IKEA

The future is flatpack.

Ahhh Sweden. The land of ABBA, meatballs, socialized healthcare, frigid winters, frigid blondes—and affordable flatpack furniture.

IKEA is one of the world’s most iconic brands, but their digital presence needed a significant MAKEÖVER.

We started by creating the company’s first-ever shoppable app. The plan was to help users browse inspiring images, create lists, find products in store and complete their purchase in just a few taps. The “getting into a fight with one’s spouse during the assembly stage” was still on them.

During the app design process, we realized that IKEA’s tone of voice wasn’t translating from the beloved catalogue. While the brand has a well-known way of speaking to the world, there weren’t any real guidelines for how to write for their massive digital ecosystem.

So we made them.

After doing a comprehensive audit of all their platforms, we created writing guidelines specifically tailored for digital products and a more modern, savvy audience. The final result is an internal site that encompasses everything a writer (or designer… or strategist… or rogue PM) might need to know about writing for IKEA.

Then for our next trick, we helped IKEA announce their data ethics plan at Davos. The company wanted to establish new, human-first standards for ethical design—and a roadmap to put them into action. So with a very limited timeline, we created a vision for the future of data collection and transparency. We also dove deep into GDPR to revamp IKEA’s global privacy policy, in collaboration with their crack legal team.

The last step was writing the speech for IKEA’s Chief Digital Officer to deliver at Davos.

The work was recognized by Fast Company and has gotten significant press coverage in outlets like the Wall Street Journal.