"We feel this a good time for some renovation, renewal, when it
comes to our big global media -- which is the catalog we produce
and ikea.com the website," Ms. Simonsson Berge said. "What we
believe we need to do is some renovation...We have an in-house
agency, we call them Ikea Communiations or ICom, and they are the
main supplier for the communications we do. We felt that we needed
another external complement to ICom."
The retailer's site is slated for some big changes. "We have in
our tradition and in our blood how to create a three-dimensional
shopping experience in store, and I feel we are still exploring how
to find our identity and tell the Ikea story on the web," said Ms.
Simonsson Berge. "It's not just to fix functionalities and
technical requirements. It's very much also to build the brand in a
stronger way."
The previous site was created by Interpublic Group of Cos.' Huge
, which continues to work with Ikea. Ms. Simonsson-Berge stressed
that McCann is not replacing Huge , since the marketer has never
had global agencies of record before. The very first Ikea website
was developed by another Interpublic agency, Deutsch, back in the late '90s. Ikea
has asked McCann to deliver a prototype of a new website by
spring.
It seems unusual that Ikea would choose a creative agency to
overhaul its web presence, vs. a pure-play digital agency, but the
marketer said it's a better fit. "I don't perceive McCann as being
very traditional even though they have a traditional network
setup," Ms. Simonsson-Berge said. "Why choose an agency that is
more traditional or more into communication vs. technology? That's
actually what we need. What we want to create is a better, more
joyful shopping experience." She added "The main reason we have
chosen to work with McCann in both cases is more about the people
than the McCann network. We feel there is a good fit when it comes
to the values of the people we work with at McCann, and that is so
important at Ikea because Ikea has such a strong culture."
Asked whether Ikea has taken to McCann because of senior
creative -- and Swede -- Linus Karlsson, she said: "Competence and
personality in this case comes before nationality. It's a bonus
that he's Swedish, I would say."
Ikea spends an estimated $300 million per year, so securing some
pieces of that global marketing budget is helpful to McCann at a
time when it's seen turbulence on some global accounts. It recently
lost some Nescafe business, and last week it lost a major chunk of its global Exxon business to
Omnicom Group's BBDO, though its
sibling shop Universal McCann won
consolidated media duties. It also is currently waiting to hear a
decision on a global pitch for Lufthansa's business, which has been
handled by McCann out of Germany.
