How to sell a kitchen 10 years before it exists

Design students were asked to create a 2025 concept kitchen for IKEA. Here’s a look at how we might advertise the yet-to-be-realised products.

In 10 years, the world will be a different place. Concept Kitchen 2015 predicts:

• We’ll be living more urban lives
• Water and energy will again feel precious
• Food will be more expensive
• We’ll be more open to thinking ‘protein’, not meat
• Our homes will become physically smaller
• Kitchens will be the anchor of the house as families live separate lives under one roof
• Working from home will be the norm
• Computers will be everywhere (in an Internet of Things way)
• ‘Shopping’ will mean ‘home delivery’
• Global commerce, local community
• Western culture will incorporate Eastern values
• Taste preferences and rituals of different cultures will be converging

These insights have inspired design students from Lund University, Sweden to create prototypes for kitchens of the future.

Students at the DMA’s Future Writers’ Labs were asked to develop campaigns for the products (in half an hour, mind).

Let’s see what both groups came up with.

The ad concept:

Notifications on your smartwatch with a recipe for dinner using ingredients you already have (assuming you have a smart fridge). It would sync with your health data to provide the right balance of what you need.

The ad concept:

Open the lid on art and food. Typically, we hide our food away like it's ugly. But what if we made it into something beautiful? To launch the product, we'd partner with a supermarket who'd provide 'art inspired' hampers to encourage a behaviour change; displaying your groceries like a work of art. "The David" has olive oil, grapes, olive wreaths, red wine, cured meats and Mediterranean delights. "The Dali" has purple carrots, exotic, bizarre fruits, pumpkins and Spanish delicacies. This concept could be rolled out to all media forms - displays and banners, video instructions, collaborations with artists and chefs... all in the aim of creating a culture of celebrating the beauty of food.

The future of copywriting is symbiotic with the future of the world. Read more about the DMA's Future writers' labs here.