Ikea Kicks Off $444 Million Global Media Review

Ikea is reviewing its entire $444 million global media account, which is currently split between a range of agencies across five different holding companies. WPP’s MEC retained Ikea’s media planning and buying duties in the U.S. following the last media review in 2009. Dentsu Aegis Network’s Vizeum won the U.K. business from WPP’s MediaCom in the same review, which took more than six months to complete. In Asia, Vizeum picked up the business in Singapore, Thailand and Malyasia in September 2015, after winning Korea a year earlier.

The Swedish furniture retailer confirmed in a statement: “Ikea is currently in the process of reviewing its media agency suppliers globally. ID Comms, our media consultancy partners, will be helping us facilitate this process.”

An executive familiar with plans for the review said media buying is currently split among agencies from five different agency holding companies.

Ikea’s statement continued, “As part of our commitment to the ongoing improvement of our media and marketing governance, Ikea periodically evaluates all marketing service suppliers to ensure we maintain the best working relationships with the best agency partners.

Creative duties on Ikea are not under review. Like the current media arrangements, creative is split between a number of different agencies around the world. New York, BBH Singapore, Buzzman Paris, Mother London, and Forsman & Bodenfors and Akestam Holst in Sweden have all created memorable campaigns for the brand.

Ikea’s sales reached $35 billion in the year ending Aug. 31, 2015, with like-for-like sales up 5% on the previous year. Including new store openings, sales were up 11.2% last year.

The company’s head of sustainability, Steve Howard, recently told a conference organized by The Guardian in London, “We have probably hit peak stuff.” He pointed to growing emphasis on repairing and recycling in future, while at the same time declaring a target of almost doubling sales by 2020. China and Russia are currently its fastest growing markets.

Ikea is No. 66 in the ranking of Top 100 Global Marketers compiled by Ad Age’s Datacenter. In 2014, the vast majority of Ikea’s spending – 79% – was in Europe, with 15% in the U.S. and less than 2% in Asia.

ID Comms also worked on the $2.6 billion global Johnson & Johnson pitch last year, and on the U.S. and European A-B InBev reviews in 2014.