Ikea made a match-making AR game show to promote its Place app

'Matchers Keepers' promotes the launch of the app for Android this week

Published On
Mar 19, 2018

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Ikea is promoting the launch of its Ikea Place furniture placement app for Android this week with a game show it's created titled "Matchers Keepers," based around the idea of housemates trying to match their taste in furniture via augmented reality.

The show, which is being broadcast as two-minute YouTube films, is based around the premise that furniture can often be a source of tension between couples and housemates. In the game, two separate housemates use the augmented reality app to choose an item of furniture--but they only get to keep it if they pick the same item. For example in the first episode (seen here) two female housemates compete to choose a couch, and other episodes see pairs trying to find a match in lamps and desks.

Matchers Keepers was created by 72andSunny Amsterdam, the agency behind the marketing for Ikea Place, which originally launched for iPhone back in September. It describes the show (which is hosted by lifestyle blogger Caroline Solomon in somewhat cheesy, ironic style) as "the pastel-coloured Ikea version of TV game shows like 'The Newlywed Game."

Gregg Clampffer, creative director, 72andSunny Amsterdam, explains the thinking behind the game show: "When we took Ikea Place into our own homes and tried it with our partners it became apparent almost immediately that the furnishings we were placing and the ones that they wanted to place were not the same. We figured that consumers could also appreciate this tense but good spirited challenge of high stakes furniture selection."

You can watch the episodes on YouTube, but it's also possible to play the matching game yourself at home, with both yourself and a partner using the Ikea Place app (you won't win any prizes though--it's just for fun.)