IKEA is soon to release a show on HGTV called Space for Living.

The show will feature 3 main content areas:
1. highlights of stylish rooms by various people across the world (those highlight IKEA in high style designs)
2. Redecorating – this is your standard Home show where a bad room is redone – this time IKEA style featuring function, style, and organization
3. Designer challenges – this section is interesting. It features 3 designers who are given the same piece of IKEA furniture. They are challenged to create something else out of it: to make it into an art piece, decorate it, or change its function in some way. For example, turning a closet piece into a puppet show booth.

I was able to view many of the trailers for the show. It looks quite interesting, and definitely has something unique from point #3. I like that it is a Canadian show but features design and redecoration in many countries – definitely a multicultural push. However, I did feel that the show was a bit overdone. Trying to do too much – 3 content areas are perhaps too much for a show. Specialization has proven well for other shows. However, I won’t know until the full show airs in the Spring.

So, how do I have this scoop? I was lucky to attend the IKEA marketing event hosted by the BCAMA last week. I was privy to the upcoming strategy for IKEA Canada and their new attempts to reach more demographics, particularly the boomers with high style and durability, the ethnic market, and the family market. Women are the primary target, of course.