a bat and an eagle playing with their father, who is eagerly joining in dressed as a robot.

The ad hopes to communicate a sense of returning to and re-learning play, focusing on the home and intergenerational play between parents and their children.

It will launch with a 60 second TVC across the UK and Ireland on November 7th before outdoor executions go live between 21st November to 26th December, all supported by CRM and social.

Peter Wright, IKEA UK and Ireland Marketing Manager, said, “As adults we know we can’t control the world around us and this often gets in the way of being able to embrace the Wonderful Everyday; life becomes a barrier to relaxation and fun. Research has shown that play is vital for children’s development, but it’s also been shown to be beneficial for adults, helping relieve stress and develop creative problem solving skills. We want to inspire people in the importance of making play part of their everyday lives at home.”

The campaign will feature 60 and 20 second ad spots, as well as social, press, outdoor executions CRM and PR executions.  It runs from 7th November to the 1st of January.

The TV, print, outdoor and social content has been developed by Mother, working Daren Rabinovitch of Encyclopedia Pictura, who directed the TV commercial. The social and print activity, which has been planned and implemented by the Dentsu Aegis agencies Vizeum and Isobar, aims to help people make ‘play’ part of their everyday, irrespective of their circumstances. This has been achieved by collaborating with Mother to identify the needs of individual audience groups and serving unique content to each, enabling to them to live a more playful life in the home regardless of their living situation.