Swedes are a helpful bunch. So much so that Ikea has named its own catalogue “The Most Helpful Book in the World,” and is boasting its neighbourliness in a salvo of ads this month.

For those who want a better job, would rather avoid spending money on tickets to the movies or who are even just looking to fill an empty corner space in a bedroom, Ikea claims its seasonal catalogue has the solutions. For example, the retailer states its office furnishings on “pg. 260 gets you the gig” in an ad in the job section of the Toronto Star. And in the movie section of Metro Winnipeg it says the Ikea living room entertainment unit on “pg. 239 beats a night out.”

The contextually relevant ads in the retailer’s catalogue campaign were placed in newspapers and on billboards across the country, starting Aug. 11, and will continue to run in market for the next three to four weeks, according to Hilary Lloyd, country marketing manager, Ikea Canada. She says the “primary household and home furnishings decision-makers,” or women ages 25 to 54, are the target audience for this campaign.

“With this campaign, we wanted to show Canadians how helpful the catalogue can be in solving challenges for everyday life at home,” she says of the creative that’s focused mostly on the bedroom and bathroom (“the rooms where every day begins and ends”) and which was led by Leo Burnett, with media handled by Jungle Media and PR by Citizen Relations.

And in what appears to be a bit of a throwback to a previous Ikea campaign that took place in Winnipeg, the brand is also strutting around town with a vending machine that dispenses an iconic Ikea tool. In 2013, the brand launched its “Learn Ikea” campaign with a vending machine that could only be unlocked with an Allen Key. This time, a different kind of vending machine that’s touring Toronto invites people to press “The most helpful button in the world” in order to receive “The most helpful measuring tape in the world.”

So far, the machine has visited the Evergreen Brick Works, with more stops planned around Toronto for the Shops at Don Mills (today), Yonge-Dundas Square (Aug. 28), Eaton Centre (Aug. 29 to 30) and Liberty Village, as well as the Beaches (Aug. 31).

The catalogue also made a TV appearance this year. The brand partnered with the Marilyn Denis Show on CTV and created co-branded promotional spots that contained helpful advice from designers that tied back to the items on the pages of the new catalogue.

“[Ikea’s consumer] is inundated with home decor inspiration, which can be overwhelming,” Lloyd says. “We want to reaffirm that Ikea is her trusted source for attainable home furnishings and make her aware that the new Ikea catalogue is here with lots of helpful and attainable ways to create the home she wants.”