2021 Winner
GoldBest in Audio
IKEA
"Won't Wake The Baby "
Carat
"Won't Wake The Baby "
Carat
IKEA uses their expertise in design to create solutions that help people fall asleep and stay asleep (without breaking the bank) through a wide range of mattresses, blackout curtains, and temperature-controlling linens. However, the sleep category has become crowded with new, direct-to-consumer mattress-in-a-box brands popping up everywhere and gaining popularity. The agency needed to position IKEA as a true ‘sleep expert’, reminding people of their expertise and wide
range of sleep products.
But the question was, what is the audience that is most deprived of their sleep the most? How can IKEA as a brand empathize with them and be a part of the solution purely using media placements in a highly receptive environment?
They uncovered a particular audience notoriously known for their erratic sleeping patterns and poor quality of sleep: new-born babies, and hence their exhausted parents.
In a collaborative research with Spotify, they discovered that many new parents use white noise and other ambient sounds to help keep their babies asleep, and many turn to Spotify playlists to find the right sounds. A search on Spotify will yield hundreds of playlists for babies including white noise, lullabies, waves, sounds of the forest, and soothing flute melodies.
Not when you are a non-premium member!
More than 70% of all Spotify users have the free version, and their peaceful playlists are interrupted by ads, and with many new parents not being able to afford luxuries like paid subscriptions, they took to Twitter to air their frustrations about the interruption of their baby’s precious sleep. This got them thinking, what if they could help parents prevent their babies from waking up to show that IKEA really understands how important sleep is? They’re the sleep experts after all.
Use of Spotify’s advertising and targeting capabilities to drive this campaign was crucial, the very insight relied on the user experience and Spotify’s unique capabilities. Leveraging their real-time sleep targeting to identify listeners choosing Spotify to help them relax into their sleep at any point of the day, placements were bought within popular sleep playlists for babies and a series of ads were created that matched the tone of the tracks in the playlist. This involved the creation of 11 versions of ads, each with unique SFX like white noise, raindrops, and ocean waves, and a soothing whispered VO from IKEA’s longtime Swedish spokesperson, Jonas, delivering their sleep message.
Since babies sleep at all times of the day, their goal was to not wake the baby, while positioning IKEA as a sleep expert to thankful parents who were listening nearby. They even gave parents the option to tap on a companion banner and shop IKEA’s bedroom solutions during their rare moment of peace.
While ads usually diminish the user experience, the campaign enhanced it by helping babies stay asleep by blocking out loud ads with their soft, quiet, shushy ones. The Spotify campaign acted as a lead-up to IKEA’s bedroom event. This always-on tactic allowed them to build equity and top of mind awareness going into the bedroom event. They also targeted this unique real-time sleep audience through a first-in-market Sleep playlist Sponsorship for a whole month, tracking to see if IKEA’s tailored ads helped listeners sleep more (you read that right!).
Contextually placed audio ads drove a click through rate that was 25% higher than the Spotify average, directing thankful parents to IKEA.ca to shop for sleep products. Both Native and In-Playlist Desktop Overlays outperformed Spotify average benchmarks by 59%. Finally, their Mobile Overlay companion banner delivered a CTR 156% above the Spotify benchmark (1.15% vs 0.45%). The Homepage takeover outperformed Spotify benchmarks by 22% (0.44% vs 0.36%). They also achieved over 7% in sales revenue for Beds & Mattresses during the time, despite an overall category decline in Canada at the time! This media led idea has won several awards both in Canada and around the world and is a great example of media creativity that collaborates with creative, digital activation and their ability to understand the behaviour of consumers on a specific platform.
The campaign was a resounding success. Most importantly, they didn’t wake any babies and solved the most pressing problem of new parents by helping them sleep better.
range of sleep products.
But the question was, what is the audience that is most deprived of their sleep the most? How can IKEA as a brand empathize with them and be a part of the solution purely using media placements in a highly receptive environment?
They uncovered a particular audience notoriously known for their erratic sleeping patterns and poor quality of sleep: new-born babies, and hence their exhausted parents.
In a collaborative research with Spotify, they discovered that many new parents use white noise and other ambient sounds to help keep their babies asleep, and many turn to Spotify playlists to find the right sounds. A search on Spotify will yield hundreds of playlists for babies including white noise, lullabies, waves, sounds of the forest, and soothing flute melodies.
Not when you are a non-premium member!
More than 70% of all Spotify users have the free version, and their peaceful playlists are interrupted by ads, and with many new parents not being able to afford luxuries like paid subscriptions, they took to Twitter to air their frustrations about the interruption of their baby’s precious sleep. This got them thinking, what if they could help parents prevent their babies from waking up to show that IKEA really understands how important sleep is? They’re the sleep experts after all.
Use of Spotify’s advertising and targeting capabilities to drive this campaign was crucial, the very insight relied on the user experience and Spotify’s unique capabilities. Leveraging their real-time sleep targeting to identify listeners choosing Spotify to help them relax into their sleep at any point of the day, placements were bought within popular sleep playlists for babies and a series of ads were created that matched the tone of the tracks in the playlist. This involved the creation of 11 versions of ads, each with unique SFX like white noise, raindrops, and ocean waves, and a soothing whispered VO from IKEA’s longtime Swedish spokesperson, Jonas, delivering their sleep message.
Since babies sleep at all times of the day, their goal was to not wake the baby, while positioning IKEA as a sleep expert to thankful parents who were listening nearby. They even gave parents the option to tap on a companion banner and shop IKEA’s bedroom solutions during their rare moment of peace.
While ads usually diminish the user experience, the campaign enhanced it by helping babies stay asleep by blocking out loud ads with their soft, quiet, shushy ones. The Spotify campaign acted as a lead-up to IKEA’s bedroom event. This always-on tactic allowed them to build equity and top of mind awareness going into the bedroom event. They also targeted this unique real-time sleep audience through a first-in-market Sleep playlist Sponsorship for a whole month, tracking to see if IKEA’s tailored ads helped listeners sleep more (you read that right!).
Contextually placed audio ads drove a click through rate that was 25% higher than the Spotify average, directing thankful parents to IKEA.ca to shop for sleep products. Both Native and In-Playlist Desktop Overlays outperformed Spotify average benchmarks by 59%. Finally, their Mobile Overlay companion banner delivered a CTR 156% above the Spotify benchmark (1.15% vs 0.45%). The Homepage takeover outperformed Spotify benchmarks by 22% (0.44% vs 0.36%). They also achieved over 7% in sales revenue for Beds & Mattresses during the time, despite an overall category decline in Canada at the time! This media led idea has won several awards both in Canada and around the world and is a great example of media creativity that collaborates with creative, digital activation and their ability to understand the behaviour of consumers on a specific platform.
The campaign was a resounding success. Most importantly, they didn’t wake any babies and solved the most pressing problem of new parents by helping them sleep better.
Credits
Client:Santiago Arbelaez, Country Integrated Media Manager, IKEA
Jennifer Bauer, Integrated Media Leader, IKEA
Caroline Hayes, Integrated Media Leader, IKEA
Noah Keefe, Marketing Specialist, IKEA
Media:
Karen Hrstic, VP - Group Account Director, Carat Canada
Tracey Cronin, Account Director, Carat Canada
Vanessa Coutinho, Associate Account Director, Carat Canada
Monalyn Quelnat, Media Planner, Carat Canada
Crystal Kim, Media Coordinator, Carat Canada
Syed Rahman. Business Performance Strategy Lead, iProspect
Rachel Banks, Client Lead, iProspect
Anita Kapadia, Client Partner, Spotify
Jenny Diemer, Client Success Partner, Spotify
Creative:
Aaron Starkman, CCO, Rethink
Mike Dubrick, ECD, Rethink
Leia Rogers, Creative Director, Rethink
Morgan Tierney, Creative Director, Rethink
Hans Thiessen, Creative Director, Rethink
Joel Holtby, Creative Director, Rethink
Charmaine Cheng, Art Director, Rethink
Evan Kane, Copywriter, Rethink
Sean McDonald, Head of Strategy, Rethink
Stacy Ross, Strategy Director, Rethink
Sarah Riedlinger, Group Account Director, Rethink
Daniel Riggi, Account Director, Rethink
Shereen Ladha, Strategy Director, Rethink
Anna Tricinci, Producer, Rethink