IKEA and Carat set out to drive awareness, consideration and visitation for IKEA sleep essentials by partnering with Reese’s Book Club to bring value to audience passions. Carat’s strategy aligned IKEA with RBC fans who are deeply connected to nighttime rituals: 75% read in bed, 86% read as a core part of their self-care, and 59% listen to audiobooks in bed. These insights revealed a unique opportunity for both brands to show up where their audience is already engaged, in a way that felt personal, authentic, and emotionally resonant.
IKEA and RBC collaborated on the creation of original bonus chapters from best-selling books, written by beloved authors and crafted for wind-down listening. This was a first for RBC, and their dedicated audience was engaged and excited that IKEA delivered this opportunity. Each chapter was inspired by the six IKEA sleep essentials: comfort, light, temperature, sound, air quality, and organization. Instead of presenting sleep as a set of functional benefits, we brought each essential to life through narrative immersion and sensory detail, giving fans a calming, story-driven way to ease into rest.
The partnership extended across the Hello Sunshine ecosystem through shoppable social content, ASMR-inspired teasers, author-led wind-down routines filmed in a fully-furnished IKEA bedroom, and a custom shoppable microsite housing the author-narrated chapters. For IKEA, improving sleep is central to their vision of creating a better everyday life at home. With RBC, we brought IKEA sleep expertise into a cultural space where rituals, rest, comfort, and storytelling naturally intersect.
Reese’s Book Club fans and the IKEA audience love their bedtime rituals, and they love the authors who shape their imaginations. By combining these two passions, we created a first-of-its-kind experience that brought storytelling and sleep together in a meaningful, audience-first way.
Centering the Bonus Chapters
Our hero idea was the creation of original bonus chapters written by three RBC alumni authors: Alexene Farol Follmuth, Jasmine Guillory, and Yulin Kuang. Each writer revisited her beloved literary universe and crafted new scenes exclusively for this partnership. These stories were produced as ASMR-style audio recordings designed for wind-down listening. For the Reese’s community, this was an entirely new experience. Fans were able to return to characters they already loved in a calming, sensory format made for bedtime. This became the emotional center of the campaign and the clearest expression of how storytelling can support better rest.
Building Immersive, IKEA Designed Story Worlds
To visually bring this idea to life, we created bedroom sets built entirely from IKEA products. Each set was styled around the sleep essentials chosen by the author, allowing us to highlight the six IKEA sleep essentials in a way that felt warm, personal, and connected to real nighttime routines. These sets served as the home base for all video content and became the visual language of the campaign.
The Dream Setting Content Series
Inside these rooms, we produced a multi-part video content series called Dream Setting. Each episode blended author interviews, bedtime routines, and behind-the-scenes storytelling. The content gave audiences intimate access to the environments and rituals that inspired the authors. Every video was paired with a shoppable Instagram Story extension, allowing fans to explore the exact IKEA products featured in each Dream Setting.
We also leaned into cultural behavior by creating a Get Unready With Me series filmed in each author’s custom room. This allowed us to bring sleep essentials into a trend-forward, relatable format that aligned with how audiences already consume nighttime content.
Extending the Experience Across RBC
To make the experience easy to access, we built a custom microsite that hosted all three ASMR bonus chapters alongside links to each author’s chosen IKEA sleep essentials. The RBC newsletter also spotlighted the collaboration, driving the community directly to both the audio experience and the shoppable paths.
Bringing It Offline
To deepen the connection and drive visitation to an IKEA store, we hosted an in-person book signing at IKEA Burbank. Each author performed a live reading of her bonus chapter inside the store, bringing fans into a real-life environment surrounded by IKEA sleep solutions. This event created a powerful bridge between storytelling, community, and the tangible products that support better rest.
What Made the Work Unique
By combining original storytelling with sensory audio, immersive sets, trend-forward content, and an in-store experience, we built a campaign that blurred the line between reading, resting, and discovery. The result was a world that felt intimate, soothing, and organically shoppable, brought to life through the voices and stories fans already trust.
Our goal was to drive awareness, consideration, and emotional connection to the IKEA sleep essentials by meeting Reese’s Book Club fans where bedtime, storytelling, and self-care naturally intersect. The campaign exceeded expectations across every major brand objective.
ASMR-style bonus chapters emerged as the creative centerpiece, resonating deeply with audiences. A strong majority of surveyed viewers agreed the campaign increased their interest in IKEA, driving 1.5× higher lift in positive perception versus industry benchmarks. This relevance translated into measurable brand impact, including a 1.7× higher lift in purchase consideration and a 10% increase in recommendation intent among respondents.
A multi-platform content ecosystem sustained momentum throughout the campaign. Overall content delivered 20%+ more views than goal, driven largely by author-led storytelling. Author content accounted for 65% of total views and more than half of all engagements, generating high-quality conversation. One in four comments on author posts explicitly mentioned IKEA, with sentiment toward the brand averaging 42% higher than industry benchmarks.
Newsletters further amplified reach and engagement, outperforming typical industry benchmarks and keeping IKEA top-of-mind within the RBC community. A custom microsite served as a central hub for exploration, supported by strong social and email traffic. This experience extended into retail through an in-store event that brought fans into an IKEA to meet authors, engage with the IKEA sleep essentials firsthand, and deepen emotional connection to the brand.
Together, these results highlight the power of pairing beloved storytelling with sensory, sleep-forward creative—driving meaningful shifts in perception, intent, and brand affinity for IKEA.
