Swedish furniture favourite Ikea have just released a 25-minute long advertisement for their new campaign; ‘Oddly Ikea’, and the ad is no doubt going to be dubbed as odd itself by many - and it’s not hard to see why. The ad is an ASMR dedication and features a whispering woman taking you on a journey through her room...
Have no idea what on earth ASMR is? Well, it stands for ‘Auto Sensory Meridian Response’ (see our full guide to ASMR here). It is a ‘sensation of deep relaxation characterised by a tingling of the skin, and a feeling of euphoria and peace washing over the body and brain.’ and can actually be ‘triggered’ a number of ways. One of the common ‘triggers’ for people is whispering, and no not a horror movie murderer whispering in your ear type thing, we’re talking more a relaxing meditative tone. There are many YouTube ‘ASMRtists’ who have millions of viewers tuning into their whispering every day.
The ‘Oddly Ikea’ campaign is aimed at college students and the ad pushing many of the stores ‘dorm-friendly’ pieces, ranging from their famous clever storage to desk accessories. What has ASMR got to do with dorm-rooms? Well, Kerri Homsher of Ikea’s communications team, confirmed that the majority of ASMR viewers are students, so they wanted to incorporate an element of something they would love into the campaign, to put ‘two and two together’.
Clever marketing ploy indeed.
The advert shows the woman running her hands over her fitted sheet and encourages the viewer to listen to the sounds the furniture and fabrics are making. The whole video consists of fluffing, primping, swiping, and smoothing – oh, and playing a wardrobe organiser like an accordion too, can’t forget that bit (see 15:00 on the video).
If you’re anything like me and get pissed off with those 25 second adverts before YouTube videos, you might think sitting through a 25-MINUTE-long ad is a nightmare. The strange thing is though, the 25 minutes fly by and it isn’t as tedious as you would think... quite the opposite, actually.
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Ikea’s ASMR vid has been met with a great response, one viewer on YouTube even suggested the furniture giant team up with the ‘ASMRtists’ on YouTube and create a permanent series combining furniture and tingles.
Could this be the start of ASMR entering the mainstream?
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This article originally appeared on The Debrief.