IKEA has flipped one of its most recognisable food offerings on its head, putting the bread on the inside of its iconic hot dog as part of a new campaign launching in Saudi Arabia.
Dubbed the ‘DOG HOT’, the backwards snack is the teaser for IKEA Alsulaiman’s new Reverse Shop campaign, created by Droga5 London to launch the brand’s new Buyback Service.
And yes, the DOG HOT is exactly what it sounds like. It’s an upside-down take on the familiar IKEA hot dog, made using real IKEA buns and sausages.
The campaign takes the idea of “reverse shopping” literally. Under IKEA Alsulaiman’s new Buyback Service, customers can sell their used IKEA furniture back to the retailer, with IKEA effectively becoming the buyer rather than the seller.
To launch the service, Droga5 has reversed virtually everything about the IKEA brand.
The campaign shows familiar IKEA products, including the BILLY bookcase and STRANDMON yellow wing chair, from behind, while prices, headlines and other campaign assets appear backwards.
The teaser launched on September 3 with the DOG HOT and the message “IKEA goes reverse on September 6”, before the full Reverse Shop campaign rolled out across Saudi Arabia on September 6.
Digital ads feature backwards furniture, prices and copy, while campaign films play in reverse, complete with backwards music.
IKEA has also taken the concept into its owned channels. App users received the backwards push notification, “?yub ew dna lles uoy fi tahW”, while email newsletters were written backwards and the brand launched a backwards Instagram account.
Influencers have also been challenged to perform everyday activities in reverse, demonstrating the difficulty of doing things backwards while reinforcing the simplicity of IKEA’s new Buyback Service.
The campaign marks Droga5 London’s first project for IKEA Alsulaiman and spans social, digital, film, CRM, IKEA’s website and app, in-store communications and other media.
Rami Rihani, chief marketing and communications officer at Alsulaiman Group, said the simplicity of the idea was central to the campaign.
“The strongest ideas are often the simplest,” Rihani said.
“IKEA’s Buyback Service reverses the traditional relationship between IKEA and our customers: they sell and we buy. We loved the idea of our ads doing the same.”
He added that the campaign was designed to use the familiarity of IKEA in an unexpected way, calling it “a great first project with Droga5 London”.
For Droga5 London executive creative director Juliana Paracencio, the concept was almost too simple.
“The idea was almost annoyingly simple. IKEA’s Buyback Service is shopping in reverse. So we reversed IKEA,” she said.
“The logo, the furniture, the copy, even the hot dog.”
Paracencio said the challenge was resisting the temptation to overcomplicate the idea once it had been established.
“This idea was all about keeping things simple and pure,” she said.
Droga5 London chief creative officer Tara Ford added: “Iconic brand. Brilliant service. Bold and simple idea. It’s a killer combination for any campaign.”
The Reverse Shop campaign is part of IKEA Alsulaiman’s broader circularity and sustainability efforts, with the Buyback Service allowing customers to sell their pre-owned IKEA furniture back to the business.
It’s not IKEA’s only recent brand quirk turned into a campaign, however.
The reverse hot dog comes as IKEA continues to turn some of its most recognisable brand quirks into creative platforms. Earlier this month, IKEA teamed up with Ogilvy Amsterdam for The Swedish Test, a Back-to-School TikTok challenge asking consumers to prove they can pronounce the retailer’s famously tricky Swedish product names.
The activation tapped into TikTok’s voice-recognition trend, with players starting with relatively simple names such as LACK and BILLY before progressing to harder tests including SKÄMTSKÅL to be in to win an IKEA gift card.
Credits:
Client: IKEA Alsulaiman (Part of Alsulaiman Group)
Group Chief Marketing & Communications Officer: Rami Rihani
Group Marketing Manager: Wid Sindi
Social Media Leader: Raneem Kayal
Social Media Marketing Specialist: Rafal Flimban
Marketing Specialist: Payaswini Prasad
Customer Engagement Specialist: Lian Bahaddad
Performance Marketing Leader: Haadi Farooqi
Agency: Droga5 London Chief Creative Officer: Tara Ford Executive Creative Director: Juliana Paracencio Creative Director: Jackson Byrne
Creative Director: James Leake Art Director: Amanda Weber Copywriter: Katherine Roddam
Head of Production: Montgomery
Producer: Ed Webster
Project Manager: Nikki Ford
Creative Director of Design: Dan Roberts
Head of Design Studio: Tim Larke
Design Director: Ryan Belmont
Senior Designer: Joel Brunn
Motion Lead: Meric Pine
Motion Designer: Rob Wicksteed
Motion Designer: John Beechey Head of Studio: Mike Almond
Lead Artworker: Paul Callaby
Retoucher: Ray X Lee
Retoucher: Luke Sneddon
Retoucher: Sam Coyle
Head of Strategy: Matthew Waksman
Strategy: Liv Francis-Cornibert
Production Company: Metcalfe Lancaster
Photographer: Tal Siverman
Food Stylist: Kostas Starvrinos
Producer: Julie Metcalfe
Food Styling Assistant: Graham Tait
Digi Tech: Dan Burwood
Audio Post Production Company: 750mph London ADR Mixer: Tristan Rose
