We wanted to touch on subjects through our work that both relate to the brand and the consumer, this meant having to select stories that didn’t lean too much into topics the brand was unqualified to talk about, whilst still making sure we stayed relevant. So, we looked into sleep, but being a kids bed supplier we didn’t want to appear too salesy – especially when targeting national press.
Sleep impacts all of our lives and can be a common problem for families, especially when kids complain of nightmares, or struggle to go to bed without complaints or even manage to sleep through the whole night.
So, thinking outside of the box, we arrived at the question ‘how do you get children to sleep?’ – lullabies of course. But, what makes a lullaby exactly that? And do any of the current chart hits resemble the same thing?
We set about finding the most common lullabies to create a top ten list, using Spotify data. Once we had our top ten, we worked out the significant properties of each song, found the most common elements until we had our ‘perfect lullaby formula’ – all of the most common aspects of these top ten classics. With a formula, we worked through recent chart hits to find a match, and collated our top ten ‘modern day lullabies’.
With the backing of a music expert at Durham University and a childcare expert, we removed the worry around Cuckooland offering advice that could seem disingenuous and stuck to what we knew using research we collated.
With U2’s ‘One’ topping the list, among others like Taylor Swift, Stormzy etc, the news was interesting to those without children, with children and with no interest in kids beds at all – it had mass appeal and many angles. National press, local news and parenting press responded well to the story.
The sleep theme was one we retained into the next campaign, as we approached Halloween. We know nightmares are also an issue for children and perhaps rife at Halloween. So, we launched a new product, a magic ‘anti-nightmare’ mist for parents to rid a room of monsters and ghouls before bed time. Again, we sought expert comment in the form of a child behavioural psychologist to comment on the likelihood of a mist helping to prevent nightmares and why it could work.
The product was quirky, easy to replicate at home for parents – we even drafted a separate blog to link to explaining how to make the ‘potion’. All of the activity addressed a problem and positioned the client as experts in the field and as a trusted, caring source for parents, perfectly meeting the brief.
