Ikea installations confront realities of hidden homelessness

Ikea is putting brand purpose front and centre with confronting in-store installations highlighting Australia’s homeless problem.

Ikea Australia 'This is not a home' campaign incorporates in-store installations to highlight hidden homelessness.

Ikea has created a series of confronting in-store installations to highlight the “hidden homeless” epidemic in Australia as part of the brand’s social purpose.

The This is Not a Home campaign, incorporates installations which are placed throughout the store, but instead of the regular room designs these feature a car, tent or sofas that are decorated to look like they are being used as a home.

The idea is to showcase the real-life living conditions being experienced by many Australians and juxtapose this against the store’s inspirational home-settings to drive home the impact of the message. Each of the scenes feature signage telling the real-life stories of homeless individuals and have QR codes, where customers can learn more and make donations.

It is part of the Swedish-owned furniture brand’s three-year partnership with Save the Children Australia, which aims to highlight the impact of domestic and family violence, which is the No.1 cause of homelessness for women and young children.

Ikea Australia chief executive officer Mirja Viinanen said the campaign was part of the company’s global brand vision to “create a better everyday life at home”.

“The purpose of bringing This is Not a Home to life in our Tempe (Sydney) store in collaboration with Save the Children is to help to raise awareness of the stark living situations of women and children escaping domestic violence across the country.

“With domestic and family violence usually manifesting at home, and being a leading cause of homelessness in Australia, Ikea believes we have a responsibility to help address this critical national issue.

“We realise the challenge is great, and we hope that our campaign can encourage nationwide support to ensure more families do not end up homeless as a result of domestic and family violence,” Ms Viinanen said.

As part of the Save the Children partnership, Ikea is also donating household products, co-creating design projects and providing financial aid to help the charity support the survivors of domestic and family violence.

Ikea has provided signage in-store and support resources in all communications relating to the campaign as it acknowledges the confronting nature of the topic.

Ikea’s country communications manager Patricia Routledge said the business believed it was important to its stance as “a purpose-led company and a value-based employer” to try to drive action.

“We are very conscious of purpose being something that we feel we can have a genuine voice around,” she said. “The aim is to bring hidden homelessness out of the shadows and position it in a confronting way. Just because something is confronting doesn’t mean we shouldn’t do it. The concern is that if we don’t pay attention then it continues to happen. It’s about raising the issue so that people can’t hide from it.

“We want to use the platform of our brand and the canvas of our store to have this conversation.”

Ms Routledge said Ikea had partnered with Save The Children to have the greatest impact.  

“The housing crisis in Australia is a significant issue and a huge topic and while we can’t necessarily build the homes, we can look at where we can make a difference and where we can advocate.

“We wanted a partner that we could build a long-term partnership with and Save The Children was an organisation that we felt we make a difference with and where we could make the most impact.”