Pre-launch on-ground guerrilla activations
Before IKEA opened its first store in India, we created a series of high-impact, street-level activations to spark curiosity and introduce the brand’s design ethos to the public in unexpected ways.
1. The IKEA Bus Stop Takeover
We fully transformed a public bus stop using IKEA furniture and décor, turning an everyday transit point into a functional, Scandinavian-styled micro-showroom. Commuters could sit, interact, and experience IKEA comfort in the middle of the city — generating buzz, organic sharing, and strong pre-launch visibility.
2. The IKEA Auto (Tuk-Tuk) VR Experience
To take the experience mobile, we redesigned a traditional Indian auto-rickshaw with IKEA interiors and invited the public to hop in. Once inside, visitors received VR glasses that overlaid full-scale IKEA furniture onto real streets as they travelled. This created the illusion of seeing iconic IKEA rooms come to life in real time, on the roads of Hyderabad — a wildly novel experience at the time, and one that made the brand feel immersive, modern, and playful.
Both activations contributed to the lift in brand awareness, footfall, and repeat visits highlighted in the launch results earlier, while also generating over 650,000 views on YouTube. Together, they helped establish IKEA as a culturally relevant and design-forward brand even before the first store opened.
Below, you’ll find videos showcasing both activations, public reactions, and the excitement they generated in the lead-up to launch.
#HowAboutIKEA (social-first, real-time campaign)
#HowAboutIKEA was conceived as a fully social-first, real-time campaign designed to spark national conversation during the IPL season (India’s Super Bowl, but cricket). With advertising costs skyrocketing during this time, I developed an idea that would cost nothing and hijack every other IPL ad out there. It relied entirely on cultural observation, speed, and community participation (the details of the idea can be found in the moodboard below), allowing IKEA to create disproportionate impact without a single rupee of media spend.
What made the campaign especially powerful was its organic momentum. Within hours, audiences began extending the idea on their own: hijacking ads, posts, and scenes they encountered online and suggesting IKEA solutions in places we didn't even touch. #HowAboutIKEA was shaping up to become one of the brand’s most scalable, participatory digital ideas.
Unfortunately, the campaign launched just as India was hit by the brutal second wave of COVID-19. Continuing a playful hijack campaign during a national tragedy would have been insensitive, so we made the call to immediately pull all amplification — including PR, influencer partnerships, and the broader rollout that had been planned. Despite this, the idea demonstrated its strength in a very short window and was slated for submission to global award festivals.
#HowAboutIKEA remains one of IKEA India’s boldest examples of social-native marketing — proving that when brands think like participants rather than advertisers, audiences are eager to co-create and amplify the idea themselves.
