Who: Kijiji Canada with BBDO for strategy and creative, and BBDO’s in-house production team Flare.

What: The “I-Kijiji-A Catalogue,” a digital catalogue of home goods and furniture that consumers can buy locally to avoid global supply chain problems. The idea was, let’s say, inspired by IKEA.

When & Where: The catalogue is live now with social media being used to raise awareness and drive traffic from June 28 to 30.

Why: The much-discussed global supply chain issues arising out of the pandemic have been causing real challenges for IKEA, with many shoppers who are ready to buy getting out-of-stock notices instead. BBDO and Kijiji thought they could poke some gentle fun at the big-box colossus, without ever actually naming it, while at the same time showcasing the large selection of used IKEA-like home goods (and in some cases actual IKEA products) that people can buy using the popular online marketplace.

“Our goal is to make Kijiji a more culturally relevant brand so we always try to pay attention to what’s happening in the news, and we’re always looking for ways to insert the brand into relevant cultural conversations,” said

“Kijiji may not be the first place Canadians think to look for newer, on-trend home goods, but the fact is our platform is filled with new and gently used high-quality items from brands Canadians love and are looking for right now,” said Adam Jardine, Kijiji’s CMO. “We saw an increase in home goods inventory during the pandemic, and with over 100,000 new ads posted every day, many items that are becoming harder and harder to find at Canada’s most popular stores are actually available on our platform.”

How: BBDO created a digital look-book of sorts that looks very much like one of IKEA’s famous print catalogues, with similar fonts, and two-page spreads of rooms adorned with IKEA-like products sourced from Kijiji vendors, with headlines that include random Scandinavian grammatical accents.

Users can zoom in for a closer look, see how much the items sold for, and click through to see similar items currently for sale on Kijiji.

“Our goal is to make Kijiji a more culturally relevant brand, so we always try to pay attention to what’s happening in the news, and we’re always looking for ways to insert the brand into relevant cultural conversations,” said BBDO’s associate CDs Alex Smith and Mat Cruz in an email.

Being culturally relevant often means you gotta move at the speed of culture. BBDO moved fast to turn this idea around and put it in market. “It was pretty darn quick,” they said. “From Adam and the Kijiji team green-lighting the idea to the work being in market, was about three weeks.”

And we quote: “Supply chain problems are top-of-mind for consumers, and I-Kijiji-A provides an innovative solution that inspires Canadians to shop differently for their home. The beauty of this catalogue is that it shows consumers that the home goods they are looking for aren’t as out of reach as they once thought.” — Max Geraldo, chief creative officer of BBDO Canada.