IKEA
A BETTER DAY,
EVERYDAY

Group Account Director
Montalvo Agency, Mexico
Campaigns

THE PROBLEM WORTH SOLVING

IKEA was entering the Mexican market with no brand equity and a real perception problem: foreign retail brands in Mexico are typically assumed to be expensive, aspirational and not for everyone. The opposite of IKEA's core promise. They needed a first brand campaign that won Mexican hearts before a single store opened, and a market entry strategy for Guadalajara that felt locally earned. Mexico has some of the smallest living spaces in Latin America, roughly 62 square metres. In a maximalist culture where space is privilege, IKEA risked feeling like another aspirational European import. Unaffordable. Unapproachable.

THE INSIGHT THAT UNLOCKED IT

The brand's instinct was to lead with design. I pushed back. Mexicans don't fall in love with brands through aesthetics, they fall in love through recognition. The insight: IKEA's role in everyday home life maps directly onto the rhythms Mexicans already celebrate and sing about. Three iconic Mexican songs, familiar to every generation, became the vehicle for showing what IKEA actually does in a home.

WHAT I DID

Led the account end to end, the relationship that got it approved and kept it on track. Built and presented the full pitch in English directly to IKANO Group leadership, including Mexico's CEO, and carried it through sign-off. Owned the stakeholder relationships across marketing, retail operations and the store launch team simultaneously, aligning teams that don't naturally move at the same pace, strategy doesn't ship if the people building the store and the people running the campaign aren't working off the same plan. Within that, developed the strategic framework itself: core messaging, audience segmentation, the phased launch plan, and the call to include pricing in the awareness campaign, a deliberate break from category convention to immediately counter the "expensive foreign brand" perception.

THE IDEA IT BECAME

'A Better Day, Every Day', a campaign built on cultural familiarity rather than brand aspiration. Iconic Mexican songs rewritten around daily home life. OOH placements near schools and family locations. Prices shown from day one to signal accessibility. The campaign treated IKEA as a brand that understood Mexico, rather than one arriving to impress it.

WHAT HAPPENED

🏠 Successful national brand launch and Guadalajara opening with strong local resonance from launch

🏠 Brand rapidly embedded in Mexican cultural moments: Day of the Dead, Pride, Christmas and seasonal activations

🏠 IKEA became a top-of-mind home solutions brand in the Mexican market

🏠 Montalvo now manages IKEA's full funnel deliverables for Mexico, nationwide

🏠 Pricing-in-awareness approach adopted as a standard for future campaign communications