200 million copies of the Ikea catalogue are distributed globally every year. Each catalogue is full of solutions to everyday space problems. Put those two facts together and – with a small stretch of Memac Ogilvy’s creative imagination – you can call the Ikea catalogue, The book that will change your life.

Promoting this Ikea ambition – and the 2019 catalogue in the UAE – is a humorous film about a house-slob who discovers the solution to everything in the Ikea catalogue. He cleans up his act and becomes a celebrity guru, using the catalogue to solve people’s problems. Ali even discovers the answer to life, the universe and everything on page 42 (a humorous nod to Douglas Adams’ Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy).

What a wonderfully inventive and entertaining way to help Ikea establish itself in newer territory. While Ikea has achieved retail triumphs throughout Europe, in the US and Australia, it has only begun to find its feet in the UAE. The campaign was created for Ikea UAE, Egypt, Qatar and Oman.

Credits

Creative Agency: Memac Ogilvy, Dubai
Chief Creative Officer: Juggi Ramakrishnan
Copywriter: Alok Mohan
Client Team Leader: Tarek Shawki
Account Manager: Alaa Nour
Senior Account Executive: Selin Alnazer
Head of Production: Luke Morris
Producer: Hiyam Itani

Production Company: Hanzo Films Films Dubai/Oceana Studios
Director: Samir Mallal
DoP: Andrij Parekh
Executive Producer: Hijaz Moosa & Danny Sawaf
Line Producer: Moskitos Films, Istanbul
Producer: Kaan Acemi
Production Designer: Theo Boswell

Editing: Nik Hindson  @ The Assembly Rooms, London

Postproduction: Company 3, New York
Colourist: Joseph Bicknell
VFX Supervisor: Eppie Bowler, Amanda Pilnik

Music Licensing: The One Who Knocks By Francesco D’andrea

Sound Company: Machine Sound, London
Sound Engineer: Patch Rowland
Audio Director: Matej Oreskovic

Client: Ikea Middle East
General Manager Marketing, Communication & Id Design: Carla Klumpenaar
Regional Marketing Communications Manager: Amer Yaghi
Regional Digital Marketing Specialist: Noha Gheith