“Coworkers IKEA”
Turning social tensions into symbolic brand experiences
Rather than communicating values through corporate language, the projects translated invisible social tensions into physical gestures, spatial interventions and emotionally driven storytelling.
ACTIVATION 1 - 8M
“ALARMAS INVISIBLES”
A sound experience that made women’s mental load heard
According to the IKEA Global Sleep Report, women consistently sleep less and worse than men.
Behind these numbers lies an invisible reality: mental load, the constant accumulation of responsibilities, expectations and thoughts that continue long after the day ends.
To make this invisible tension tangible, we created an immersive sound installation built from real testimonies collected from IKEA coworkers.
A series of IKEA alarm clocks activated different recorded thoughts and concerns shared by women, transforming everyday mental load into a physical and collective experience.
The installation turned private inner noise into something audible and impossible to ignore.
The project culminated in a film launched for International Women’s Day, opening a wider conversation around shared responsibility, rest and emotional equality.
Creative Director & Art Director: Natalia Arias A. - Sr. Copywriter: Ana Benitez - Set Design: Jordi Portillo - Filmmakers: Natalia Arias + Ignacio Bascón - DOP: Ignacio Bascón - Production: Halo - Video Edition: Jordi Portillo - Print AD: Débora Hillert - Muah: Xenia Tió - Client: IKEA - Agency: APPLE TREE
ACTIVATION II - PRIDE
“ARMARIOS”
Closets are for clothes, not for people
The expression “coming out of the closet” reflects the social pressure many LGBTQ+ people still experience when expressing identity openly.
The metaphor of the closet itself became the starting point of the intervention.
To mark Pride Day, IKEA removed the doors from every wardrobe display across its stores in Spain.
A simple but symbolic gesture transformed a familiar retail object into a statement about visibility, openness and acceptance.
The intervention extended through coworker-led storytelling, internal activations and visual materials distributed across stores and workspaces, turning employees into active participants in the message rather than passive recipients.
What began as an internal inclusion initiative evolved into a large-scale cultural campaign capable of generating public conversation around identity and belonging.
Creative Direction - Sr. Copywriting: Ana Benitez - Art Director: Pablo del Valle - Video Editor: Jordi Portillo -Filmmaker: Arian Tabatabai - Client: IKEA - Agency: APPLE TREE
@2026