IKEA Chooses McCann As The First Global Brand Marketing Agency
Ingka Group, IKEA’s parent company has included a fresh, global agency agenda for all 31 countries where Ingka has operations. The IKEA brand will be strengthened worldwide as a result. After a comprehensive evaluation, the retailer brand has chosen McCann, the Madrid-based IPG agency network to be its advertising agency. Ingka Group’s Global Marketing Team will spearhead the partnership. Additionally, IKEA Spain’s Marketing Team will act as the operating team.
IKEA’s vision
The novel strategy is based on the idea that all people have the same fundamental needs. IKEA’s goal is to improve the quality of life for several people. It holds that all individuals need to sleep, eat, and spend time with their loved ones. With this strategy, they may set the tone and give the brand an opportunity to interact with people regardless of their culture, living situation, or age. Moreover, it will convey their ideas through international brand marketing campaigns.
IKEA Partners with McCann Worldgroup
IKEA wants to make its agency operations more efficient. The home goods chain selected McCann Worldgroup, thanks to the latter’s global philosophy of Truth Well Told. The concept aligns with IKEA’s mission of enhancing people’s daily lives. McCann Spain was appointed following the success of the partnership between the IKEA Global Marketing Team and the IKEA Spain Marketing Team. With McCann Worldgroup Spain as its center of operations, the agency will oversee IKEA retail for the Ingka Group. There will be 379 IKEA locations spread across 31 markets. The collaboration will begin in September 2023. The outcome of this alliance will be visible in the spring of 2024.
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IKEA’s Previous Partnerships
IKEA has long collaborated on marketing initiatives with several international agencies. Among these agencies were Ogilvy and Mother London. IKEA also collaborated with TBWA\Group Singapore in Southeast Asia for three years. The majority of the brand’s creative work feels within the agency’s control. It includes integrated campaigns, store opening campaigns, and digital and social communications. With the recent loss of Verizon’s account to Ogilvy in the United States still fresh in their minds, McCann’s victory in securing the IKEA business comes at the perfect time.
Here’s what they said
Licca Li, acting global marketing manager of Ingka Group said,
As one of the most trusted brands in the world, we have the responsibility to show how we are leading from our vision and purpose; that we are siding with the many through our affordable range and actions we take as a company for people and the planet. I am excited to see how this shift gives us the opportunity to connect to more people with a stronger voice.
Gabriel Ladaria, IKEA Spain’s marketing director added,
We are very excited that McCann has been finally chosen as winner, with us as the operating team. It makes us proud and serves as an acknowledgment for the work that has been carried out for the IKEA brand in Spain for years now. It also comes with the responsibility to build up and strengthen the emotional connection with consumers from all Ingka Group countries in a solid and consistent way, while leaning on the strengths that have shaped how we communicate at IKEA Spain and positioned the IKEA brand as the benchmark it is today.
Daryl Lee, Global CEO of McCann Worldgroup and McCann continued,
We are humbled and excited to be appointed as IKEA’s first global brand marketing partner. IKEA’s vision to create a better everyday life for the many people, based on universal truths, is perfectly aligned with our global philosophy of Truth Well Told. Our teams that collaborated around the world, brilliantly led by McCann Spain, cannot wait to launch an enduring brand platform that resonates globally and further builds IKEA’s leadership position in every market.
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McCann Content Studios Unites Social and Creator Capabilities
McCann has announced McCann Content Studios. It intends to offer businesses worldwide the capability of integrated social commerce, influencer marketing, and social media marketing. This new studio will include performance monitoring, audience development, creator relationships, and creative services. It will include comprehensive social and creator strategy and execution in a single organization. It will help streamline the process for customers working on social and creator-led campaigns. The network’s social and influencer strategy skills, as well as those for social creative ideation and content creation, social audience, connection tactics, and activation, influencer content co-creation and production, performance measurement, and optimization, will all be housed at McCann Content Studios. The addition of expertise from ITB and McCann LIVE should help the unit get off to a solid start.
McCann Content Studios
McCann Content Studios will implement the innovative influencer agency ITB from IPG. It was established in 2006 and has offices in London, New York, and Los Angeles. For clients like Unilever and Mastercard, the agency has a proven track record of success in leveraging influencers to promote brand platforms. The studio will also incorporate the global social practice, McCann LIVE. It has influenced the social policy of businesses like Converse in the US and Aldi in the UK.
As the distinctions between social media and the creator economy become more hazy, the new content studio is positioned as a full-service provider. The expected expenditure on influencer marketing would increase 3.5 times faster than spending on traditional social media ads. The ongoing Hollywood strikes may also encourage more creators to look for endorsement deals when productions come to a standstill. Customers, however, continue to rely on creative and engagement trends generated from popular Gen Z apps such as TikTok.
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The new unit leadership
The agency has chosen Amit Sutha to lead McCann Content Studios as president and global chief client officer. He will report to Daryl Lee (CEO). Sutha has had a global career spanning continents. Most recently, he served as Global Chief Client Officer and Global President of Performance & Campaign Content at Mediabrands Content Studios. Sutha has built both creative and media firms into leadership positions in their industry. His work at Mediabrands, which combined the best in media, storytelling, talent, data, and collaboration, significantly changed the concept of creative media content.
McCann and McCann Content Studio have promoted Monica Tailor, formerly the Global Director of McCann LIVE, to Chief Social Marketing Officer. Under Tailor’s direction, McCann LIVE swiftly established itself as an essential component of McCann’s core client offering, fusing brands with culture in exciting and unique ways. She developed a brand voice and brand storytelling that maximized social attention and conversions, assisting McCann’s integrated Aldi team in becoming internationally known.
Crystal Malachias, who was previously SVP of Global Growth & Innovation at ITB, has been named Global Head of Influencer at McCann Content Studios. She has extensive experience in influencer marketing and has worked with Hearst, and Say Media, and helped launch Refinery29 in the UK.
Here’s what they said
McCann global CEO Daryl Lee said in a statement,
Brands are increasingly interacting today in social communities in dialogue with fans, creators, and influencers. McCann Content Studios will provide our clients with a way to participate in the creator economy and co-create with them without losing their brand’s unique perspective and social voice, getting the best of both worlds.
He further added,
We have some of the industry’s very best leading McCann Content Studios. Amit is a content entrepreneur with a proven track record of commercial success. Monica is a pioneer of brand-driven social marketing for some of the world’s most socially impactful brands. Crystal is a trailblazing influencer marketing talent who understands the power of creators to shape culture and advocate for brands. Together, they represent a powerhouse of expertise that will help guide brands to new frontiers of co-creativity
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