"It seems wherever you look, like Tom Joad, Ikea will be there," writes Dan Neil, who takes a look at Ikea's canny ability to get itself written about (even if it's not always
favorable). Recently, you may have read, Ikea loyalists "went bonkers" when the 2010 print catalog came out dressed in Microsoft's Verdana font rather that the traditional Futura.
In fact, Ikea scored one billion impressions in the fiscal year ended Sept. 1, according to its public relations department, which presumably helps to generate those numbers while
tracking them. But "ground zero of Ikea's mind share," according to Neil, is its store in Burbank, Calif.
Three popular Web videos and the film "(500) Days of
Summer" were shot there, and it furnished the backdrop the Ikea-funded Web TV series "Easy to Assemble." But a couple of those videos, "
The Real World: Ikea " and "
Ikea Heights " were both shot surreptitiously
at the store, and they test the limits of the brand's playfulness. "Marketers who would capitalize on user-generated content must also be prepared to let the inmates run the asylum,"
Neal concludes.
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