Restart the Car! Ikea Make a Classic Comeback
Ikea
Start the Car
“Start the car! START THE CAR!” It’s one of Canada’s most famous and best loved TV ads, a commercial that spawned dozens of memes, parodies and remakes. Campaign magazine recently named it the greatest Canadian ad of the 21st Century. And last month it was back on screens in all its bargain-tastic glory.
If you don’t know the ad already, it’s a beautifully simple idea – dozens of retailers have used similar concepts but rarely this well executed. A woman reaches the till at IKEA, pays and looks at her receipt. Realization strikes. She moves quickly to the exit then breaks into a run once she’s out of the door, yelling “Start the car!” at her startled husband. “It’s not a mistake” says a caption – IKEA’s prices really are that good, especially with a half-price sale happening currently.
The joy of “Start The Car” (or “It’s Not A Mistake”, to give it its official name) is all in the execution. It’s a brilliantly acted ad, from the determined speed-walking out the store doors to the woman’s whoop of triumph once she’s safely in the car. It captures the attention of the right side of the brain by focusing on one individual character in a dramatic narrative, and it uses humor wonderfully well, with great comic timing. And, let’s not forget, it puts over a strong commercial message too, capturing the feeling of encountering prices so good you feel like you’re getting away with something.
“It’s Not A Mistake” might also refer to the release of the ad. IKEA first showed this commercial twenty years ago, and while it’s been referred to and re-released a few times since, it performs well every time. So yes, if you’re a Canadian viewer, you probably have seen this before. But that’s not a mistake either. As System1 have shown repeatedly in the last few years “wear-out” in ads is a myth. Strong emotional ads almost always continue to perform well over time, and many of them actually “wear in”, improving their effectiveness over time. A well-made ad rewards multiple exposures – its jokes and twists are good enough to hear again, its catchphrases grow better with repetition, and there’s often plenty of joyful moments to pick up on with repeat viewings. Familiarity breeds contentment, not contempt. Consistency for brands pays dividends.
The results for this ad are a great example. Twenty years after it was made, “Start The Car” scores a 4.3-Star Rating, predicting strong long-term growth given the right investment. That’s well above the modest Canadian TV average, and its other metrics perform even better. IKEA gets exceptional ratings in both short-term Spike Rating (predicting high sales activation potential) and in Brand Fluency. After two decades, IKEA’s ad is still as entertaining as ever, and the brand have made a strong move re-introducing it to their audience.
