Don’t get too clever / Ikea’s tongue-in-cheek campaign turns its late point system launch into a badge of honour.
Showing this vulnerability leverages the Pratfall Effect – the behavioural bias that sees admitting imperfections can make a brand more relatable and likeable. By playfully owning up to its late start to collecting points, Ikea flips a flaw into an effective feature, making the brand more relatable and winning hearts with humour.
Michal Sitkiewicz, art director and partner at Åkestam Holst NoA, told Contagious, ‘[The campaign] embraces the brand’s down-to-earth nature and its ability to laugh at itself. By openly acknowledging that Ikea is late to launch a points system, the campaign highlights self-awareness and humility, making the brand more relatable and inclusive. Ikea is a brand for many people, and by using humour and outdated viral trends, we are creating an emotional and personal connection with the target group.’
Ikea has truly mastered the art of self-awareness and humility in its campaigns; in the Middle East, its Proudly Second Best campaign light-heartedly showcased how little its products are actually used during the chaotic joys of parenthood. By poking fun at itself, Ikea showed that it truly understands the realities of parenting. As Carla Klumpenaar, general manager of marketing and communication at Al-Futtaim Ikea, told us at the time, ‘Humility is a value that lives in the heart of our brand.’
In on the joke / We recently spoke with Special US CCO, Dave Horton, about Uber’s humorous Brian Cox Goes to College campaign. Speaking about how the brand approaches humour, Horton told Contagious, ‘One thing we try to do a lot is tell jokes that people are in on. [...] We try to give [people] a premise they can relate to and enjoy, and then have fun with that premise so you’re not burying the lead. You’re able to enjoy seeing the joke you’re in on play out throughout the spot.’
Similarly, Ikea’s campaign succeeds with its simple, relatable humour. By tapping into the nostalgia of these well-known trends and keeping the message straightforward (these trends are outdated, just like this loyalty programme announcement), Ikea ensures the audience is in on the joke, creating an engaging shared experience.
It’s also a strategy that resonates with people in Sweden. Sitkiewicz told us, ‘A key insight is that Swedish customers value practicality and rewards that make their purchases feel worthwhile. However, loyalty programmes are often seen as uninspired or purely transactional. With this campaign, we are leveraging humour and self-awareness to challenge that perception, making the launch feel fresh and relatable to a broad audience.’
While other brands can’t replicate the exact same strategy (Ikea got there first), they can definitely adopt a similar attitude. The takeaway here is that, sometimes, owning an oversight with humour is far more engaging than pretending to be revolutionary and allows brands to connect with their customers.
‘It conveys the message that being part of Ikea Family isn’t just about practical benefits but also about belonging to a brand that doesn’t take itself too seriously and genuinely understands its customers,’ Sitkiewicz added.
