Pacific Brands: DATED PILLOWS

Credits & Description:

Type of Entry: Product & Service
Category: Other Consumer Products (including Durable Goods)
Advertiser/Client: PACIFIC BRANDS
Product/Service: PILLOWS
Entrant Company: HAPPY SOLDIERS Sydney, AUSTRALIA
Advertising Agency: HAPPY SOLDIERS Sydney, AUSTRALIA
Media Agency: MEDIACOM Sydney, AUSTRALIA
Executive Creative Director: John Kane (HAPPY SOLDIERS)
Creative: Ben Sampson (HAPPY SOLDIERS)
Creative: John Kane (HAPPY SOLDIERS)
Agency Producer: Meredyth Judd (HAPPY SOLDIERS)
Director: Rey Carlson (PLAY BIG)
Producer: Bonnie Fay (PLAY BIG)
Strategy Director: Mark Sareff (HAPPY SOLDIERS)
Channel Planner: Sophie Price (HAPPY SOLDIERS)
Business Director: Lindsey Evans (HAPPY SOLDIERS)
Account Director: Emma DiGiacomo (HAPPY SOLDIERS)
Designer: Tim Haynes (HAPPY SOLDIERS)
General Manager: Adam Heathcote (TONTINE)
Product Development and Marketing Manager: Lucinda Kew (TONTINE)
PR: Zarr Marketing (ZARR MARKETING)
Media Implementation: Mediacom (MEDIACOM)
Results and Effectiveness:
Our idea changed the entire company. From the machinery they use and the production line, to the way they are packaged, advertised and sold. More importantly, it changed peoples’ perceptions about keeping pillows for too long.
During the week of the campaign, sales rocketed giving Tontine +345% increase on regular sales.
Perhaps more importantly, the sales growth has maintained averaging +50% per week.
This proves 3 things:
1) the strength of a genuine breakthrough idea,
2) a short term blitz can have long term effect,
3) the date stamped pillow is sustaining sales – it’s a medium in and of itself.
Creative Execution:
A business changing idea that’s also a media idea:
We created a ‘best before’ stamp for Tontine pillows; a hard working medium that acts as a constant reminder. But a stamp alone is not sufficient reason to change your pillow. We needed media to make it impossible for them to continue sleeping on their current pillow.
We created an intense 5-day media activation that:
a) Leveraged the power of media channels close to bedtime - making it difficult for the audience to sleep that night.
b) Used breakfast media to remind people when they woke up - to trigger conversation and purchase.
Creative executions were tailored to the specific time of day and media context. We used the combination of concentrated weight and unsettling content to multiply the reach of paid media. The activation started on Wednesday evening leading up to the weekend when we had an integrated retail event.
Insights, Strategy and the Idea:
Objective:
The biggest pillow manufacturer in Australia had a problem; people weren’t changing their pillows often enough. Even though prior research found stains to be the biggest reason to change pillows, people’s love for their favourite pillow was blind.
We needed to awaken the category and trigger immediate purchase (+30% sales target).
Challenge:
You can’t underestimate the intimate relationship people have with their pillow – confessing to it; crying into it; hugging it. However, they have no signal; no convention; no way of knowing when to change their pillow. How do we get people to immediately reassess their relationship with their pillow and stimulate purchase?
Insight:
After 2 years a pillow contains an entire eco-system of dead skin cells and the bugs and fungi that feed on them. We needed to expose this ugly truth and create a consumer problem. And then answer that with an ‘only-Tontine’ long term solution.