IKEA and LEGO play up storage fun with product partnership

Furniture retailer IKEA of Sweden AB has partnered with LEGO Group to create a playful storage solution called BYGGLEK. Consisting of a series of storage boxes with LEGO studs and a special LEGO brick set, the new BYGGLEK collection aims to encourage play and infuse more fun into storage around the home. The BYGGLEK collection will be available from 1 October onwards, in existing IKEA retail channels throughout Europe (except Russia) and North America and the global roll-out will happen within 2020. 

The collaboration comes as IKEA looks to create a storage solution that itself offers a fun playful experience. The BYGGLEK boxes are equipped with LEGO studs on the top and the front, which allow kids to integrate the storage boxes as part of their LEGO builds. With BYGGLEK, IKEA looks to not only disrupt children's play, but also their creative expression and growth. With the partnership, IKEA and the LEGO Group aim to remove barriers to play in daily life, while creating a practical yet playful experience that children and adults could enjoy together. Marketing has reached out to IKEA for additional information.

The BYGGLEK range consists of four different products: one set of three small boxes, two sets of bigger boxes, and one set of LEGO bricks to kickstart the experience. BYGGLEK can be used with any existing and future LEGO elements, as the studs used on the lid and front are part of the LEGO system in play. The LEGO system in play enables children to build and rebuild their own stories and through this process develop essential 21st century skills. 

Andreas Fredriksson, designer at IKEA of Sweden, said BYGGLEK will help bridge the gap between how adults and children see play. “Where adults often see mess, children see a stimulating creative environment," he said, adding that BYGGLEK will help ensure more creative play in homes around the world. Additionally, Fredriksson said the BYGGLEK collection matches perfectly with other IKEA products, making it possible to have children’s creativity becoming a nice and unique piece of decoration in homes.

Rasmus Buch Løgstrup, designer at the LEGO Group said the BYGGLEK collection is storage and play intertwined. "BYGGLEK provides families with a product range that helps create space for more play in their everyday - fuelling creativity, making it possible to have more fun together. BYGGLEK is all about endless possibilities, just like the LEGO System in Play.”

Separately closer to home, IKEA has plans to launch its first small-store concept in Southeast Asia in 2021. Located in Singapore's shopping centre JEM, the small-store concept will be organised by combining everything IKEA has to offer for each core area of the home into one department. This store will not have a playground or built-in warehouse, but customers will still be able to buy the full IKEA range. The popular IKEA Restaurant will also be part of the offer. At around 6,500 square metres, the third IKEA store in Singapore will be spread across three floors inside the shopping centre.

Recently, IKEA made a gaffe in Bahrain when a Twitter user spotted an inaccuracy in its Arabic text. The image posted online showed the English text saying: "Create your perfect night's sleep." Below it was the Arabic copy which allegedly read "Same text but in Arabic". Nonetheless, the home furnishing brand took the gaffe in its stride, eventually changing the ad copy to "This is what happens when you don't get good sleep. Enjoy your perfect sleep." While netizens had a good laugh about the mistake, some discussed about poor translation efforts by companies and others also speculated that the team approving the final ad copy must have been non-Arabic speakers.

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