IKEA, the Swedish furnishing giant has always played big on the marketing front. However, the company is getting some free publicity and advertisement through one of the most creative ways: a quiz game!
Pittsburgh-based marketing agency Gatesman+Dave has reportedly designed an online game 'IKEA or Death' that helps you determine where your loyalties lie: with Death Metal or IKEA.
Don't understand what the link between some screaming musicians and pieces of furniture is?
Apparently, most IKEA furniture names sound like titles of death metal bands. Klubbo, Bastig, Boholmen and Grundtal are some such IKEA examples that could easily pass for a death metal band.
How ridiculously amazing!
According to the Pittsburgh Post Gazette, a senior copyeditor and an associate creative director at Gatesman+Dave (both happen to be metalheads) went to an IKEA store to get some conference room furniture and found the striking resemblance that the titles of the two completely different genres share.
What was initially a joke, turned into an online quiz game that tests your ability to differentiate between a metal band and a piece of IKEA merchandise.
And damn! The quiz is tough!
Once you have finished the quiz, the game rewards you with funny one liners and a note to follow, explaining your result and also pitching their company a little (just a little you know!)
For example:
Congrats you are... Scenester.
You're the kind of person who likes to rattle off their favorite designers and bands, but can't name more than one song. Quit buying t-shirts for bands you've never heard of and relying on TV designers for your sense of style. And hey, why not check out the web site of the agency who made this?
Maybe pick up a few old Mayhem records this weekend, Your friends at Gatesman+Dave.
Play the game, here.
The game went online on Wednesday at www.ikeaordeath.com and immediately went viral on the internet. The site has more than 2 million hits so far and receives an average of 15,000 visitors a day, reports ABC News.
While most of us are having a good laugh and enjoying the quiz, the folks at Gatesman+Dave explain the two genres and how they differ despite originating from the same place.
"Ikea is bright and everybody is smiling, Metal is dark and mean,"Sam Pacino, Senior Copyeditor at the firm explained.
The firm hopes that the game will help it win clients and help them build campaigns for big banners, even in areas of the world it does not have direct access to.
Meanwhile, IKEA is happy selling its easy-to-assemble furniture and its scandalous-yet-loved meatballs. It doesn't have anything negative or positive to say about the quiz.
However, spokespersons for the furnishing giant denied any association with the game and said that the names for the merchandise are derived from Swedish words to signify culture, reports ABC News.
