The campaign 'U up?’ by Rethink, won Gold in Social Retail and Consumer at The Drum Awards, leveraging the cheeky North American late-night booty call text to sell Ikea mattresses, offering immediate discounts to sleep-deprived Canadians and establishing Ikea as a credible sleep brand.
In North America, a 'U up?' message is the classic late-night booty call text. So when IKEA needed to sell more mattresses, we flipped this cultural shorthand on its head - sliding into millions of sleepless Canadians' DMs with the infamous message. But instead of a hookup, we hooked them up with a better sleep solution.
The campaign cleverly targeted people exactly when they needed us most - sitting wide awake on their crappy mattress. People who responded got a 15% off discount, applicable on any IKEA mattress, right on the spot.
This idea wasn't just another lower funnel, salesy ad - it was a stunt that hijacked a cheeky cultural phenomenon to sell mattresses. By meeting sleep-deprived Canadians in their DMs late at night, we transformed a cheeky hookup line into an immediate sales driver, and established IKEA as a confident, credible sleep brand.
'U up?' became more than just a text message; it became a smart marketing strategy.
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Rethink is more of an idea than it is a business. Rethinking changes everything. It’s how we see the world. Which is why we’re constantly rethinking what’s...