How IKEA’s Responsive Project Team acts so fast
From Punch the Monkey to Bridgerton, the brand never misses a cultural moment
There’s growing discourse about the need to create original moments on social. But IKEA’s Punch the Monkey posts proved that responsive, social-first marketing still has its place.
We interviewed Elissa Wardrop, Social Media Specialist and Content Creator at IKEA Global, to find out how that post came to life so fast, and learn more about IKEA’s newly formed Responsive Project Team. Wardrop explained how IKEA balances trending and original content on social, and what it takes to be a truly brave brand.
We need to talk about the Punch posts. Could you describe how the different posts across your accounts were coordinated, and what conversations happened behind the scenes?
At (Ingka) IKEA Global, we’ve recently formed a dedicated Responsive Project Team, which I’m lucky to be part of! Our role is to create content in response to news, trends, pop culture moments and key calendar dates (like April Fools’ or Valentine’s Day)—quickly, creatively and in a cost-efficient way with what we call the IKEA “twinkle in the eye.”
When I noticed Punch starting to trend, I immediately reached out to the wonderful IKEA Japan team, who I learnt were already in close contact with the zoo. I shared a rough mock-up with them, and they coordinated directly with the zoo to gather feedback and secure approval. That collaboration was key to ensuring everything felt authentic and respectful.
Once we got the green light, I grabbed the soft toys, headed outside to the only patch of grass I could find (the snow had just started melting), and I spent about 20 minutes setting it all up. It took 38 attempts (lucky number 38!) to land on the final image I was happy with. From there, it took just nine minutes to edit and distribute the asset to our country teams via our global group chat.
Generally, when we share content with our markets, they have flexibility. They can publish the asset as-is, adapt it to better suit their local audience and strategy, or create something new inspired by it.
What have been some of the highlights from the newly formed Responsive team?
Content-wise, besides baby Punch, one of our biggest hits has been our Severance-inspired post. You know you’ve done something right when MrBeast comments, “I need this”—and even more surreal, Emmy Award-winning Production Designer Jeremy Hindle featured it in his keynote at Figma Config in San Francisco, presenting it to an audience of 10,000 people (and thousands more watching online).
Our Taylor Swift engagement-inspired post was another standout. It became the most shared post of all time for IKEA UK.
What’s most exciting to me is what the numbers are proving: impactful content doesn’t have to mean big production budgets.
The Punch post was shot on my iPhone outside an IKEA store, with soft toys propped against a mud track left by a truck that got stuck during winter. The Taylor Swift post was also shot on my iPhone—against two pieces of paper on a stool, by a window.
No elaborate sets. No production crew. Just cultural awareness, speed, creativity—and a willingness to act. I think that’s the most powerful thing the Responsive team has demonstrated: relevance beats perfection.
Everyone’s feeds are so hyper-niche now, and we know social teams can’t rely on their own feeds to find conversations their audiences care about. On LinkedIn, you recently shared an example of how your team created a Bridgerton-inspired post, even though you’ve never seen the show. Can you walk us through how you collaborate to surface timely ideas?
We tend to work in two ways. Firstly, we have a robust cultural calendar where we’ve added in as much as possible—major sporting events, movie and TV releases, concerts, album launches, award shows, and even random days like International Cat Day or Hot Dog Day. For some of these moments, we plan and create content well in advance. For others—like award shows—we wait for the day and stay flexible, keeping an eye out for any live moments that feel relevant and ownable for us.
Secondly, there are the things you simply can’t plan for: breaking news, unexpected events, viral trends. Our in-house Responsive team may be small, but we’re diverse in age, language and interests—which means our feeds look very different. That diversity gives us a broader radar for emerging conversations.
Bridgerton actually fell into a bit of a grey area. It was something we hadn’t originally built into our calendar. So in early February, Matilda, our Responsive lead, flagged the potential opportunity and shared the trailer for Season 4 Part 2.
I’ve never watched a single episode. So off I went to watch the trailer and spent some time in the comments section (a goldmine for context), and quickly understood that the “bathroom scene” was highly anticipated by book fans. And that insight was enough to shape a relevant, culturally aware post.
We created the content within a few days and shared it with our countries just a few days before the release. Reading the comments on the IKEA posts, the outside world seems to think we acted at lightning speed after the season had aired. The reality in this situation is we’d pre-empted the moment using signals from the trailer and fan conversation. And I’d say it paid off—because Yerin Ha, who plays Sophie, commented and shared it to her Instagram Story!
You help create content for all 31 of IKEA’s country social media channels. How do you tailor each content strategy to the timely conversations happening in each country?
As part of the global team, our primary focus is developing campaigns and responsive content that can resonate at scale. We look for culturally relevant moments that have cross-market appeal, and then our country teams have the flexibility to localise—whether that means adapting the copy, swapping products, or reframing the idea to better align with their audience and strategy.
That flexibility is key. What lands in one market won’t always land in another, so we aim to create strong global foundations rather than rigid executions. At the same time, we’re placing increasing emphasis on two-way collaboration. We are working closely with country teams to better understand their unique cultural nuances, priorities and performance insights, so we can provide more tailored ideas, creative inspiration or feedback when needed.
Importantly, it’s not just top-down. Our local social teams are constantly producing brilliant content, which sometimes is highly specific to their markets when it comes to niche trends or local conversations. We actively encourage them to share their high-performing locally created content in our global chat. Often, a locally born idea can travel really well and inspire other countries to adapt it. This constant exchange maximises efficiencies and ensures we’re continually inspired by fresh ideas from across our markets.
There’s a pervasive debate in the social media industry about whether it’s better to develop original content (like IKEA’s Life in Stitches series) v. timely content. What’s your take? What has worked for IKEA?
For me, I think it’s about having a healthy mix of both. We’re incredibly fortunate at IKEA to have an endless amount of stories to tell, and I genuinely believe we’re one of the largest brands consistently creating original content.
A great example, as you mention, is Life in Stitches from IKEA UK. That series was born from listening to the online community—particularly fans of our soft toys—and turning that love into creative, character-led storytelling. It gave audiences a reason to keep coming back, building anticipation and emotional connection over time. That’s the power of original content: it creates depth, loyalty and distinctiveness. Another great recent example is our collaboration with Tiny Chef and five selected countries. We hired Cheffy as an IKEA co-worker to help serve up our new falafel balls across 3 hilarious episodes!
Tiny Chef episode 1:
My favourite IKEA x UK Life in Stitches episode:
At the same time, timely content plays a different but equally important role. It keeps IKEA, an 80+ year old brand, culturally relevant. It allows us to show up in unexpected ways, connecting our products to what people are already talking about, and sparks significant shareability. Timely content can drive huge reach, conversation and top-of-mind awareness for us, which can also help translate into visitation and sales.
I think the magic really happens when the two work together.
You’ve mentioned how much you love when brands are brave. What defines a brave brand to you?
For me, it’s when brands—especially those in traditionally corporate or risk-averse industries—aren’t afraid to have a little light-hearted fun on social, from time to time. It’s when they’re willing to step outside polished, predictable messaging and show personality. It’s also about experimentation. Brave brands test new formats, new content and explore different creative directions—knowing not everything will be a home run, but that evolution can only happen through trying. And perhaps most importantly, bravery to me is about authenticity. It’s sounding like a human, not a polished, corporate robot. It’s being transparent, self-aware and confident enough to join conversations in a way that feels natural.
Here’s a personal story of mine from 2024….Australian Retirement Trust—a superannuation fund—isn’t exactly the industry you’d expect to jump on a viral TikTok trend, right? Well, one day, when I was out and about in Melbourne, I spotted a tram wrapped in their new campaign creative. It featured a very tall, blue monster. I’d say about 6’5”, blue eyes…and I’d assumed it’d definitely have a trust fund. Do you see where my mind went with this? This happened to be in the midst of the super viral TikTok from @girl_on_couch. So I made this funny little connection and thought it would be a great reactive piece of content for them, so off I went to post the idea on LinkedIn, tagging the company. They saw it, they responded. They turned it into a TikTok ad within days.
The result? Thousands of likes and shares, hundreds of comments and saves, and overwhelmingly positive sentiment applauding the creativity.
Now that’s what I call brave.
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