By: Lena Beyer

One of the most interesting brand building campaigns to come along in a while has to be Mark Lives In Ikea. In case you haven't heard of it yet, New York-based comedian Mark Malkoff decided to move into Ikea while his apartment was being fumigated. Yes, that’s right…live in Ikea.

For one week Mark moved into a New Jersey Ikea, making friends with employees and filming his escapades, which included shopping cart races with the night security man Jarvis, conducting tours of his "apartment" and hosting an impromptu performance by Lisa Loeb.

While most people may ask if this was initiated by Ikea, in fact, it is a brain child of Mark who, as one blog noted, used the Ikea brand to promote himself and in turn ended up promoting Ikea. His website, www.marklivesinikea.com, features videos of Mark's stay in the Swedish retailer and his hilarious interactions with both customers and employees in Ikea.

It appears as if Ikea was hands-off in this campaign, allowing Mark to run amok, but it is this approach which exemplifies the marketing shift that has taken place in the last few years.

While there have been examples of companies developing campaigns which appeared to be initiated by the "Average Joe", here is an example of why the "Average Joe" approach actually works. Both Mark and Ikea were featured on ABC's World News Tonight, and in publications including the Washington Post, the National Post and the Toronto Star. All of this in addition to the traffic driven to the website itself and postings on YouTube.com.

While I admit that their perfectly outfitted model rooms have made me jealous that I could only afford the KARLSTAD cushion and not the entire sofa series, actually moving into Ikea hasn't yet crossed this house hunter's mind.

However, Mark and Ikea have entered into that elusive marketing gold that happens when a simple, innovative idea catches spark.

Lena Beyer is a consultant with the technology practice of H&K Toronto.