W+K Made a Version of an Arcade Photo Booth for Tokyo Ikea

Buckle up for cuteness overload that occurs after-hours in an Ikea store.

Part Toy Story, part Night at the Museum, a new spot called “Night at the Fotobox,” created by Wieden + Kennedy Tokyo, promotes a permanent installation that W+K made for an Ikea Japan store—a “Fotobox” inspired by Japan’s popular arcade photo booths.

The 70-second spot features Ikea’s plush golden retriever moving to a new store. Exploring the new digs at night, he encounters a flashlight-toting orangutan that happily shows him around. The soft light of the Fotobox beckons the pair to enter and they create some crafty pictures that they review on the orangutan’s phone. A new friendship is solidified.

“Ikea wanted to drive more visitation to their Shibuya store, particularly with 16- to 34-year-olds, for whom the Purikura experience is an incredibly popular and iconically Shibuya pastime,” says Max Pilwat, creative director and Max Cameron, copywriter at Wieden + Kennedy Tokyo.

Purikura is a photo booth machine, hugely popular in Tokyo’s Shibuya commercial district, except the photos are stickers and you can add effects, images and graffiti to it on the spot. The “Fotobox” is Ikea’s version. “We installed the Fotobox a year ago in the city center shop just around the corner from 109 Shibuya, the mecca of arcade photo booths,” Pilwat and Cameron say. “But we couldn’t properly communicate its existence due to Covid-19 precautions. The Fotobox is a permanent installation; it was time to celebrate it.”

Ikea’s version lets customers put a home decorating take on this, posing with stuffed toys, inside different showrooms and on top a veggie hotdog. But don’t forget the meatballs! Stickers of the beloved food can be added afterwards.

“We used a mix of puppeteering and stop motion animation to breathe life into our soft toys, which was a first for us,” the creatives tell Muse. “We had great partners and together we managed to work out how they would move naturally, how to push the levels of emotion, and how they would enjoy the Fotobox. We also had the challenge of building the Fotobox. Instead of doing the simple thing of reskinning an existing machine and adding some branding, we built the entire machine, interface and digital output from scratch. We also had to make it affordable (free), sustainable (digital only) and easy to understand step-by-step.”

CREDITS

CLIENT: IKEA Japan
PROJECT NAME: IKEA Shibuya Fotobox – “Night at the Fotobox”

WIEDEN+KENNEDY TOKYO
Creative Director: Max Pilwat
Art Director: Shohei Kawada
Copywriters: Max Cameron, Yuji Takahashi
Designer: Shohei Kawada, Bryant Wutuh
Head of Production: Michelle Brough
Agency Producer: Masataka Odaka, Siyun Kim
Account Team: Jordan Cappadocia, Chelsea Hayashi, Naomi Hirano, Isao Okubo
Comms Planner: Joanna Fukae
Studio Manager: Aiwei Ichikawa
Translator: Takuro Kobayashi, Toshiko Iida
PR: Midori Sugama
Agency Videographer/Photographer: Vinod Vijayasankaran
Agency Editor: Jacob Kim
Managing Director: Yosuke Suzuki
Executive Creative Director: Scott Dungate

Film Production
Director: Masahito Kobayashi (dwarf studios)
Producer: Hiroki Ito (dwarf studios)
Production Manager: Momo Hiramatsu (dwarf studios)
Production Assistants: Takana Goda (dwarf studios), Junko Negishi (dwarf studios), Emi Satomura (dwarf studios), Naho Aoki (dwarf studios)
DOP: Kazumi Takahashi (ellory Inc.)
1st Assistant Cameraman: Hiroyuki Oka (ellory Inc.), Shinnosuke Suzuki (ellory Inc.)
2nd Assistant Cameraman: Kento Kurosawa (ellory Inc.)
Puppeteer: Mamika Kawajiri (PUPPET THEATRE PUK)
Puppeteer: Saiya Seki (STUDIO NOVA)
Puppeteer Remodeler: Kazuyoshi Matsuyama (STUDIO NOVA)
Puppeteer Assistant: Midori Sakamoto (STUDIO NOVA)
Gaffer: Toru Saito
Best Boy Electric: Yasuhiro Yoshida
Best Boy: Kosuke Matsushita, Yusuke Suzuki
Colorist: Ai Hirata (TREE Digital Studio)
Assistant Colorist: Miku Minai (TREE Digital Studio)
Editor: Makoto Hoashi
Music, Sound Design, Mix: Masataka Odaka, Yukie Sone
Retoucher: Daiichi Seihan