To Tout Its Buyback Service in Saudi Arabia, Ikea Gets Everything Backwards

A mirror-world approach from Droga5

Do they sell mirrors at Ikea? Indeed they do, which is a good thing, because you’ll need one to fully appreciate the retailer’s new work from Droga5 that breaks today in Saudi Arabia.

The stuff runs backwards. This includes copy lines, prices and even music cues. Ultimately, everything’s righted to drive home the pitch.

Yes, advertisers have explored similar territory before, with Plusnet’s farewell to 2020 a salient example. But Ikea really leans in, reversing not just a few elements, but almost everything in sight.

Folks with sharp eyes might even detect something amiss with its classic hot dog:

That’s right … You don’t put ketchup on frankfurters. Ever! (Oh, the meat and bun are transposed, too.)

“When thinking of the simplest explanation of Ikea’s buyback service—you sell and Ikea buys—the idea revealed itself to us: It’s shopping, in reverse!” Droga5 London CCO Tara Ford tells Muse. Muse. “From there, we knew everything that could be reversed had to be reversed. We ran with it, exploring backwards art direction, copy, even reverse hot dogs.”

The idea proved a quick sell with the client, she says.

“This is one of those ideas that jumps off the page. The backwards furniture, the backwards logo, it was clear right from the beginning that we had something exciting. When we took it to them, they got it right away. And they pushed us to take it into as many channels as we could while keeping the idea pure.”

Ikea believes the work will appeal to young, savvy Saudis “skewing millennial into Gen Z,” according to Ikea Alsulaiman CMO Rami Rihani. This group “increasingly looks for brands to communicate in fresh, culturally relevant and unconventional ways. By showing up differently, the campaign creates curiosity and conversation while introducing a new service.”

“Buyback itself is a reflection of the confidence we have in the products we create,” Rihani says. “They’re designed to stand the test of time, and when customers no longer need them, their quality and value can give them a second life. It’s another way for Ikea to stand by its customers, making it more affordable to bring something new into their homes and reinforcing our commitment to creating a better everyday life for the many.”

As for campaign development, “It wasn’t as simple as taking a forward ad and flipping it. We needed to craft them so they land in that sweet spot of looking wrong but right, Ford recalls. “The biggest challenge was making sure that the ads could be understood, even while backwards. Whether that was tweaking the composition or realizing a certain word doesn’t read backwards very well.”

Music proved a tad difficult “as not every instrument reversed actually sounds reversed. We knew we needed something with reverb to really communicate the idea,” Ford says.

“The whole process of crafting this campaign was fun and unusual. We had to rethink our approach to art direction and copy. We were so immersed in this backwards world there came a point where it didn’t look wrong to us anymore.”

Related: Ikea Marked Sweden’s Sunniest Spot With a Pair of Big Stone Chairs