The initiative saw Ikea and Mediaedge:cia China (MEC) transform the interior of 20 elevators in less affluent residential districts.
The elevators were given a home-like feel with the use of floor-to-ceiling posters, while chairs, cabinets, tea pots and mugs were provided to lift conductors to keep the look real. The lift conductors also distributed catalogues to add to the campaign's effectiveness.
According to Ikea China marketing director, Ulf Smedberg, research showed that while it was not unusual for 100 per cent of residents to be aware of the campaign since they had to use the elevator every day, 43 per cent stated that they would probably purchase products from the Swedish furniture and houseware giant.
"The vision is to create a better everyday life, and our intention was to show a nice environment in a normally very dull and ugly surrounding. Obviously it got people's attention and a lot even wanted to visit our store."
The 'Change is easy' campaign was developed by MEC with Saatchi & Saatchi behind the creative work. It comes as Ikea continues to slash prices - almost 80 per cent over the past three years - to enable more people to afford its products.
Built in the early 1980s and poorly maintained, these lifts presented an opportunity to demonstrate how Ikea improves the quality of life without extravagant expenditure. Said Smedberg: "One of our key goals is to reach untapped markets and illustrate the benefits Ikea can bring to their lives."
MEC China managing director Charley Kan said the pair initially wanted to have a big campaign encompassing more than 100 lifts. "But since this was so new, we decided to do a small test run first and see how the market reacted," he said. "We also chose locations of varying distance to the Ikea store to find out how proximity influences visits and ultimately consumer buying behaviour."
Jennifer Tow, MEC Hong Kong director of channel planning and implementation, said the lifts were an appropriate environment to highlight Ikea products because "you not only have a captive audience travelling through a unique environment, but also a space in which you can highlight Ikea's range of products, whether they are pictured in the posters or are actual objects such as the tea pots and mugs for the lift conductors".
She added that plans were in the pipeline to expand the geographical coverage of the campaign in Beijing as well as extending it to Shanghai.