Ikea has gone from focusing the creativity of its campaigns on the price of its products to hiding them. Last October, in Sweden, the company highlighted furniture and its corresponding prices as a symbol of changes in life with the “Wherever Life Goes” campaign. Now, in the United Kingdom, it leaves prices in the background to underline the quality of its articles.

It does so with an advertising campaign designed by the Mother London agency, and with which it challenges the communication conventions of this season, characterized by the search for savings after the Christmas period and commercial sales. This is precisely why the strategy has sought to get consumers to focus on the quality of the products, challenging the habit of judging them by their price.

The idea materializes in a series of graphics for the press and outdoor advertising made by photographer Marloes Haarmans. They show different Ikea products, such as kitchenware and utensils, household linens or sofas, on colorful backgrounds. The prices, whose superimposition on the images has become one of the most iconic elements of the Swedish brand, are hidden behind the different objects, letting materials such as solid wood, cast iron, velvet and 100% wool take center stage.

In addition, each piece includes the phrase “If you saw the price, you wouldn’t believe it…”, followed by a brief description of the materials with which the product has been made, thus reinforcing Ikea’s value message, focused on accessibility and affordability, but without linking to the concept of sales.

By hiding prices in its own ads, Ikea is not trying to downplay price or affordability, but rather to suggest that low cost shouldn’t be the only thing to consider its products for. The message conveyed by the campaign is that manufacturing, materials and durability are as fundamental to the brand’s identity as value for money.