00:00Dorothy Gardin, thanks for taking time to speak to us here on Euronews.
00:04Let's talk about innovation because IKEA is synonymous with innovation and bringing on young designers.
00:11How do you see the role of AI in what you do and what the company does?
00:16Do you see it as a challenge or is it something complementary to what you do?
00:19Very much an opportunity to everything we do because the way we're looking at AI in IKEA
00:25and I think we are still figuring out really what it means for us as a brand but like the
00:32rest of the world really.
00:34What we see though is that this is a wonderful amplifier of our genuine creative talents
00:40and also enabling us to be a lot more efficient in everything we do.
00:45We believe, I believe personally, that AI is wonderful at creating variation
00:50but it cannot replace the intelligence that comes from the human, from the human brain.
00:56We also have a need to ensure that from a brand safety perspective we are always on top of everything
01:03to protect our tone of voice, to protect how our brands show up, including the efforts that we do around
01:10GEO, for example,
01:11and how we show up in agents because hallucinations do happen and we need to make sure
01:15that we are really on top of showing up in the way we want.
01:20Dorothee, I can't let this opportunity go without asking you a bit about monkey business
01:25and of course I'm talking about Punch and how IKEA has used that, you know, that viral moment has gone
01:32worldwide.
01:34How is it for you in terms of being behind the wheel of strategy and marketing?
01:38Dorothee, I think this was a wonderful example of how playful, how talented our communications teams are
01:46and this post really came from one of the team members who was part of the social media team
01:54and she literally recorded this behind the parking lot of our office in Malmö.
02:00And this is a wonderful example of how do we manage to tap on the cultural moments while staying
02:07very true to our brand identity. One of the things that we also want to avoid is to tap into
02:13every
02:14little trend because this is not relevant for our brand, this is not relevant for any brand really.
02:19So it is about being very smart about the moments, the cultural identity that is relevant for our brand
02:27that actually really matches some of our values, some of our own identity. I was talking about the
02:34simplicity, I was talking about the playfulness as well as our affordability standpoint which is very strong.
02:41Okay, well final thought, I know you're extremely busy here at the beginning of Cannes Lions this week.
02:47How do you see IKEA evolving over the next five years and for you personally, how are you looking to
02:52make your mark?
02:53I work on the media space. So what we're really looking into, continuing to expand is exactly,
03:01it's a good bridge to the previous question because we want to use paid media as an amplifier
03:08of the earned cultural moments as well. And we really see it as like a vehicle for us to connect
03:15with more of the many people in personal and relevant ways. So we are going to continue really
03:21develop our muscle when it comes to utilizing in a very privacy safe way our 200 million IKEA family
03:31members data in order to enhance their experience and in order to be to be more relevant for them.
03:37And of course to continue to expand the value that IKEA can bring to the many people and so we
03:44can
03:45continue to attract new customers. We are also having an expansion plan and opening a lot of different
03:51customer meeting points in new ways as well because we're also very conscious that people want to
03:58also shop in different ways. So this is the natural evolution that I see.
04:04Okay, well, Dorothy Gardner, thank you very much for spending time with us this morning.
04:07Thank you for having me.
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