IKEA Uses AR to Help Roommates Chose (& Win) Furniture
In a new campaign called Matchers Keepers, IKEA puts a fun, stylish twist on the stressful decision of agreeing on new furniture.
IKEA, of all stores, knows that agreeing with your roommates about new furniture can be complicated and often a source of arguments and stress. So, in an effort to bring the fun back into decorating your new home, 72andSunny Amsterdam has partnered with IKEA to release Matchers Keepers, a three-part game show.
In Matchers Keepers, two contestants are asked to select a piece of furniture. If they both guess the same piece to keep in their home, they win the piece to keep. IKEA's new AR app IKEA PLACE is featured in the film and lets contestants visualize the room with their choice of furniture in it. The host, lifestyle blogger Caroline Solomon, matches the pastel studio set in her soft yellow power suit, and her calm voice and removed demeanor is a strange divergence from the traditional over-the-top gameshow host model. This stylish ad gives off a retro, yet ironic vibe with vintage gaming sound effects and old-fashioned VCR monitors.
Episode 01: Couches features new roommates Vanessa and Liliane who struggle to agree on seating for their home, but the IKEA Place app comes in handy to help them decide.
In Episode 02: Lamps, Karol and Aime have a past of disagreeing abuout furnishings, but end up winning a lamp and two handfuls of confetti.
Episode 03: Desks chronicles the disagreements of David and Ilse, who lose two rounds, yet succeed in the bonus round by settling for a couch.
The app gives users the ability to actually see what the new furniture would look like in their homes - from couches and chairs to tables and desks. An additional functionality of the app is a programme, made with visual search powered by Grokstyle, in which users take pictures of pieces that they like, while the app searches for a similar match from their IKEA furniture database.
“Barriers between the digital and physical world are disappearing fast. To keep pace with that change, we focus on opening up new ways for people to access IKEA, wherever they are”, says Michael Valdsgaard, leader of digital transformation at Inter IKEA Systems. “IKEA Place helps solve a genuine problem couples, families and friends face when it comes to reaching common ground on home furnishing choices. So why not turn a potential source of tension and conflict into fun with a game of Matchers Keepers before you head to one of our stores.”
