IKEA's new ad directed by Korean feature film director

Director Jang Jin, left, and IKEA Korea Country Marketing Manager Nicolas Johnsson speak during a press conference held at CGV Cheongdam, in southern Seoul, Wednesday. / Courtesy of IKEA Korea

Swedish home furnishing company IKEA released its new TV commercial on March 31, produced in collaboration with well-known Korean feature film director Jang Jin.

Dubbed "brandrama," a portmanteau of the words "brand" and "drama," the new campaign is an effort by IKEA to emphasize its values upfront rather than its products and their prices.

The slogan "Home is where happiness starts" which appears in the commercial is the message IKEA aims to spread, encouraging people to spend more time at home with their families. The commercial features a child's day where the boy acts like an adult outside but becomes a child when he returns home.

"The fundamental of our brandrama is togetherness and play. We hoped to spread the message that home is where families and children love to play more and live their dreams together," said Nicolas Johnsson, IKEA Korea Country Marketing Manager, during a press conference on March 30.

"A home should be a place where everybody feels relaxed and welcome and functional for everyone and we feel that the children will not be in their rooms too much if they feel welcome at home. We wanted to do a movie that conveyed that idea rather than selling a product."

The commercial is cut into three versions, 30-second, 1-minute and 3-minute versions for television, movie theaters and online channels, respectively.

When asked whether this was the world's first "brandrama," Johnsson said, "We have not in the same clear way gone out saying it was more about the idea rather than product and price. We have made it clearer this time."

He added that it was "unusual to connect to a feature movie director" to direct the commercial.

For director Jang Jin, who produced and wrote the screenplay for megahit film "Welcome To Dongmakgol" (2005) and produced noted films such as "Someone Special" (2004), "Guns & Talks" (2001) and more recently directed "Man on High Heels" (2013), the filming of IKEA's commercial was a "peculiar" experience.

"At first I found it strange. If it was a commercial, then it should be a commercial and if it's a campaign, it should be a campaign, but the genre of this one was confusing from the start," said Jang.

"But after talking with the IKEA staff, I realized that they wanted to deliver the company's message and values through storytelling, which was different from direct marketing commercials. It wasn't about the company but rather their thoughts."

Jang said he was proud to be involved in the project.

"I feel proud that I did something for and with IKEA, which is one of the major brands on Earth," he said.

"I think this project carries meaning because it's about sharing a message. I learned a lot during the project and I think it'd be important for companies doing similar projects to really share their values and give back to the public."

According to IKEA's Play Report, a research study on play, 56 percent of Korean children wanted to spend more time playing with their parents while 73 percent of all Korean parents wanted to spend more time with their children.

"Children are the most important people in the world. A child that is happy, creative and fun is a happier child and will become a happy adult," said Johnsson.

When asked why the company carried out a project like this when the number of children was actually decreasing in the country and if they had plans to foster the birth rate, Johnsson said, "We can't make people more interested in having children, but indirectly, we'll do that by showing family life from a warm, fun and interesting view. It's not only Korea seeing a dramatic reduction of children. It's also a Western European trend as well."

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ysy@ktimes.com