2022 Winner

When Portuguese soccer legend Cristiano Ronaldo pointedly moved Coca-Cola bottles in favour of a water bottle and said “Agua” at a UEFA Euro post game press conference, IKEA and its agency Rethink responded to the moment in real time. IKEA moved quickly to post its popular and well-priced reusable glass Korken water bottle on social media, renaming it “Cristiano.” The post exploded online, earning global attention. The social activation garnered 700 million earned impressions in just 48 hours and $25 million in paid media value. The Instagram post was made shoppable, resulting in a 14% increase in sales the day of the post and a 7% increase in web traffic. “The Cristiano Bottle” became IKEA’s most buzzworthy social post and the retailer became the number two most-talked-about brand of the tournament, without even being an official sponsor of the Euro.

Credits

Client: IKEA Canada
Agency: Rethink
Chief Creative Officer: Aaron Starkman
Executive Creative Director: Mike Dubrick
Creative Directors: Xavier Blais, Maxime Sauté
Associate Creative Director: Zachary Bautista
Art Director: Zachary Bautista, Jean-Nicolas Duval, Edouard Coune, Maxime Saute
Writer: Xavier Blais
Strategist: Shereen Ladha
Chief Strategy Officer: Sean McDonald
Group Account Director: Sarah Riedlinger
Group Account Director: Alex Lefebvre
Media Agency: Carat
Karen Hrstic - Vice President, Group Account Director
Vanessa Coutinho - Associate Account Director
Faizal Shaikh - Account Supervisor
Monalyn Quelnat - Media Planner
Crystal Kim - Media Coordinator