IKEA · Åkestam Holst NoA · August 2026
Every tidy room has another side to it. The side crammed with toys, clothes, cables and things you might need again one day. IKEA turned that familiar truth into outdoor advertising by hiding the mess behind the billboard and putting SAMLA storage boxes to work
Challenge
Storage boxes are useful, but not especially exciting. IKEA needed to remind people why they matter without returning to the usual pictures of impossibly perfect homes.
Because homes do not stay tidy for long. IKEA’s research found that 83% of people in Sweden have at least one room they struggle to keep under control.
Strategy
Show both sides of a tidy room.
The calm, organised side is what people see. The mess behind it is what made the transformation possible.
Rather than pretending the clutter had disappeared, IKEA made it part of the campaign. SAMLA became the unsung hero, quietly containing everything that everyday life throws into a room.
Execution
From the front, the installations looked like conventional IKEA billboards showing tidy, well-designed homes.
Walk around the back and the honest twist appeared.
SAMLA boxes were filled to the brim with toys, clothes, vintage records, electronics and half-finished children’s drawings. All the ordinary clutter that had been removed to create the perfect room on the other side.
The storage solution was hidden in plain sight. The billboard did not just advertise SAMLA. It showed exactly what SAMLA had done.
Campaigns That Used Similar Tactics
Media Metaphors → Let the Format Do the Arguing: Make the natural mechanics of print, outdoor, audio, search, social or broadcast demonstrate the idea without relying on explanatory copy.
Huggable Poster — giffgaff, 2026
An outdoor poster physically hugged people to dramatise “more data for no extra cost”. Like IKEA, the media carries out the benefit instead of merely describing it.
Smooth Deliveries — IAMS, 2026
Oversized pet rears were positioned above an airport baggage carousel, making smooth digestion part of the carousel’s natural delivery motion.
Certified — BMW, 2019
To demonstrate that certified pre-owned BMWs still ran like new, BMW brought back the original commercials that had advertised those models when they were new. Updated voiceovers reframed the recycled advertising around the recycled cars.
Media Metaphors → Build Something Physical That Can’t Be Ignored
Flat-Pack Copenhagen — IKEA, 2026
IKEA wrapped a prominent Copenhagen building as an enormous flat-pack, turning the city’s housing challenge into something that looked like an IKEA problem to solve.
The Question That Could Get You There
What could the hidden part of our advertising reveal about the product?
