Six Degrees: Mark Malkoff wins PRWeek Campaign of the Year 2009 award
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We’d like to send out a serious Congratulations to friend of the blog, ‘Colbert Report’ Audience Coordinator Mark Malkoff, whose Ikea series won the PR Week Campaign of the Year 2009. Here’s what PRWeek.com had to say about the video series and why it won:
Working with a budget of $13,500, the campaign got “lots of bang for the buck,” one judge said. MarkLivesInIKEA.com received more than 15 million hits and home-related IKEA blog coverage rose 356% from January 2007 to January 2008. IKEA calculated that the effort generated more than 382 million positive media impressions. Coverage highlights included the AP, Today, Good Morning America, and CNN. Sales at the Paramus store were up 5.5% compared to January 2007, while traffic to the IKEA Web site was up 6.8%.
The brand was smart to say yes to Malkoff, whose previous project saw him visit all 171 New York City Starbucks locations. He was someone who could handle media relations on his own, including the initial announcement of the plan. Meanwhile, Ketchum and IKEA secured interviews with store executives and planned the week’s schedule, which included a goodbye party featuring singer Lisa Loeb. Malkoff’s team documented his interactions, including those with security guards and customers relaxing in his “home,” and posted 25 videos during the week.
In a field of great finalists, judges kept returning to Ketchum and IKEA’s ingenuity and budget-minded plan as the logical Campaign of the Year.
Here are my two favorite videos in the series. The first video features Mark’s first night in Ikea, and he takes full advantage of having an entire Ikea store all to himsef. Well, just him and Jarvis. The second video features Mark’s date with his lovely bride Christine. Make sure to check out all the videos at MarkLivesInIkea.com.
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5 Comments
March 8th, 2009 at 9:02 pm
Niiice, huge congrats to Mark! I love that first video so much. Him and Jarvis just running around the store is so funny. My favorite part is when Mark puts that salmon pate stuff on his toothbrush as if it’s toothpaste. I studied in Sweden before and those tubes always interested and confused me. I never tried them before though so, hey, maybe they’re good and I’m missing out.
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March 9th, 2009 at 12:17 am
Why does Mark not have his own show yet?! So much more innovative than most things on TV right now! This is fabulous. I’m going to catch up on the rest of the series this week. Congratulations Mark! You have such a wonderful, unique style that deserves a place in the entertainment field. I’m just looking forward to the day when your own show airs!
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March 9th, 2009 at 8:14 am
omg. for some reason i missed out on all the fun while it was happening. so funny! and i just realized that he lived in my local Ikea in Paramus, NJ!
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March 9th, 2009 at 10:07 am
Every now and then I’ll go back and rewatch 171 Starbucks because, well, it’s awesome and hilarious. My favorite part of the IKEA saga is “Thor, The God of Swedish Furniture” (which, if I ever have the honor of meeting him, I may have to just quote that back to him. Hehehe…). Congratulations, Mark!
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March 10th, 2009 at 4:26 pm
Congratulations on the win Mark.
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