Is this a great case study?
Ikea was launching a new location and wanted to generate lots of attention. Their store manager uploaded pictures of twelve showrooms and puts them all on his profile page. People tag items they want as themselves, and they win those items. First come first served. Over time, the manager (or agency behind him) uploads additional photos of showrooms and lots more people come and tag themselves to win free items.
This is a fairly innovative use a less than marketing-centric function on Facebook, photo-tagging. By focussing on tagging, Ikea drove all social interactions to the tagger's Wall, driving much stronger exposure to the social action. Very strategic.
But there's a catch. First of all, Ikea leveraged their manager's personal page, not a Brand Page. While I'm sure Ikea worked out the legal ramifications in regards to Facebook's Terms of Service, this may limit the long term value of the page. The social equity resides on a personal, not a brand domain. If the manager leaves the store, good bye fans. If the store wants to advertise on Facebook, good luck. If the store wants to build an ad cluter on Facebook for later retargeting, good luck. Additionally, as with any giveaway the value of the fans collected is questionable.
Overall, this campaign was successful at two things: generating local attention for a new local store, and putting a local face on the brand, bringing a person and his personality to the table. Great campaign, but I'm still on the fence as to whether or not this was a sound launching point for a long term strategy.
Case Study Video Below
