Summer season was approaching in southern Sweden, however in a small city deep within the forest, the scene was already set for Christmas. Inside a studio spanning greater than 8,600 sq. ft was a room decked out with a towering tree, stockings, fir wreaths, candles, and star ornaments.
Down the corridor, one other room was bursting with purple decorations for Lunar New 12 months. Across the nook was a kitchen painted a heat shade of blue, with baskets strung alongside the ceiling and copper pots hanging above the range.
The identical constructing additionally homes numerous throw cushions, greater than 3,600 books, dozens of flowers, a couple of surfboards, a kitchen with a whole bunch of bananas, and 75 sofas. These myriad home scenes are a part of Ikea Advertising & Communications (IMC), the retailer’s international advertising and content material studio.
From its distant location in Älmhult—a rural city of roughly 18,000 residents and the birthplace of Ikea—IMC is a artistic powerhouse that oversees greater than 70,000 productions every year. It makes all the things from international campaigns to 3D fashions and animations to movies, product pictures, and the meeting directions that include Ikea’s flat-pack furnishings. Its workers, hailing from 34 completely different nations, serve 63 markets and 600 shops world wide.
“We are saying that is the house of properties, the dream manufacturing facility,” mentioned Mia Malmström, IMC’s managing director.
Formalized in 2020, IMC is a part of a rising pattern of manufacturers constructing in-house artistic studios. In-housing is on the rise, with 82% of advertisers saying that they had an in-house company in 2023, up from 78% in 2018 and 58% in 2013, based on the Affiliation of Nationwide Advertisers in-house company survey.
However IMC can be evolving quick because it faces pressures just like the rise of synthetic intelligence (AI), increasing from 400 to 450 workers over the previous six months to satisfy a rising demand for content material.
“Considered one of our questions is, how can we fill this new digital world with inspiration? We’re nonetheless engaged on it,” Malmström mentioned.
ADWEEK took an unique tour of IMC to discover the place it’s headed and what different manufacturers can be taught from Ikea’s “dream manufacturing facility.”
IMC’s management group (L-R): Niklas Lindström, Mia Malmström, Amy Leo