Live brand experience: Sleepover at IKEA ticks all the boxes

There are a wide number of reasons why holding a sleepover at an Essex branch of IKEA was a brilliant idea for a live brand experience.

The first is that it stemmed from something customers wanted and were saying – that is in the form of a Facebook group entitled, I Wanna Have a Sleepover in IKEA.

Designing brand experiences which meet the desires of those who are being targeted is a great idea and using social networking sites is a useful and modern tool for canvassing opinion.

Many companies have been known to ask potential customers what they want on Twitter, Facebook and other sites, but looking at what is already out there shows what would really work.

Secondly, the idea was highly relevant to the brand, showing a clear link between the product it sells and the experience.

The event also gave those attending a really good opportunity to test out IKEA's products as it has been proven that sampling and allowing customers to experience items leaves more of an impact on them then many other forms of marketing.

Since the Swedish furniture company had found in a survey that 72 per cent of adults spend as little as ten minutes in choosing a new mattress, the experience meant that the 100 guests could test out mattresses for a whole night.

They were chosen from nearly 100,000 people who had become fans of the page on Facebook and were treated to a variety of extras as part of the event.

Another key aspect of the experience which worked particularly well was the fact that it was planned in meticulous detail.

The potential for an event such as this to go wrong is quite large, but those in charge made sure they pre-empted any opportunity to hit the headlines for the wrong reasons.

For example, there was a strict pyjama policy, meaning that all attendees must be attired in a decent fashion in order to be allowed in.

Any company deciding to put on their own live brand experience should think about all possibilities before launching such a campaign, or bring in a specialist company to manage the event.

During the sleepover guests were treated to massages, hot chocolate and even read a bedtime story as well as there being a sleep expert on hand.

Such details all add to the experience and the attendees were all given a goody bag with sleep masks, slippers and midnight snacks inside.

This means they had something to take away with them as a memento of their stay and a reminder of the experience they had with the company.

Anyone given sleep advice may also have found that they have an even better legacy of their stay and this sort of brand loyalty is difficult to achieve.

IKEA have obviously found the brand experience to be a success, as they have extended the idea to other parts of the world, but like all good PR stunts, have adapted it and evolved the concept.

A sleepover has also been held in Brisbane, Australia, which was aimed at the company's female customers. Chick flicks were screened while the women were waited on by handsome men.

In Minnesota in the USA, IKEA are hosting a Bring Your Own Friend Event, in which people are encouraged to invite their friends to an event at the local store on Facebook.

For every friend that is invited on the social networking site, IKEA is to donate $1 to Save The Children, up to $50,000.

Those who attend the event will be treated to a free breakfast, massage and the opportunity to sample some Swedish food.

Adding a charity element to an interactive campaign is a great way to mobilise customers and help those less fortunate at the same time.

All in all, IKEA seem to have their finger on the pulse in terms of live brand experiences and managed to get all the different elements working in their favour.

IKEA was begun in the 1940s, when founder Ingvar Kamprad developed his entrepreneurial skills and explored different types of furniture design in southern Sweden