BY MARY BEST
The Better Sleep Council has a provocative PR campaign planned for May’s Better Sleep Month
Editor in Chief
There’s good news about how consumers think about sleep. That’s why the Better Sleep Council, the consumer-education arm of the International Sleep Products Association, plans to leverage its annual “May Is Better Sleep Month” public awareness campaign to spread this news by encouraging consumers to talk about how well they sleep with the attention-getting headline: “Are You Better in Bed Than…?”
To set the stage: For years, people boasted about how little sleep they got or needed, but that unhealthy trend is fading. Thankfully, in part because of the efforts of the sleep products industry and the BSC, society’s attitudes toward the value of a good night’s sleep have changed. As The New York Times noted in 2017, “Sleep is the new status symbol.”
“Over the past few years, we’ve seen a shift in how consumers talk about sleep,” says Mary Helen Rogers, vice president of marketing and communications for ISPA. “In the past, people tended to brag about their lack of sleep, but today’s consumers are starting to see the importance of a quality night’s rest—and even brag about how much sleep they get. We’ve seen that quality sleep has become a status symbol among consumers. For Better Sleep Month, we’re tapping into that trend and putting a playful spin on it. Through our theme, ‘Are You Better in Bed Than…?’ we want to create friendly competition in our audience, have them share their sleep stories with us and, most importantly, help them get better in bed.”
To help consumers get better in bed—and join the conversation about sleep—the BSC will provide daily content on its social channels, along with weekly blog posts. The BSC also will encourage consumers to take the Better Bed Quizzz at BetterSleep.org and sign up for the BSC newsletter, which will debut in June.
To amplify the conversation, the BSC will partner with lifestyle influencers, including BSC spokeswoman Lissa Coffey, who will identify one way they can get better in bed and then report back via their social channels on how a small change made a big difference in their sleep quality.
Other activities will include a Facebook sweepstakes and a new survey that will look at consumers’ bedtime habits, age of their mattresses, activities done in bed and more.
Expect this and tons of social media content that can be used to promote Better Sleep Month. For information on how you can participate in this year’s activities, visit BetterSleep.org.
If your store plans to create Better Sleep Month events or promotions, or to work with local media to get special coverage in May, Sleep Savvy wants to hear about your efforts. You can reach me at mbest@sleepproducts.org. Happy spring!
