IKEA Offers Russians a Night at the Movies—in Bed
Russia may be suffering through an economic downturn, but IKEA announced in September that it plans to invest 2 billion euros ($2.5 billion) to expand and upgrade its stores in the country.
To extend that goodwill, the world's biggest furniture retailer is bringing its brand to the public in unexpected places. Its latest foray into веселье (you know—"fun") is to take over a Russian movie house in a Moscow suburb and offer up a night at the movies with a twist.
Instead of watching the film the regular boring way, IKEA replaced cinema seats with beds so that moviegoers could curl up together, and snack on some choklad and popcorn.
The cozy screening room idea by IKEA Russia and Kinostar de Lux cinema is part of the retailer's local "Wake Up Love" integrated marketing campaign to launch its latest catalog and drive store traffic.
"At the presentation of the new IKEA catalog, we to asked visitors: What should we do to have more love around us?" IKEA Russia’s digital manager Alex Ovechkin told local media, according to RT.com, of the tie-in with Kinostar.
"One of the most frequent responses was ‘to spend more time together.’ Thus was born the idea of creating a home environment in a movie theater," he added.
(Don’t worry, the sheets were changed and the crumbs whisked away between showings. Reuters even has photos to prove it.)
The bedroom cinema is reminiscent of KLM's apartment airplane stunt with Airbnb—and IKEA Australia’s out-of-home effort this past August.
In the Aussie stunt, a partnership with a short-term rental site let IKEA fans finally find out what everyone wonders about: what it's like spend the night in an IKEA store.
