Inspired by high fashion and Japanese minimalism, Forsman & Bodenfors created not only a desire for the brand’s products (specifically kitchen appliances) but a beautiful cookbook and fun mobile app. When tasked with promoting the home furnishing’s spatulas, bowls, and the like, this creative team turned what could have been another oh-look-how-they-shot-those-tongs exercise and instead delivered something memorable and measurable.
The “Homemade Is Best” campaign’s foundation is a 140-page cookbook that looks like nothing we’ve seen before. Leave it to Ikea to shift the frame and show us cooking from an accessible and design-savvy perspective. Carl Kleiner’s photos are curious and playful. Who knew that the ingredients for thumbprint cookies were so spectacular?
Copies of the book are being distributed as a free gift to customers who visit the kitchen areas of Ikea stores in Sweden. It is not currently available in other countries, but the agency hopes it will be soon.
Not content with just the baking guide as coffee-table book, the campaign also includes an app to help folks work off the calories they consume as they bake and eat their way through 30 classic Swedish recipes. Users choose their cake and form of exercise, and off they go! Tracking routes, counting calories, and saving favorites front a gentle reminder to check out Ikea’s goods, but are always at the forefront.
From small cookies to large cakes, Forsman & Bodenfors have cooked up a delicious campaign that puts Ikea in the kitchen, having fun and inviting us to join.
Very interesting marketing tactic.
But the meta questions is, what does it mean that words living ephemerally in a virtual world have inspired someone who loves reading beautiful cookbooks but doesn’t really cook to lust after a cookbook that isn’t really available… all in 30 seconds flat?
You tell me.