2020 Winner

CASE SUMMARY

Challenge and Goals
The mattress category has changed dramatically over the past decade. What used to be a tactile, in-person experience dominated by a handful of brands (including IKEA) is now one where the norm is to buy-before-you-try, with more than 178 direct-to-consumer brands fighting for your dollars. It feels like everywhere you look there’s an ad for a mattress-in-a-box.

To break through in this cluttered landscape, IKEA needed to carve out an ownable way to talk about their mattress range that connected directly with consumers.

Insights and Strategy
Sleep isn’t just big business, it’s also a big issue in today’s society. People overlook the importance of sleep and often prioritize countless distractions at the expense of a good night’s rest. As a result, more than one-third of Canadians sleep less than the recommended seven hours per night.

So, the team decided to remind people of the importance of sleep at the exact time they were avoiding it.

Execution
The team knew the usual campaign formula wasn’t enough for IKEA to stand out. Instead, it selected channels that would allow the team to intercept its audience when and where they were avoiding sleep.

After competitors had gone to sleep between the hours of 10:30PM and 3:30AM, the team got to work by creating a series of time-triggered digital messages asking consumers why they were still awake.

The team focused efforts in an environment that’s known for keeping people awake at night. Everyone is guilty of falling down a YouTube rabbit hole, watching video after video when they should be going to sleep. So, the team partnered with Google to create a series of contextually relevant ads.

Each video called out the exact time of night and content being watched, ensuring totally unique messages were customized to each viewer. The team targeted all kinds of video categories, like cats, cooking and football, reaching viewers of Super Bowl LIII and the UEFA Champions League.

The team even told them exactly how much time remained until IKEA opened, so they could go buy a better mattress. All this was delivered by a familiar Swedish voice that's immediately attributable to IKEA: Jonas, IKEA’s spokesperson for the past 17 years.

The brand also integrated its messages with a national, time-triggered digital out-of-home buy with billboards running throughout the night, calling out the exact time and telling people to go to sleep.

Results
By addressing our target in the right environment at the right time, the team created a personalized connection. The brand received an outpouring of comments, tweets and reaction videos of people shocked and impressed by the simplicity and accuracy of the campaign.

The audience wasn’t just entertained by the approach, they immediately reacted to the brand message. After just the first few weeks, Google praised the campaign, announcing that they’ve “NEVER seen any product interest lift so high, EVER.” — an astounding +673% for the keyword “IKEA mattress.” Google also reported a strong increase in brand measures with a +108.4% lift in brand interest and top-quartile lift across ad recall and purchase intent - demonstrating best-in-class digital performance.

Credits

Executive Creative Director: Ian Grais, Chris Staples
Creative Director: Aaron Starkman, Christina Yu
Art Director: Zachary Bautista
Writer: Andrew Chhour
Strategist: Stacy Ross, Sean McDonald
Producer: Shelby Spigelman
Production Company: FRANK
Director: Rodrigo Garcia Saiz
Editor: Brian Williams
Assistant Editor: Paula Hicks
Director of Photography: Chris Mably
Executive Producer: Danielle Kappy
Line Producer: John Barreiro
Post Production House: Saints Editorial
On-Line: Fort York, Andrew Rolfe
Grading: Alter Ego, Wade Odlum
Audio House: Vapor-RMW
Audio House Producer: Ted Rosnick
Engineer: Art Mullin
Account Services: Sarah Riedlinger, Daniel Riggi, Marie Lunny
Media Agency: Jungle Media
Co-Managing Director, SVP Planning: Sheri Metcalfe
Co-Managing Director, SVP Buying: Cindy Drown
Director, Planning: Janet Xi
Group Manager, Buying: Krystal Seymour
Group Manager, Planning: Courtney Rimar
Jr Planner, Planning: Georgia Pearson