To win the last few moments of the FIFA World Cup 2026, IKEA Alsulaiman tapped into one of the game’s most unusual defensive moves as the basis of its latest timely campaign.
The premise was simple: audiences were invited to catch a player lying flat behind their team’s free-kick wall.
While a free-kick is typically a high-intensity moment in a game, IKEA Alsulaiman found the humour in how one player is found lying flat on the grass, kicking his feet up and looking unusually comfortable in the middle of a high-pressure moment.
This tactic often stirs up discussion, laughter, and even sometimes controversy. The move is designed to stop low free kicks from slipping under the wall, but IKEA gave it a different purpose.
With matches airing late into the night and fans lying back in their sofas catching the action, the resemblance was too good to ignore. When a player lay flat and got comfortable on the pitch, IKEA promised a discount that aimed to make audiences even more comfortable at home.
Developed in collaboration with Memac Ogilvy, the reactive commercial campaign in Saudi Arabia offered audiences a discount on sofas every time a player lay flat for a free kick. The mechanic was simple. Audiences were invited to capture a free-kick moment of a player lying on the grass for a free-kick play in the tournament and send this image to IKEA Saudi Arabia with their email and phone number to earn a discount.
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The value of the discount was entirely dependent on the player number. If a number 25 lay down behind the wall, that turned into a flat 25% off.
“Every football fan recognises the player lying behind the wall. We saw more than a defensive tactic, we saw an opportunity to connect with fans in a way that felt natural, timely, and unmistakably IKEA,” said Rami Rihani, Chief Marketing & Communications Officer, Alsulaiman Group.
“If the players are getting comfortable on the pitch, we think our customers deserve to get even more comfortable at home,” he said.
“‘Flat Out’ reflects our approach to balancing relevance with commercial objectives by creating brand interactions that don’t interrupt the experience but rather enhance it. When fans are rewarded for paying closer attention to the game they already love, everyone wins,” he added.
IKEA claimed the campaign generated several sofa discounts, with customers actively taking part and earning rewards on their next IKEA sofas. Online, the campaign witnessed more than 300,000 views on the brand’s Instagram.
IKEA aimed to turn a simple observation into a fun and engaging commerce activation and create a game within a game, giving fans a new reason to watch closely, hunt for a discount, and enjoy every moment of late-night football from the comfort of their sofas.
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