Ikea vies to grow charitable foundation
Ikea is ramping up a digital engagement programme for its charitable foundation in a bid to raise awareness and support from its staff and customers for its work to support children in developing nations.
The Ikea Foundation, the philanthropic arm of the global furniture retailer that funds activities for children in the developing world, operates separately to the retailer but is closely linked.
It is hoping that a refreshed digital and social media strategy will help leverage the connection between the Foundation and the retailer to take advantage of the scale and reach that the commercial business has.
The first phase aims to boost engagement with Ikea’s 135,000 staff worldwide and the 500,000 additional people that work within its supply chain. Over the long term, the Foundation hopes to build awareness with Ikea’s 650 million customers around the world.
Jonathan Spampinato, head of communications and strategic planning for the IKEA Foundation told Marketing Week: “We’ve kind of been missing the boat. Right now its very traditional soft cause marketing campaign, but in the future we’re looking to do some interesting and innovative things. There’s a huge opportunity to scale it up and get more people to know about the Foundation and the cause.
“The Holy Grail would be Ikea’s customers. It’s a staggering number. If we could figure out a really successful model to use our branding properly so that people are really fond of its work, 650m is an incredible deep and broad pool of people to tap into and try to engage.”
Currently, Ikea raises funds for the Foundation and charities sush as UNICEF and Save the Children through the sale of soft toys in store and raised €12m last year.
It has tasked digital agency Kindred to devise a digital engagement strategy including social media, SEO, website and digital design as well as content production.
