IKEA reframes paper catalogue as next iPhone

By 2014, IKEA's physical catalogue — still central to how the company reached shoppers — faced the same pressure every print product faced against digital: it read as outdated next to an app or website, regardless of whether print actually served customers worse. Defending the catalogue by listing its practical merits (no battery, works anywhere, easy to flip through) would have sounded defensive, arguing print's case in old, familiar language nobody was excited to hear again.

IKEA Singapore and Malaysia, working with agency Bartle Bogle Hegarty, took a different approach: rather than defend the catalogue as a legacy format, present it as the newest, most advanced piece of technology on the market, using the exact launch-video conventions — white backdrop, an enthusiastic 'chief design guru,' feature-reveal pacing — that Apple had made instantly recognizable and highly anticipated that same month with the iPhone 6.

Reframed its ordinary print features in iPhone-keynote style, borrowing digital's excitement without exaggerating a single claim.

By presenting the catalogue's ordinary print features -- no charging, no lag turning pages, page-folding for bookmarks -- in the exact breathless launch-video language and format Apple had just made i

This approach depends on the older product's plain features genuinely mapping onto the newer category's hype vocabulary in a way that's funny and true rather than strained -- forcing the comparison wh

Any product facing obsolescence pressure from a flashier newer category — print against digital, a physical store against e-commerce, an analog tool against an app — can reframe the old product's real

The video became the #1 most-watched video in Singapore and #3 in Malaysia for September 2014, drawing over 19 million YouTube views total with 70% viewer retention to the end against an industry average of 40%, and catalogue-period sales rose 8% in Singapore and 13% in Malaysia.