Sustainability isn't a buzz word. It's serious business.
Let's throw in an uncomfortable fact right away: in Europe, 35 million mattresses are discarded and thrown away every year. The Netherlands is responsible for about 1.5 million of these mattresses. Most of them are burned, which causes major environmental problems (and a lot of sleepless nights). As one of the largest mattress brands in the Netherlands, Auping thought it was time for a change. That's why, together with DSM-Niaga, they developed the world's first circular mattress: the Auping Evolve. However, consumers were completely unaware of the major environmental impact of mattresses and the need for a sustainable alternative. Awareness was therefore goal number 1, so we knew what we had to do!
Creating awareness of the problem is waking people up to the solution
The Auping Evolve is a mattress made of steel and polyester. All materials can be reused again and again for a new mattress. With this, Auping closes the loop and contributes to a world in which nothing is wasted but everything is reused for the next generation. Before Auping could bring the Auping Evolve to people’s attention, they first had to make them aware of the waste problem in the first place.
Awareness is the first step in the customer journey. In this step, storytelling is central, as a means of binding your target group to your brand.
Auping developed a video in which they tell the story from the purchase of a mattress to its fiery end in an incinerator. GI got the task of developing dynamic social media posts to encourage the target audience to think critically about mattresses and the growing problem of their disposal and consequent waste.
Encouraging engagement with push and POLL content
Simply telling the target audience that there’s a problem, wasn’t enough. We had to make them think about it. That’s why we created different stories, in which we encouraged the target audience to think about different statements by using ‘true or false’-polls. And we used stop motion video to draw more attention towards our content.
By knowing exactly who your target audience is, you can determine where they are. This allows you to hit them at the right moment (and the right place) through an effective content strategy.
In addition, we held polls within posts, in which we let the target group choose between 2 answers to the question ‘What do you think?’. It started a discussion about the sustainability of mattresses and the way they’re processed and recycled. The campaign received a lot of attention, partly because Auping won the ‘Circular Award Business’ on February 21, 2019, with that first circular mattress: the Auping Evolve. But it didn’t stop there. On May 28, 2021, Auping was also named 'Advertiser of the Year' and the brand won a SAN Accent for 'The story of 1.5 million mattresses' in the category of ‘durables’. In short: Auping leads by example by making a real impact and positively changing the market. We are super proud of the whole team and can't wait for what the future will bring!
The awareness campaign was a great success: Auping managed to reach its target group very effectively and the first steps towards behavioral change have now been taken. We are proud to have contributed to this!
