IKEA’s brand purpose is to create a better everyday life for the many. This shows up across IKEA’s offering from their core business in home furnishings with products for a variety of living situations inspired by democratic design to sustainable supply chains, offsetting their carbon footprint, and initiatives designed to solve human problems and betterment of the planet. They used the moment of the UEFA Euro 2021 to capitalize on the large social conversation and public attention dedicated to the tournament
to intercept with their sustainability message.

Brands spend upwards of 300 Million dollars sponsoring the UEFA. In 2021, the tournament dominated the media landscape as the first major international sporting event with fans in the stands in over a year. With the world watching, brands like Coca-cola and Visa were fighting to own the moment. IKEA wanted to create some noise during the tournament. But not being a sponsor made it extremely difficult.

IKEA is transforming into a leading brand in sustainability, pledging to be fully circular by 2030.

During a post-game press conference, Portuguese legend Christiano Ronaldo made headlines when he pushed away the Coca-Cola bottles in front of him and held up a bottle of water saying “Agua.”

That moment cost Coca-Cola a reported 4 Billion dollars and gave IKEA the perfect opportunity to promote a sustainable message and ultimately hijack the conversation of the tournament with a
recyclable IKEA water bottle.

If Cristano Ronaldo wants the world to drink water, IKEA can make sure they do it in the most sustainable way. They renamed IKEA’s famous glass ‘KORKEN’ water bottle to ‘CRISTIANO’ to echo Ronaldo’s message.

They reacted in real-time with their response, blasting a reactive post across their social channels. Their post featured IKEA’s famous reusable glass KORKEN water bottle on a white background (true to the IKEA brand) with IKEA's low price and they re-named the bottle to “CRISTIANO” while echoing Cristiano Ronaldo’s message, drink water, but sustainably.

They used Instagram in the way it was meant to be used - in real time. What looked like a typical product ad from the brand on people’s feeds was actually an interesting, timely take on an event that was taking over the news. Ronaldo’s act was something people were talking about, and they used social channels as a way to not only get in on that conversation, but to drive an actual business objective in increasing awareness
around IKEA’s sustainability value.

To capitalize on the moment, they had to move fast, creating and posting on organic social channels in real-time. They also made the post shoppable, directing consumers to shop IKEA’s

CRISTIANO bottle, and even changed the product name on IKEA’s website. As the post gained traction, they were able to add paid media support to amplify the reach and capitalize on the momentum it had already created. The execution exemplified the power of one simple placement on social media and
the speed at which a sticky idea can spread.

The post exploded online, earning global attention. Their social execution earned us 700 million earned impressions in 48 hours and $25 million in earned media value. They made their post shoppable and saw a 14% increase in sales the day of the post and an increase of 7% in web traffic. CRISTIANO became IKEA’s most talked about social post ever. And while they weren’t a sponsor of the Euro and didn’t pay a single dollar to be part of the tournament, IKEA became the #2 most talked about brand of the tournament.