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Home3D PrintingHype is again? 3D printed meatballs star in IKEA recruitment marketing campaign

Hype is again? 3D printed meatballs star in IKEA recruitment marketing campaign

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Swedish furnishings retail firm IKEA has used 3D printing to advertise its newest recruitment marketing campaign because it seeks to fill key expertise roles within the Netherlands, Sweden, Germany, and Switzerland. 

The agency’s new “Style the Future” marketing campaign invitations candidates to a novel job interview over a plate of plant-based 3D printed Swedish meatballs, with the goal of attracting a various vary of digital professionals.

The corporate additionally introduced plans to have 50 p.c plant-based meals in all its eating places by 2025, nonetheless it stays to be seen if 3D printed meatballs will probably be on the menu of your native IKEA anytime quickly. 

“IKEA is at first of a journey to embrace information and expertise to develop into extra reasonably priced, accessible and sustainable in an omnichannel setting,” mentioned Pascal Pauwels, Inter IKEA Group CIO. “Naturally folks with creativeness will play a giant position in that quest. 

“So right here we’re in search of individuals who need to create a greater on a regular basis life with us. This marketing campaign is a good way to start out the dialog.”

Assembly over meatballs

IKEA’s Swedish meatballs are an iconic a part of the corporate’s model and, coupled with the intrigue of 3D printing to these not so conversant in the expertise and its capabilities, will little question pique the curiosity of potential candidates.

Captured within the brief movie above, the agency’s recruitment marketing campaign is hoping to draw a various vary of tech expertise to fill the 150 roles on provide all through its European areas. The 3D printed meatballs will probably be served to chose candidates as a part of IKEA’s regular software and interview course of.

“We’re in search of down-to-earth information scientists, future architects, cyber guardians, unboxed engineers and customary sense-makers,” mentioned Karen Rivoire, IKEA’s Employer Model Chief. “Individuals who need to co-create a greater on a regular basis life at dwelling for the numerous with skinny wallets.”

IKEA's plant-based 3D printed Swedish meatball. Photo via IKEA.
IKEA’s plant-based 3D printed Swedish meatball. Picture through IKEA.

Onto the meatballs themselves, which had been produced by a 3D meals printer to recreate the feel, taste, and look of the unique however with out the meat. The plant-based different was born out of IKEA’s experimentation with new applied sciences to make its meatballs extra sustainable. 

The agency was ambiguous on the meals 3D printing expertise concerned in creating the meatballs, and it’s unclear whether or not IKEA leveraged a third-party’s expertise and {hardware} or whether or not the expertise has been developed in-house. One would assume the previous is the most definitely situation of the 2, nonetheless.

IKEA already gives plant-based meatballs alongside its conventional meatballs in its eating places and has dedicated to providing 50 p.c plant-based predominant meals in its areas by 2025. Regardless of this, the corporate mentioned that there are presently no plans to place the 3D printed meatballs on the menu of its eating places.

It’s clear that the 3D printed meatballs are, at the least for now, merely a advertising and marketing hook by IKEA to draw the following era of knowledge and expertise expertise by way of its doorways by getting eyeballs on this advertising and marketing marketing campaign. Extra attention-grabbing nonetheless is that 3D printing is making a comeback by way of mainstream manufacturers utilizing the expertise as a hook in such campaigns.

The 3D printed meatballs form part of IKEA's latest recruitment campaign. Photo via IKEA.
The 3D printed meatballs type a part of IKEA’s newest recruitment marketing campaign. Picture through IKEA.

3D printing’s starring position in advertising and marketing campaigns 

Different examples of additive manufacturing leveraged for advertising and marketing functions as a “new” or “revolutionary” expertise embody a current advert run by the British Coronary heart Basis has launched movies on how it’s funding the event of 3D printed hearts which are saving youngsters’s lives, and the expertise is probably a type of alluded to in its current “That is Science” marketing campaign requesting donations to “flip science fiction into actuality”. 

The caveat to this marketing campaign is, after all, that 3D printing an precise coronary heart is nonetheless a great distance away, and for now, 3D printing’s deployment on this area is essentially confined to affected person fashions and tissue engineering analysis

British Heart Foundation advert on London Underground. Photo by Michael Petch.
British Coronary heart Basis advert on London Underground. Picture by Michael Petch.

Tellingly, of the again of the 2013-2014 3D printing hype-wave manufacturers similar to Coca-Cola, Carolina Herrera, Louis Vuitton, Macy’s, Netflix, Nike, and extra adopted 3D printing in some respect as a part of their omnichannel advertising and marketing methods. Coca-Cola’s growth of the Ekocycle 3D printer in partnership with 3D Programs and musician Will.i.am in 2014 is a primary instance of this, as was the inclusion of 3D printers in Macy’s backstage retailer in 2015 because the retailer tried to enchantment to a brand new millennial client demographic.

Does the re-emergence of 3D printing positioned entrance and heart in advert campaigns recommend one other hype wave is about to interrupt?

IKEA hopes the 3D printed meatballs will attract the next generation of tech talent. Photo via IKEA.
IKEA hopes the 3D printed meatballs will entice the following era of tech expertise. Picture through IKEA.

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Featured picture reveals IKEA’s plant-based 3D printed Swedish meatball. Picture through IKEA.



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