Al-Futtaim IKEA launches desktop GIPHY to furnish even your computer.
Outdoor season is officially underway, and with it comes outdoor furnishing. Gardens, balconies, patios, porches, terraces, and campouts—all waiting to be turned into cozy spaces. It’s prime time for Al-Futtaim IKEA’s outdoors collection.
Ironic as it may sound, you don’t have to step outside to find beautiful outdoor scenery. Just look at your desktop wallpaper. It probably features the stunning geysers at Yellowstone Park, the green plains of Switzerland, the vast Arabian desert, or some other natural wonder.
Building on this irony, Al-Futtaim IKEA chose to showcase its outdoors collection through a digital campaign. IKEA launched ‘Iconic Outdoors’, a fun way to make your desktop fresh, outdoorsy, and absolutely adorable. Al-Futtaim IKEA transformed its entire outdoor collection—featuring hundreds of products—into downloadable icons, available on their website. Users could replace those messy folder icons and furnish their scenic wallpaper with the IKEA Outdoor Collection.
The campaign launched with three separate videos furnishing different wallpapers: a desert campout, a beach, and a grassy plain. Each video brought these landscapes to life using IKEA product icons fitting for the setting.
The experience is fun, interactive, and simply delightful. But most importantly, it puts the Al-Futtaim IKEA products in the hands of potential customers. By picking, mixing, and matching different items, users create outdoor scenes that spark inspiration—scenes they might replicate in their own gardens and patios.
To engage people on social media, Al-Futtaim IKEA uploaded its outdoor icons on GIPHY, allowing users to create virtual setups on their Instagram stories. They also launched a competition inciting people to join in. Three winners had their setups featured on digital screens in the IKEA stores.
As a digital-first campaign, Iconic Outdoors meets customers where they spend much of their time: at their laptops. It took the focus away from shopping and made it about designing something unique and personal.
So, once you’ve turned your desktop into a cozy retreat, remember to shut your laptop and step outside to enjoy the great weather.
