• by Larry Dobrow , Featured Columnist, July 20, 2006

When the International Contemporary Furniture Fair set up shop in New York's Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in late spring, IKEA wanted to be nearby  not to invite comparisons with the show's $8,500 ottomans, mind you, but instead to spread its "everyday fabulous" gospel among Big Apple denizens.

As opposed to a paid-media blast, IKEA and Deutsch Inc. decided to go guerrilla. And so, on a clear May morning, New Yorkers arose to find IKEA tchotchkes wherever they looked: oven mitts hanging in subway cars, throw pillows on playground slides. In all, there were 650 different executions during the five-day blitz.

Not surprisingly, the effort posed more than a few logistical challenges. Team members spent a good part of April and May scouting out locations, and checked the weather forecast religiously.

"We had to be able to make changes on the fly," says Scott Bassen, group creative director, senior vice president at Deutsch. "It wouldn't have been possible in the days before cell phones."

Reaction to the program bordered on the ecstatic  especially when bargain-hunting New Yorkers realized that they could help themselves to the featured products. "It was a kick to watch," Bassen continues. "People would hover for a second and then look around, then they were like, 'Screw it!' and walked off with the stuff."