Whoever wins the UK IKEA creative account will probably be greeted by a volley of jeers and old orange peel: the self-assembly giant has been widely ridiculed for departing Mother. Mother declined the repitch after a 16-year stint, with one review.
According to Campaign IKEA has long-listed (because five is pretty long) three bits of the combined Omnicom/IPG: adam&eve\TBWA (think that’s all the bits pointing in the right direction), McCann and AMV BBDO (now also including FCB and MullenLowe) alongside VCCP and WPP’s VML (itself comprised of many a component part.)
Advertisers are entitled to review their business of course and a massive global operator like IKEA will face a multitude of commercial pressures, some of which will engage the attention of its marketing team. It may be that some of them feel Mother’s inspired quirkiness had run its course although it gave the archetypal big shed retailer a personality. Wonder why they’re all established agencies, a newbie like Ace of Hearts might have livened things up.
A difficult act to follow whoever wins.
