What happens when you let more than 100 cats run loose and do as they like in an Ikea store?
It’s a question that the creatives at agency Mother London didn’t really know the answer to when they thought up the idea.
Still, they thought it was worth trying and hired director Adam Berg of Stink, London, to make it happen.
The result is a lovely 60-second commercial called “Happy Inside” that has you wanting to curl up on the couch with your cat after watching it.
Looking back on the project, Mother creative Tim McNaughton likens it to an experiment that carried positive potential but could go any which way and yield unforeseeable results.
“It was an experiment, and we really didn’t know how it would turn out,” McNaughton admitted. “I mean, no one’s ever released cats in an Ikea store at night. Well, not to my knowledge anyway.”
The “experiment” obviously went pretty well–and had agency artisans and the client purring– if you judge by the number of eyeballs it attracted.
This issue’s SHOOT Top Spot has been seen on YouTube by close to one million people, and nearly three million have watched the Making Of video, which is also on YouTube.
As we see in “Happy Inside,” dozens of cats and kittens were allowed to run wild in an Ikea store in the Wembley area of London after closing time and were dutifully filmed as they explored their new surroundings.
Once the felines got their bearings, they made themselves comfortable, lounging on tabletops and falling asleep on beds, and that’s exactly what the creatives at Mother were hoping they’d do for the cameras to capture.
Part of an integrated campaign launched to coincide with the release of the new Ikea catalog, “Happy Inside” strives to show consumers “that Ikea understands the important thing about furniture is how it makes you feel,” McNaughton said, noting that it should make you happy inside.
Cats vs. dogs So why did Mother choose a cast of cats to appear in “Happy Inside” as opposed to people or dogs?
“Cats know happy better than anyone. They are the undisputed champions of comfort,” McNaughton reasoned, asking, “How many times do you come home and find that your cat has managed to find the most comfortable spot and declared it their own whether or not you had any plans to sit there yourself? So we thought,, who better to test the comfort factor of Ikea furniture, to find those happy spots, than the experts themselves.”
Cat-cams
Before the cats–provided by pet owners and breeders who answered a call for felines on an Internet forum–were released into the Ikea store, Berg and cinematographer Richard Stewart had multiple cameras, including 35mm, an ARRI Alexa, a Phantom high-speed HD camera and state-of-the-art infrared and heat sensitive cameras, ready to roll.
Initially, Berg tried to set up some situations for the cats, but the cats didn’t necessarily want to be told what to do. Such is the inherent and somehow endearing nature of cats–they don’t take direction all that well.
“So in the end, we more or less set them loose and tried to guide them in the general direction of where we wanted them,” the director shared. “The whole shoot was very much trial and error.”
Berg was up to ears in his cats for three consecutive evenings. He and his crew took over the Ikea after the store closed for the night and stayed until early morning. Not all of the cats were natural performers, by the way. In fact, some of them hid, while others tried to escape. But many of the cats, especially the kittens, were eager to investigate their surroundings. Cats of all ages were especially interested in the price tags affixed to the furniture and had a great time batting them around. Berg noted that a breed of hairless cat known as the Canadian Sphynx was really quite bold and fun to watch.
As you might imagine, it was a challenge to round up all of the felines at the end of each night of shooting.
It’s a working proposition reminiscent in a sense of the famed, tongue-in-cheek EDS Super Bowl commercial from many years ago aptly titled “Cat Herding.”
“If you’ve ever been lying on your back on the floor in Ikea at 7 in the morning trying to pry a reluctant kitten from under a chest of drawers, you’ll know it’s no easy task,” McNaughton shared.
Thus everyone from cat owners to ad agency creatives to the production crew artisans pitched in to round up the cats.
Kitty cuts Then came the edit. To be frank, McNaughton said, “We didn’t really know if we had anything until [editor]Paul Hardcastle told us we did.
“Hardcastle, of London-headquartered Trim Editing, “took on the gargantuan task of going through the miles of footage we had and turning it into the final film you see today,” McNaughton said. “I can’t overstress just what a task that was.”
Berg, who took part in the edit, said it was all about finding an emotional tone to the piece rather than fashioning a storyline.
London-based singer-songwriter Mara Carlyle’s “Pianni” accompanies the visuals.
One has to ask an obvious question: Does Berg have a cat?
“I’m more of a dog person,” he said.
And McNaughton? “Sadly, not anymore. I used to have a tabby called Mugsy and a black cat called Fifi. They were legends in their own lifetime, gathering friends and admirers everywhere they went. A bit like The Littlest Hobo,” McNaughton reflected, adding, “I like to think Mugsy and Fifi are looking down from somewhere now and thinking, ‘I would have done a better job [on that spot].'”
