IKEA, via Chep Network, is helping overcome the fear of creaks in the night.
The furniture store wants to reiterate that creaky furniture is nothing to be frightened of. It simply needs retightening. So on Halloween, the spookiest day of the year, IKEA launched ’The Uncreakoning’ disguised as a horror film.
The 23 second spot portrays a spooky night in a family home, focussing on a dark and empty master bedroom. The audience's attention is drawn to a presence waiting under the shadows of the bed, only to realise it is only mum fixing the screech and squeals with the help of a trusted allen key from IKEA.
The campaign went live across Australia on October 31 2022.
AdNews spoke with CHEP creative director, Fee Millist: “The Uncreakening is all about raising awareness of an important practice many of us rarely think about - retightening furniture.
“When it comes to our well-loved furniture, people start to worry if they hear it creak or see a wobble. But it’s not necessarily the end of that product’s life, most of the time it’s still perfectly good furniture. It just needs retightening
CHEP copywriter, Robert Boddington: “Screws, nuts, bolts and other fixtures naturally loosen which means that, over the years, all furniture slowly begins to lose the tightness it had when it was first put together.
“Retightening is easy to do and can help to keep pieces out of the furniture graveyard. IKEA actually reminds people to retighten their furniture in their assembly instructions.”
CHEP executive creative director, Justin Ruben, said: “The Uncreakening is a great way to debunk the fear of creaky furniture and encourage people to repair rather than replace furniture.
“Launching an audio focused idea on social platforms that are traditionally seen as sound second forced us to think more creatively about how we could leverage subtitles.
“We upped the horror factor by using descriptive subtitles like ‘werewolf’, instead of just ‘wolf’, and ‘terrified screaming’ instead of your regular ‘scream’. This ensured a great watching experience with sound on or off.”
CHEP art director, Jack Robertson speaks of the creative strategy of incorporating a horror trope to what will later be a humorous and lighthearted campaign.
Robertson: “The trope of spooky, creaky furniture has been used in scary movies for decades. We hijacked it to create surprising PSAs hidden in short, spooky films that play off the classic ‘creaky’ moments. And what spookier date to launch than Halloween? It felt like a good time to make this message relevant and fun.”
CHEP creative director, Cass Jam: “People think they’re watching a Halloween film, and then are served a message reminding them to ‘uncreak’ their furniture at home.
“All comms drove viewers to a hub where they could read more about retightening furniture, and buy IKEA’s tool kits. The Uncreakening was the perfect mix of entertainment and education.”
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