The campaign by Leo Burnett focused on changing the perception of IKEA’s kitchen offering -- moving brand associations from kitchen basics to a brand that is a partner in inspiring creativity in the kitchen.

IKEA’s purpose is to make every day better for people. This year, IKEA Canada put a focus on life in the kitchen and people’s relationship with cooking, based on category growth and competitive pressure in the category. IKEA needed to stay at the top of their kitchen game, and that meant offering fresh ways to inspire a better life in the kitchen. In this new campaign, Leo Burnett created a recipe for insight, creativity, and innovation to develop a first-of-its-kind cooking method, combining IKEA food, ingenuity and fun to get people exploring food and IKEA.
Many people find new foods and recipes to be intimidating. The core target for the campaign was national IKEA shoppers who struggled when it came to cooking dinner. They found getting creative with food to be complicated and intimidating, and therefore hesitated to try new things in the kitchen.

The campaign aimed to show that IKEA can be the solution to making creativity in the kitchen deliciously simple. IKEA aimed to reinvent the recipe and how people cook with the “Cook This Page” Parchment Recipe Series. As the budget was limited, Leo Burnett knew it needed to do something beyond an ad. Based on the focus of changing perceptions and behaviour of IKEA shoppers, it designed something new in the recipe and cooking world by helping people to experience the easy and fun side of food with innovative and interactive parchment paper recipe guides.

A unique printing process resulted in the first interactive “fill in the blank” cookbook. The recipes were printed on parchment cooking paper. People fill in the blanks, roll it, cook it and eat! The ingredient blanks were measured, helping people determine how much sauce or salt or chive to add. The recipes incorporated IKEA food items and kitchen tools. The food inspired illustrations and the books were a unique addition to the typical food section of IKEA stores, and generated significant excitement and traffic to this department.

“Cook this Page” proved IKEA can play a more significant role in the lives of people and can reinvent their relationship with food through insight and innovation. Each of the 12,500 parchment recipe papers available in 18 locations across the country were snatched up within hours by Canadians hungry to break out of their dinner routine and try something new.