How content marketing is helping sleep solution brands to build credibility

Sleep is obviously an essential part of life but both its significance and awareness increased to a great extent in the past year with the Covid pandemic and the lockdown. This created a good opportunity for brands to connect with their audience and they introduced content initiatives and campaigns to educate customers about the importance of sleep.

In a conversation with brands in the sleep category, BuzzInContent discusses how they are creating compelling and engaging stories to talk about the importance of sleep via content marketing, especially around World Sleep Day.

Given that we are in the midst of a worldwide pandemic, the focus on health and wellbeing has magnified more than ever. This has further helped to generate informative content around the topic, especially on digital platforms.

For Wakefit.co, the focus is to narrate informative content pieces in a fun and witty manner in order to make prevailing issues such as poor sleep quality and sleep ailments relatable to the pulse of the digital audience. The brand has recently announced the second season of its Sleep Internship Program. In the hunt to find a Professional Sleeper and promote the program, they collaborated with viral music composer and influencer Yashraj Mukhate.

 

 

 

 

 

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A post shared by Wakefit Solutions (@wakefitco)

Chaitanya Ramalingegowda

Chaitanya Ramalingegowda, Co-founder and Director, Wakefit.co, said that the idea is to promote and build a community that pays utmost attention to sleep health and ergonomics, and all its content is tailored to create conversations and inspire action around it.

Pritesh Talwar

Pritesh Talwar, CEO, Livpure Sleep, felt people were under much more stress these days than earlier. With increasing work pressure, the stress is bound to increase. And given that most of the people are working from home, they are spending more and more time in the bedroom but not getting much sleep due to random working hours.

The pandemic has enhanced the need to spread the importance of sleep and it is important for brands to talk about a healthy sleep pattern all year long, he said.

Livpure Sleep in its campaign is focusing on getting proper sleep and maintaining a healthy lifestyle.

its World Sleep Day campaign:

 

 

 

 

 

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A post shared by Livpure Sleep (@livpuresleep)

Doctor Dreams, being a holistic sleep solution brand, has leveraged content marketing to build resonance in the current situation and launched an exciting campaign around World Sleep Day. The campaign personifies Doctor Dreams mattress and Regular mattress as two people engaged in funny banter that highlights the advanced features of its products.

Doctor Dreams’ campaign:

Pinaki Gupta

“Today brands are recognising the importance of sleep in the overall mental and physical wellbeing of a person. Consumers are also much more cautious about their sleep patterns; they are now actively ensuring that they have restful sleep. Consumers are seeking solutions to solve their sleep-related issues and are particular about choosing the right mattress that suits their lifestyle,” said Pinaki Gupta, GM, Marketing, Nilkamal.

Gupta said content marketing is one of the most effective techniques to increase audience engagement, and develop brand presence and affinity. Using content to build credibility as an expert in sleep and mattresses, especially for an online brand, can help address fears and queries that customers are likely to have about purchasing a product, without physically experiencing it, he said.

The brand has leveraged content marketing through its association with FilterCopy. The brand has created a host of digital experiences such as the Sleep Journal, Sleep Music and Sleep Stories to create a lasting relationship, which does beyond a transactional one and ends with a product purchase.

its #HappySleepStories:

 

 

 

 

 

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A post shared by Doctor Dreams (@doctordreamsindia)

Consumers are now more mindful and aware than ever before regarding the ‘health and wellness’ offering of any product. And because of this aspect, the mattress industry has seen a huge boost in demand for quality products.

Uttam Malani

“It is incumbent upon the Indian manufacturers to upgrade their products; processes; and infrastructure to live up to the expectations of the digitally savvy consumers,” said Uttam Malani, Executive Director, Centuary Mattress. The brand has launched the second edition of its Sleeptime Stories on the occasion of World Sleep Day.

Malani said personalised information seeding is important and those who share such information first will get noticed. Anything that comes later is secondary information.

 

 

 

 

 

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A post shared by Centuary Mattresses (@centuaryindia)

He pointed how in spite of knowing the importance of sleep and its end results, we Indians compromise on our sleep in terms of quality and quantity. Quantity is important but most important is quality, which can only come from a quality mattress. This message has to go strongly and deeply and as industry, everyone has a role in ensuring it is accomplished.

Malani said the industry could capitalise on World Sleep Day to make a momentum and get it acknowledged just like any other occasion.

Echoing similar sentiments, Talwar said people are getting aware of World Sleep Day. Although it might not be as popular as other days in the year, with sleep and health getting into focus, the time is not far that we will be celebrating World Sleep Day on a much large scale.

He said brands have started using content marketing to reach out to the audience and tell them about the importance of sleep in their daily life and such efforts are growing by the day.

“Creating interesting content as well as hosting talks and podcasts have begun on a fast pace. Brands are also inclined in using various platforms to make sure that the audience is getting aware about the importance of good sleep,” he added.

Smita Murarka

Occasions such as Mother’s Day and Father’s Day have been built over the years. Sleep needs this kind of attention and it is urgent and important to have this conversation, said Smita Murarka, Vice-President, Marketing and E-commerce, Duroflex.

She said, “Brands like us are trying to make efforts and bring about conversations to make this day’s stature as big and hopefully that will happen in the future. If you look at social media platforms, there are many organic conversations on the topic, something that has changed from the past. Content is helping to make facts and research behind sleep and its importance more accessible and palatable to the consumer. Storytelling and creativity is making it easier to pass on the message and helping it stick around.”

Duroflex has explored music as a sleep aid and launched Duroflex Sounds of Sleep on World Sleep Day, where it is reviving and recreating regional lullabies from across India.

Speaking of his experience, Ramalingegowda said he has witnessed the market mature over the last five years.

Sumit Sehgal

Sumit Sehgal, CMO, Sheela Foam (the parent company of Sleepwell), said it is very encouraging to see brands coming together and suggesting ways to get better sleep with innovative content that is relatable to the consumer. He said brands aren’t restricting themselves to traditional mediums and experimenting with newer formats as they have vastly dialled up the creative quotient by tailoring every piece of content.

The brand celebrated World Sleep Day with a digital campaign ‘#GiveItARest’ with an aim to encourage people to put a snooze button on all the things that divide us, whether it is keyboard activism, crusaders, fake news, gender roles or hate – as getting some rest from all of these is above everything else.

 

 

 

 

 

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A post shared by Sleepwell (@officialsleepwell)

How to create unique, differentiated content for the category

Malani said brands need to speak one common language as an agenda of the industry. And at the same time, they should ensure separate and uncommon curated content, especially about how every material used in mattress making is different, its application and benefits, how all mattresses are not suitable everyone as people of different age groups such as middle aged people, senior citizens; athletes, etc., need special mattresses.

“Though the core message revolves around sleep and its benefits, unfortunately some of the content is scary too,” he said.

The idea is to send a correct and complete message to the people. And for that, Talwar said, one has to use different platforms and ways to make sure the message reaches the correct audience.

With the industry booming a lot, the road ahead can be rough too. But if your campaign is customer-friendly, differentiating yourself should not be difficult, he said.

Talwar said video and audio platforms are being used to make sure the audience is getting aware about the importance of sleep. And with a correct marketing strategy, the campaigns are being drafted around such topics rather than just focusing on the brand or the product.

The content strategy for Doctor Dreams goes beyond the product and touches upon sleep as a proposition.

Gupta said, “Every piece of communication we develop is aligned to our core proposition of ‘Happy Sleep Delivered’. We closely work with our digital, advertising, and PR agencies to put forward differentiated and unique content. Campaigns and communication strategies are brought to life after lots of ideation, discussions and closely monitoring key consumer insights. Significant importance is given to out-of-the-box ideas that have helped us launch campaigns that strongly resonate with our audience.”