The creative behind the viral Clive Palmer 'Ikea' ad has pitched to Ikea via LinkedIn.
Though he was not formally invited to pitch Adrian Elton of Adrian Elton Creative put out an informal pitch through a post on his LinkedIn profile.
The post said:
"Dear IKEA Australia,
I heard that your account is up for grabs.
I know that I’m small, but I just got you approx $60 million dollars of free brand exposure for nix.
Just figured that I should throw my hat in the ring as there’s plenty more where that came from.
Because together - we can have the Allen-keys to the kingdom!"
Elton told AdNews that he had friends "noodging" him to contact the brand, particularly after the announcement the account was up for pitch.
"Having not heard a word from IKEA over the intervening fortnight, I figured that as a small player, I clearly hadn’t made the grade – despite having generated a fortune in brand exposure for them with my on-point fake ad," Elton says.
"While I could send an email to them which would most likely get lost in the ether, I thought it’d be more fun to throw a curveball and just whack an ‘open letter’ on LinkedIn. Even if it went nowhere fast – at least it was another opportunity to demonstrate my initiative and creativity. Still haven’t heard anything. But it’s early days and I’m an optimistic kind of guy."
As part of his "pitch", Elton went into an Ikea store and purchased the pencils featured in the pitch ad he shared.
"Each one is a different pencil. Of course if it was a ‘real’ ad they would have been lit properly so they’re a little ‘flat’ on account of the flash when I shot them. The axes of the graph are also scanned directly from the paper measuring tape lengths they hand out with the pencils."
Elton created the original viral ad following the federal election results, when Clive Palmer’s United Australia Party (UAP) failed to gain a single seat in parliament despite an estimated $60 million in advertising.
The ad read: “Geez Clive… $60 million dollars and not a single seat?” on a billboard appearing to advertise one of Ikea’s chairs.
It went viral on Twitter after the election results were announced, receiving nods from politicians including new Labor leader Athony Albanese and One Nation leader Pauline Hanson.
Ikea Australia's creative account, previously held by The Monkeys since 2010, has come under pitch for the first time since 2010.
In a statement provided to AdNews, a spokesperson from Ikea has confirmed the account is under review.
"IKEA is currently undertaking a review of creative services. The review process is under way."
AdNews understands that the incumbent would not be likely to re-pitch.
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