Ikea’s chief creative officer leaves to join SharkNinja

Linus Karlsson, global chief creative officer at Ikea for the past four years, is leaving to take a newly created CCO role at SharkNinja, the tech-forward maker of household appliances and other consumer products. At Ikea, Karlsson had global oversight of creative direction and strategy across both product development and marketing, which was designed to unite the products with the stories being told about them. He will have the same mandate at SharkNinja, said CEO Mark Barrocas. Super Bowl ad review The best and worst commercials from the Big Game Click here “What initially connected me with Linus was the passion for product,” Barrocas said. “We’re all about consumer-focused, disruptive innovation and great storytelling that creates consumer demand. If you have a great, disruptive product and you tell a bad story, it doesn’t work. You can have a great story, but if the product doesn’t resonate with consumers, it doesn’t work. You need both.” Karlsson starts at SharkNinja on March 3. Ikea has not announced a replacement for him. He will be based in New York, where SharkNinja is set to open a new Creative Design Hub later this year, and will travel frequently to SharkNinja’s global headquarters in Needham, Massachusetts. Karlsson said his interest in SharkNinja surged after he saw a video of Barrocas presenting last fall at IFA Berlin, the consumer technology trade show. “I was like, ‘Holy smoke, who’s this guy? No one talks like this,‘” said Karlsson. “He had this whole thing about being in the consumer problem-solving business. I loved that. I was very happy at Ikea, but the more I learned about SharkNinja, I was like, ‘Wow, there is something new going on here.‘” At SharkNinja, the creative department has traditionally reported into marketing. Six months ago, Barrocas pulled out creative, which now reports to him. The idea is to get creative involved earlier in the core product development, not just later on in demand generation. “I really want engineering and product development and creative to be very well connected,” said Barrocas. “I want creative at the early-stage prototype point of the product to help bring the story to life.” “At the end of the day, it starts and ends with our products,” said Karlsson. “That’s one thing Ikea and SharkNinja have in common. Deep, deep understanding of consumer needs and wants, and you’ve got to get the product right. It needs to be innovative and smart, and that’s where I see a very different company when I look at SharkNinja.” Super Bowl ad review The best and worst commercials from the Big Game Click here SharkNinja has big plans for its Creative Design Hub in the Flatiron district of New York. The company plans at least 45 new hires at launch for the office, which gives SharkNinja a base from which to recruit top New York creative talent. SharkNinja does not have an agency of record but has worked with a roster of shops, including Malka, Taxi in the U.K. and SleekMachine. In-house vs. agency roles—what to know before making a switch The office will be on Madison Avenue, which Karlsson said felt prophetic, given his many years working at top advertising agencies. Karlsson began his career as a copywriter in his native Sweden. He has worked at agencies including Fallon, Mother, McCann, Commonwealth//McCann and Crispin Porter + Bogusky in his career. “I’m very excited about the office,” he said. “My goal, together with Mark, is to attract the best creative talent, to make this a global hub for creativity and to help us write the next chapter of what marketing should look like. This is a little bit provocative, but maybe this is the rebirth of Madison Avenue—just in a different way.”

Ikea’s chief creative officer leaves to join SharkNinja

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