Billboard baggings: Ikea rivals react

Ikea rivals aren’t taking it lying down. As the Swedish home furnishings giant launched in Aotearoa on December 4, competitor brands were taking it outside. 

To billboards near the Mt Wellington store, to be precise. 

Two programmatic out of home displays just of Auckland Southern motorway were busy the week after Ikea opened. Ads from established homeware and big box stores flipped over as traffic waited at the intersection. Some played it straight. Some cast more shade than a Tvetö sun umbrella.

Briscoes has been blue and yellow forever, but its brand colours seemed positively Scandinavian to eyes that had just caught a glimpse of the new store on the offramp. 

Mitre 10 gets in on the act

Mitre 10 seemed to be innocently advertising a room set up with sofa and shelves. Though on closer inspection, the cubby hole storage looked a lot like Ikea’s classic Kallax unit. The subtle message? “You can get Ikea-alike stuff at our place too.”

The Warehouse was taking a two-pronged approach, with one ad promoting plastic chairs ‘for unexpected guests’. Standard festive fare.

‘Nau mai’ proclaimed a second billboard in huge letters, in welcoming te reo. The secondary text was a little more pointed though: “Glad you’ve finally found us on the map.” A sly dig at how long it’s taken Ikea to get here, perhaps? It’s also a knowing wink to NZ audiences, and our running joke that rest of the world doesn’t know where we are.

Taking a slightly different tack, The Outlet courted the DIY haters: urging: “Skip the flat packed madness!” Personally, I’m a big fan of constructing furniture – and they’ve missed my memo about when the 12 days of Christmas start and end (not on Dec 14, folks) – so this one wasn’t cutting ice with me.

Ikea rivals on the road

Motorway commuters weren’t immune. Big Save was getting its message out to drivers heading north. Also focusing on the fully assembled aspect of its wares, the brand notes that the chest of drawers featured is made from NZ pine.

And while Petdirect doesn’t quite play in the same ballpark, it was also launching a store in Mt Wellington on the same day as Ikea. As overhead motorway signs urged rush-hour traffic ahead of December 4 to “consider taking public transport” to avoid jams (that weirdly didn’t eventuate), Petdirect had a bit of fun on their socials pretending the buzz was for their grand opening.

Taupō… our most Swedish town?

While ‘Ikea everywhere’ was the message from the brand itself, the ‘welcome’ mat was extended – if not everywhere – at least as far south as Taupō. The central North Island destination reckons its a rival in a different way.

“What started out as an idea to be a bit tongue in cheek really got us thinking. The more we delved into brand Sweden, the more we saw some alignment with the incredible array of nature-based activities Taupō has to offer. It felt fair to say that Taupō is most likely New Zealand’s most Swedish town,” says Destination Great Lake Taupō general manager Patrick Dault of the Love Taupō campaign.

Nau mai, Ikea. Bring on the fun.

Did we miss you out? If you had a fun way to welcome Ikea, get in touch at [email protected]