IKEA recently ran a multi-platform ad campaign, allowing customers to sell their second-hand furniture from the Swedish company via an online flea market.
The Norway-based ad agency behind IKEA's campaign, SMFB, selected 50 Norwegian customers to sell their used furniture. SMFB created the virtual marketplace by encouraging sellers to photograph their furniture on Facebook, and then marketed each product on IKEA's Facebook page.
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SMFB also promoted each piece of used furniture via other advertising mediums, including online, broadcast, print and outdoor billboards. Each ad featured the seller's first name and personal phone number. Customers participated in the campaign for free, and successfully sold all of their furniture.
IKEA launched the eight-week campaign, which kicked off in August, to inspire customers to be more sustainable by selling — instead of discarding — old furniture. 
SMFB used IKEA Norway's Facebook page to reach existing customers in different locations throughout the country, and to create a virtual flea market that was open on Sundays from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. in the Central European time zone.
"It worked as an actual flea market in the sense that it was only available on Sundays. Upon closing time, we removed all the products from the page. Facebook was a crucial part since this activity was a more involving, interactive and social dimension of the campaign that opened up for anyone who wanted to sell stuff," Hans Magne Ekre, SMFB creative partner, told Mashable in an email.
SMFB does not have plans to design another used-furniture ad campaign for IKEA's Norway locations in the future. However, it has produced other campaigns for IKEA, including using real-estate ads to showcase the company's new "Tidafor" sofa, and promoting IKEA's iPad catalog by creating ads for "Berora," a sewing kit for a touchscreen-friendly mitten that's suitable for tablet-browsing in cold weather.
Other examples of IKEA's advertising innovation include its augmented-reality catalog, which enables customers, using a mobile app, to digitally simulate how a particular IKEA item would look in their home.
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Image: SMFB Advertising Agency