How an Ikea campaign that would put you to sleep won an award

Beds and mattresses is the #2 subcategory within the home market, but IKEA was lagging behind, with 5.6% share vs. 22.3% of the total bedroom market. IKEA’s position as a generalist was a barrier in a market flooded with mattress specialists, and its low prices were conflated with perceptions of low quality.

We needed to grow IKEA’s share of the beds and mattress market by improving quality perceptions and building associations between IKEA and good sleep.

For our strategy, we would use media to do the unthinkable and encourage switching off! Turning media from a barrier to a bridge to good sleep.

Moreover, we’d convince major media partners whose revenue depends on holding consumer attention to help us.

Together, we’d subvert the media-led distractions that keep people awake with disruptive calls for bedtime and the creation of soporific media moments to nudge consumers towards longer-term sleep solutions with IKEA…

Leading us to our strategic platform: The world doesn’t want you to sleep, IKEA does.

Execution: Creative Excellence and Implementation

We targeted the worst offenders – the most attentive media environments during bedtime hours:

• We partnered with ITV, the UK’s #1 commercial broadcaster, hacking continuity announcements around top shows like The Voice, DI Ray, and The Pride of Britain Awards to play on the “tough choice” of watching on or going to sleep on an IKEA mattress.
• We partnered with Acast to create The Podcast That Nobody Finished – in-episode sponsored host reads across top shows, with native content designed to send listeners to sleep, whilst promoting IKEA mattress quality. In Table Manners, Jessie Ware listed her top 200 vegetables to send Lennie to sleep; in Staying Relevant Sam Thompson read Pete Wicks all the texts he hasn’t replied to. We boosted the campaign with contextual placements at bedtime across the Acast network.
• We ran high-impact and takeover formats across Meta, TikTok, Reddit, and YouTube, with creative variations playing on (and destroying) the platform tropes that keep us awake – dancing influencers, hustle bros, and thirst traps.
• We ran in-game native ads across the Activision mobile gaming network to encourage powering down.
• We supported the campaign with TV activity to strengthen associations between IKEA and quality sleep, and PPC to drive through to sale.

Results: Outcomes and Effectiveness

Partnerships grew consideration for IKEA mattresses:

• +10pp amongst ITV viewers; +7pp for Acast podcast listeners (ITV Commercial Insights study, Acast & Nielsen brand uplift study – IKEA Sleep campaign)

Quality perceptions improved dramatically:

• +28pp among ITV viewers vs. pre-ITV partnership placing IKEA in the nation’s top 2 preferred mattress retailers, second only to Dreams

People sought out IKEA for their sleep solutions:

• Organic traffic to IKEA from searches for “IKEA beds” +108% YOY; “IKEA mattress” +62% YoY. Beds became the most visited IKEA web page after the homepage, climbing 11 places YoY. Traffic +296%. Bedrooms page traffic +44%

And the IKEA clients were thrilled:

“This bold and disruptive communications plan has delivered outsized impact for our budget. The uplift in web visits and initial sales has exceeded our expectations and mattress brand metrics have never been higher” Clare Ryan, Integrated Media Manager – IKEA