Work  /  IKEA × Shelter

Case 002 · 2024-25 · In-store campaign

The dollhouse
that showed what
151,630 children
come home to.

A PR campaign that turned IKEA's FLISAT dollhouses into a quiet, devastating visualisation of temporary-accommodation conditions in the UK. Shot on macro probe lenses so the miniature sets read as full-scale rooms.

Weber Shandwick · Hope&Glory Macro probe Studio
IKEA × Shelter — installation still showing miniature dollhouse rooms representing temporary accommodation

Still from the in-store installation film.

The brief.

Weber Shandwick and Hope&Glory needed a campaign film that could carry a hard statistic: 151,630 children in the UK living in temporary accommodation. The creative concept used IKEA's FLISAT dollhouses, dressed to reflect real conditions families face, displayed inside IKEA stores.

My job was to make the miniatures read as rooms. Not as toys. The whole campaign hinges on the viewer forgetting they're looking at a dollhouse.

How we shot it.

  • Macro cinematography on probe lenses to put the camera inside the miniature spaces
  • Lighting scaled to the set: small fixtures, hard-fall practicals, dollhouse-window daylight
  • Slow, considered moves to let detail register

The probe lens does the heavy lift. It puts the eye inside the room rather than over it. Combined with careful light, the scale reads true.

Where it ran.

The campaign film looped on screens inside IKEA stores alongside the physical dollhouse installations. The wider PR push reached national press.

Recognition.

The campaign picked up three industry golds and a Cannes shortlist. Awards were won by Weber Shandwick and Hope&Glory. Small Batch shot the work.

Cannes PR Lions 2025 — Shortlisted Gold, Sustainability/Purpose Campaign of the Year, PRmoment 2025 Gold, Not For Profit Campaign of the Year, PRmoment 2025 Winner, Best Advocacy Campaign, Purpose Awards EMEA 2025

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