Reimagining traditional marketing tactics

I received a link today via email. It contained one of the cleverest ads I’ve seen in a long time. Clever because it’s gone viral, and through humor and smarts has gotten people to share a video promoting a catalog. That’s right, an old fashioned, paper catalog.

Kudos to IKEA for coming up with a way to make a traditional marketing channel (that still works, by the way) new and, dare I say, cool?

Now, I don’t know the results of this ad. Did more people pick up the catalog? Did it sell more cabinets or tchotchkes? That’s of course important. But the reality is they did what every marketer tries to do with their marketing tactics – cut through the clutter and get engagement. Plus, they’ve elevated their catalog to the level of electronic tactics for ease of use, high definition pictures and battery life (ha!).

The point is, this is not just good marketing, but it is also a brilliant way of marrying traditional and interactive tactics and a reminder not to throw out the old tactics just because they aren’t as shiny as digital. The two can work together beautifully – like peanut butter and jelly. Or, catalog and iPad.

Here’s the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MOXQo7nURs0