Buzz Watch: Mark Malkoff Lives in Ikea (!) See Him On YouTube

Authored by Heather Hopkins on January 17, 2008 - 11:57am.

A colleague sent me an email about Mark Malkoff moving into Ikea while his NY apartment is fumigated. I checked Hitwise data and found a nice spike in traffic to the marklivesinikea.com website and in searches for "mark malkoff", with Thursday the biggest day for visits to the website. The stunt has no doubt been good for Mark's career. But what about Ikea. This is where things get interesting... Ikea is hosting their annual post-holiday sale and this stunt is likely cheaper than expensive TV ads.

Last week the third highest search term that included the keyword "ikea" was "mark lives in ikea" indicating that the stunt is drawing attention.

Ikea Search Term Suggestions.png

We can't say for sure whether this marketing tactic will work for Ikea (or Mark) but so far the top viewed video in the series has over 150,000 views on YouTube. Internet usage data can be a great way to measure effectiveness of such campaigns. It is difficult to attribute sales to this type of activity, but for building brand awareness, search data can offer a useful measure.

Heather Hopkins

Heather Hopkins is VP of Research for Hitwise UK. This piece was originally posted on Hitwise Analyst blog here.