Keeping in line with its AR marketing strategy, IKEA created a YouTube game show called “Matchers Keepers” to promote the launch of its Place app on Android.
While the Scandinavian build-it-yourself furniture brand first debuted its Place app in September alongside Apple’s ARKit and iOS 11, “Matchers Keepers” marks IKEA’s first full-scale campaign to promote it. With the app’s launch on Android this week, Ikea hopes to reach the 100 million devices running Google ARCore.
According to Google Play, IKEA Place has been downloaded over 10,000 times during its first two days on the market. Customer feedback has been generally positive, with a handful of users reporting bugs or incompatibility with their devices.
“Matchers Keepers” makes light of—and offers a gamified solution to—the age-old problem of heated arguments in Ikea stores.
“IKEA Place helps us continue a commitment [to democratic design] in new ways,” Michael Valdsgaard, Ikea’s head of digital transformation told AListDaily.
The series is hosted by lifestyle blogger Caroline Solomon, who challenges two roommates to finally agree on a furniture selection through the Place app. If they succeed, contestants win the real-life item to take home. Three episodes have been uploaded that focus on items like couches, lamps and desks.
Users at home can also play the game, although just for fun.
IKEA considers the emerging technology a way to close the gap between imagination and reality when selecting products. For example, admiring a couch in the store only to get it home and realize you don’t like it all.
“The online experience partly addresses accessibility, but it still struggles to close the gap completely,” Valdsgaard explained.
Inspiring purchases through visualization is the goal behind several AR retail products launched just this month.
- On March 2, Pottery Barn is now offering “3D Room View,” a web-based AR option that lets users place, move and alter the appearance of products within a real-life environment.
- On Monday, Lowe’s debuted “View in Your Space,” an AR experience found on the Lowe’s Android app. Customers browsing products can choose to see it in AR, where it can be dropped into real-life surroundings.
- Yesterday, Overstock launched an AR viewing option inside its Android app that accesses thousands of 3D models to place in the home and mull over.
Mobile AR is expected to generate $5.4 billion in direct consumer spending by 2021, according to new estimates by SuperData Research.