IKEA's Big Blue Bag marketing ploy just got better

The big blue bags at Ikea are almost as famous as the Ikea logo itself, and have become a recognisable symbol of the brand – something many shops aspire to, I'm sure. Following on from its The Giving Bag commercial, which began airing in the States a few months ago (scroll down if you missed it), IKEA has now created a 19-foot tall 3D Big Blue Bag sculpture, with AR capabilities, which is on tour in the US. 

Visitors to the Bag don't just get to reminisce about that time they had an argument with their partner/parent/child while looking at lampshades, but can also scan a QR code to get an AR experience (cue us feeling smug as we predicted AR was the future). 

The AR experience shows Ikea products flying out of the bag (this sounds very Mary Poppins-esque), plus an offer that gets you 10% off if you spend over $150 at the store. The latter is fuelled by Adobe's Aero, which uses Google's geospatial data to enable you to redeem their coupon at your nearest Ikea store.

The Bag has already been on display in Chicago's Millennium Park and is now in Houston's Discovery Green park, before it heads to New York. Behind this promotion is ad agency Ogilvy, which doesn't surprise me, as the agency is known for its clever stunts, including some standout billboard marketing campaigns. 

Ikea is also no stranger to clever marketing either – we recently covered a brave new advert that says its products are "second best" and we've also seen it parody MTV Cribs in another ad spot. Plus, who remembers that Ronaldo water bottle stunt?

If you've not seen the Giving Bag ad then it's also worth a look, see below: