IKEA makes a marketing stunt out of scaffolding

IKEA is coming to London's Oxford Street, and it's made its presence known via its iconic giant blue tote bag, which is covering the scaffolding on its new site. It certainly beats the usual 'coming soon' or 'don't mind us, we're just getting dressed' signs that shops often sport while they're getting a makeover.

The bag is 62-feet-tall and 128-feet -wide, making it the biggest IKEA blue bag we've seen, even bigger than the big blue bag sculpture that hit the States earlier this year. The stunt was created by Mother and is yet another piece of clever marketing from IKEA.

This giant bag reminds us all that IKEA is coming to Oxford Street, and the bag is going to be there for a while, until autumn 2024, if all goes to plan. Like the best advertising stunts, its impact shouldn't wear off, as the bag is so iconic that visitors from around the world will 'get' that it signifies a new IKEA store. Londoners will no doubt stop noticing the bag, but will still know what it signifies.

Other marketing ploys from the Swedish homeware giant this year include adverts with no product, and a MTV Cribs parody. And in the past we've seen prints ads you can wee on (yes, really), and a Ronaldo water bottle ad that showed the brand is firmly part of the Zeitgeist. With this latest trick, IKEA has once again shown that it knows how best to leverage its brand.