Pepsi did it.  KFC did it.  Dove did it.  Ritz did it.

Now IKEA has joined the other big name brands to create an intentional ASMR advertisement.

On August 8, 2017 IKEA posted a video on their IKEA USA YouTube channel titled, “‘Oddly IKEA’: IKEA ASMR.”

The video description highlights specific bedroom-related products which would be ideal for a dorm room.  Key words in the description are also ASMR-inspired:

• “…soft, comforting…”
• “…keep stress and clutter out while creating a calm…”
• “…in soothing colors…”
• “…will bring warmth and comfort…”

The video is 25 minutes and 43 seconds long and begins with a wide view of a dorm room.  Narration is done by an unseen young female, who talks slowly and calmly into a microphone which picks up subtle mouth sounds.

Additional ASMR-related aspects of the video include:

• task demonstrations (eg, sheet fitting)
• tapping, scratching, and brushing hands across objects
• methodical hand movements, gestures, and touching
• ear-to-ear audio

Della Mathew from Ogilvy marketing agency and Kerri Homsher from IKEA explained the inspiration for the ad in an email to Adweek:

“We knew that ASMR videos are very popular, especially with young people, college students and IKEA co-workers. So we put two and two together. Our products are designed to help people every day. Our dorm room solutions help students relax after a long day. So we thought of content that does the same.” 

Julienne Guffain from Sonic Union explained how she captured the sounds for the Ikea ad in an article posted on Little Blue Book:

“…a live set is no place to record ASMR. Between the generators blaring, a director directing, crew moving around, there is almost no way to record the microscopic detail required to achieve ASMR. But the good news is we can Foley ASMR! For the Ikea campaign, I requested every piece of material that was used on set, every pillow, every blanket, every notebook. Recreated the set in my office, and recorded every sound to picture, in a controlled sound-proof environment, using mic positioning and proximity to get the classic ‘asmr’ sound. This included recording our Voiceover in stereo and really playing with the stereo image to trigger ASMR.“

At the time of this post, the video had 121,848 views with 85% thumb up votes out of 1800 total votes.

You can view the video HERE.

Learn about more ASMR-inspired commercials and ads:

• ASMR commercials by Pepsi, Dove, KFC, Ritz Crackers…

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This post brought to you by ASMR University.  A site with the mission of increasing the awareness, understanding, and research of the Art and Science of Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response.