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.
IKEA is known for its brilliant branding (Image credit: Mother)
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.
It's hard to miss (Image credit: Mother)
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.
Will the blue bag end up on London postcards? (Image credit: Mother)
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Rosie Hilder is Creative Bloq's Deputy Editor. After beginning her career in journalism in Argentina – where she worked as Deputy Editor of Time Out Buenos Aires – she moved back to the UK and joined Future Plc in 2016. Since then, she's worked as Operations Editor on magazines including Computer Arts, 3D World and Paint & Draw and Mac|Life. In 2018, she joined Creative Bloq, where she now assists with the daily management of the site, including growing the site's reach, getting involved in events, such as judging the Brand Impact Awards, and helping make sure our content serves the reader as best it can.
