A good night’s sleep is essential to our overall health and well-being, but there are many factors in today’s world that can interfere with sleep patterns. Light from cell phones and computers can affect sleep and the availability of the 24/7 news cycle can often cause anxiety late into the evening.
Sanofi’s Unisom has helped millions get to sleep for over 40 years, but the brand was struggling to connect with younger audiences and wanted to find new ways of reaching these sleep seekers and late-night doom scrollers. As more Americans turn to sleep aids, Sanofi’s Unisom sought to market themselves to younger couples who want a new way to feel rested.
Tasked with raising awareness during Daylight Saving Time (DST), a moment in which disrupted sleep is top of mind, Unisom sought to develop a campaign that would expand and appeal to new audiences.
To identify key insights and inform the type of content that would most resonate with prospective consumers in the sleep category, both men and women, Unisom developed a couples’ sleep survey conducted via Lippe Taylor’s Frictionless Intelligence Team. The results showed nearly half of couples feel jealous of their partner’s differing sleep behavior. Of adults harboring negative feelings towards their partner, only 43% are satisfied with their current sleeping situation, and most (89%) want to improve their sleep quality. The brand then understood the natural inclination for people to develop envy or resentment toward partners who are great sleepers, and rather than keep the data to ourselves, Unisom created “The Great Sleep Divide” to pique interest with media and directly on social.
Unisom’s Great Sleep Divide campaign used humor and a targeted influencer partnership leveraging these key insights to bring awareness to individuals and couples struggling to sleep during Daylight Saving Time (DST) and foster a sense of empathy and support for those who have difficulty falling asleep. Unisom partnered with well-known influencers Alex and Jon (@alexandramadisonn, 1.7M) to reach its target audience and create engaging content resonating with couples who have different sleep patterns and understand what it’s like to experience the sleep divide.
The execution was rooted in a strategic social and influencer push, involving three different pulses of content with Alex and Jon.
The first pulse of content focused on an Instagram Reel and three-story posts, where Alex and Jon discussed The Great Sleep Divide in their own household and how Unisom helped Jon get a better night's sleep. This content captured the attention of their combined audience of over 800k followers and generated high levels of engagement with over 3 million impressions on the Instagram Reel alone.
In the second pulse, Alex and Jon shared how they successfully navigated DST with the help of Unisom SleepGels. The couple posted another pulse of three Instagram story posts and a Reel highlighting products as a solution and providing practical tips for better sleep during the time change.
The campaign's third pulse involved integrating DST into an episode of Alex and Jon's popular podcast, ‘Give It To Me Straight’ (67.5K YouTube subscribers). This podcast episode discussed The Great Sleep Divide, their partnership with Unisom, and featured insights and tips for better sleep during DST. The podcast engaged a diverse audience by utilizing multiple platforms, including YouTube, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts.
The execution of Unisom’s The Great Sleep Divide campaign involved creating and distributing highly engaging content. Through eye-catching visuals, relatable storytelling, and influencer partnership, and digital content, the campaign effectively conveyed its message and connected with the target audience.
This campaign achieved exceptional results in terms of audience reach, engagement and brand recognition. Unisom’s The Great Sleep Divide campaign leveraged the power of an influencer partnership on Instagram and successfully connected with over 10 million people, generating 5.39 million organic impressions and 10M paid impressions. The engagement rate of 0.96% showcased the content's effectiveness in capturing the target audience's attention and interest.
Furthermore, the campaign drove 5,436 link clicks to priority retailers, demonstrating strong interest and intent from the audience to learn more about Unisom's products and solutions.
Beyond social metrics, the campaign generated 879 thousand media impressions following 9 media interviews with Alex and Jon, that include coverage in lifestyle and wellness outlets including The Cut, Yahoo!, Brit + Co and more.
Unisom’s The Great Sleep Divide campaign achieved remarkable reach, engagement, and brand recognition while fostering empathy and support within the audience.
The strategic insights and targeted execution allowed Unisom to position itself as a trusted brand in the sleep space and address the sleep struggles experienced by many individuals.
