How Sleepzone Took ‘Sleeping on the Job’ to a New Level
A nap, a kip, a rest, a snooze – there are so many ways to characterise having a midday shut-eye. But the reason behind them tends to be the same: a poor night’s sleep. The epidemic of less than eight hours of rest seems to be plaguing politicians around the world as they fall asleep on the job, literally. That’s where Jordanian sleep product company Sleepzone’s latest campaign with Adpro Communications comes in, encouraging people to rest better.
With immunity, weight management, mental health, mood and decision-making all impacted by a bad night of snoozing, it was important for the brand to showcase exactly why people need to invest in better sleep solutions. As the Adpro team came into the process and helped solidify this concept, it was found that many politicians have a peaceful slumber while parliament is in session, making ‘sleeping on the job’ a more common phenomenon than we might have thought. With this in mind, the play-on-words - ‘The P(illow)tics Series’ came to life.
Giving LBB’s Nisna Mahtani an insight into the campaign video that solidified the message, as well as the humorous images which followed, are Adpro Communications Group’s head of strategic planning Rizek Jildeh, creative director Hatem Soliman and senior art director Mohammad Al Nazer.
LBB> How did this campaign with Sleepzone first come about? What was the brand keen to showcase to an audience?
Rizek> The brief was simple. How do we get more people to buy Tempur pillows despite their price tag? Strategically, the challenge was about getting a brand that's all about democratising quality sleep, to cater to the many through a product made for the few. It was all about making that matter. So, to deliver work that works, we had to give the ask more oomph, and hence reframed the ask through a cultural lens to best understand what will move people, and hence, it became: How can we get more people to recognise the profound impact of better sleep on both the individual and their surrounding circle?
LBB> ‘The P(illow)tics Series’ is a great play on words, what was the ideation process that led to the campaign name?
Rizek & Hatem> Humanising the challenge, and looking at it through our strategic lens of selling a product for the few to benefit the many, politics seemed like a natural choice. Because ultimately, it's people in official posts that impact societies and communities the most. We simply wanted politicians to sleep better. But what was evident is that politicians were in fact sleeping fine, just in the wrong place – and hence our creative springboard came to life: better sleep off the job, to perform better on the job, but we had to make it ownable. We had to make ‘the politics of sleep’ ownable. So through the science of portmanteau, we creatively combined the problem (politicians sleeping on the job) and the solution (pillows) into a new word: P(illow)tics.
LBB> How does sleep affect people’s work and what are some of the benefits of a restful night of sleep?
Rizek> The impact of sleep cannot be understated, according to Ahmad Jarrar, the general manager at Sleepzone. He says, "Sleeping is an art and science, it's something so simple yet complex that the thought of it can ironically keep you up at night. Better sleep affects immunity, it affects weight management, it affects mental health, it affects mood and ultimately affects decision-making. The impact of sleep cannot be understated."
LBB> Talk to us about the politicians and scenarios you chose to include. What was the process of gathering this material?
Hatem> When we first chose to take the political route, we did not know what we would find. It was simply about getting politicians to sleep better. When we did our research and went through years and years of archives, we found (sadly) a plethora of material and images of politicians dozed off in official meetings - the trick however was in fact checking this material and ensuring the sources were credible.
LBB> From there, how did you ensure each image matched and fit together to create a cohesive campaign?
Mohammad> After sifting through all the material from a technical perspective, we chose the images that place the politicians centre stage. Afterwards, all images underwent some treatment in terms of graining and lighting to ensure a consistent and ownable feel.
LBB> The range of people included is quite diverse and thus makes it a very universal message which translates across different markets. Was that the aim when you set out?
Hatem> Exactly as mentioned in the question, it was to make the message universal and show that political shortcomings are not a national or regional problem, it’s a global problem that better sleep can solve. While the retailer is local, Tempur is in fact a global brand.
LBB> In terms of the campaign film, it has a classic backing track and lots of images of sleepy politicians. What was the process of creating the video?
Mohammad> The classical tune came as a natural choice, especially given its climactic feel, it also gave familiarity and added a sense of humour to the whole concept. The work went into finding the right images, sourcing them, ensuring their credibility and then putting them all together into a simple and universal storyline.
LBB> With no text until the end, the campaign creates suspense and intrigue as to what we’re watching. How has that translated into the reactions the campaign has received?
Rizek> While the campaign is still running its course, it has been praised for its truth, and more so the brand has been commended for doing work that may still be considered controversial.
LBB> Are there any other projects coming up?
Rizek> With everything happening around the world, we just had to do another piece on what it looks like when you 'sleep' on the wrong side of history. You can find it here.
