How IKEA got Belgians to cook together again.
Research showed that eating together remains a social moment for most Belgians, but cooking together doesn’t. The opportunity for IKEA to increase its consideration in cooking & eating wasn’t in advertising cooking solutions, but to restore cooking as a shared ritual that people would actually repeat.
So we introduced a concept designed to make cooking communal again and a platform built to live year-round. The name of this idea? TIDSAMM, a word we created from Tijd Samen (time together), designed to sound Swedish and feel unmistakably IKEA.
TIDSAMM became the umbrella for IKEA’s cooking & eating year, bringing IKEA’S belief “Life starts in the kitchen” to life through proof, not promises.
The kickoff took shape as a TIDSAMM pop-up kitchen in Brussels: a fully functional IKEA kitchen where people didn’t browse solutions, they used them. Breakfasts, lunches, and dinners were prepped daily, turning solo routines into shared moments and showing, without overexplaining, how IKEA enables connection at home.
To scale TIDSAMM beyond the pop-up and turn it into a year-long platform, we launched it through connected experiences - with PR and creators as the main drivers and amplified by a full 360° ecosystem - in collaboration with agency partners Ogilvy Social.Lab, Akkanto, and Mindshare.
The Brussels pop-up kitchen acted as the proof: a place where media, influencers, and communities could experience firsthand.
PR translated the insight that Belgians rarely cook together anymore into a story Belgium cared about, backed by local data and a collaboration with vzw Positivologie, and brought journalists in through press previews and cooking sessions.
Creators and ambassadors hosted their own moments at the pop-up, sharing what cooking together looks like today rather than bluntly promoting IKEA products.
All touchpoints were amplified through social (organic + paid), OLV, radio, OOH, CRM, and a dedicated landing page. To make it scalable beyond Brussels, IKEA extended TIDSAMM with free in-store breakfasts across Belgium, a recipe contest for IKEA Family members, and a TIDSAMM card game designed to spark conversation at home.
TIDSAMM turned a societal insight into real moments of connection and measurable impact. We didn’t just raise awareness around togetherness. We created the conditions for it to happen, at scale.
Contributing agencies: Ogilvy Social.Lab & Akkanto.
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