Hiding the mess behind its billboards

IKEA Sweden cleans up its act in new outdoor campaign.

Everyone's home is a mess - more or less. IKEA Sweden are now showcasing the best way to reset everyday life, in a literally tidy campaign. Outdoor installations reveal "the other side" of things, by hiding the storage solution in plain sight – highlighting SAMLA as the hero without a cape.

The storage boxes are filled with everything from toys to clothes, vintage records, half-finished kids' drawings, electronics, and pretty much everything you can (or can't) imagine – resembling a typical home on any given Sunday.

"The front of the billboards like any typical ad for home furnishing. But when you look again, there's an honest twist. Everyday life is messy, then tidy, and then messy again. We think it's nice to show both sides of the story," says Tiago Pinho, Art Director at NoA Åkestam Holst, IKEA's lead creative agency in Sweden.

Research from IKEA shows that 83% of people in Sweden feel they have at least one room at home that's hard to keep tidy. The survey also lists the top 5 toughest spaces to keep organized according to Swedes:

1. The closet – 24%
2. Garage/attic – 22%
3. Kitchen counter – 22%
4. Kitchen cupboards and drawers – 19%
5. Bathroom – 19%

"Keeping your home clean is always a battle, regardless of if it's a small flat, a castle, or something in between. We wanted to remind people of our great storage boxes in an out-of-the-box way – hopefully we can stop people in their tracks," says Jonas Westberg, Marketing Communication Leader at IKEA Sweden.

IKEA's Tidy Billboards pop up in major cities starting during the end of August. The campaign will also run in social and digital channels.