For a Broadway show, the phrase “couldn’t keep my eyes open” in a review could be the kiss of death. But for a bed-in-a-box brand, there’s no better praise.
Casper’s latest campaign is focused on promoting its retail ventures, which include the brand’s multiple NYC stores, as well as the Dreamery, the newly-opened space where you can rent a Casper bed-equipped nap nook for 45 minutes.
The focal point of these ads are gushing (made-up) quotes like “Sensational in bed!” or “A total snooze fest!” Printed in old-fashioned fonts, these humorous ads meant to invoke the feeling of a Broadway playbill, Jeff Brooks, Casper’s CMO, said.
“The thought was to fabricate quotes and publications that mimic those of theater reviews, describing what it’s like to spend time in our store and experience our products,” said Brooks. “For us, the Casper store is the star of our show.”
Over the past year, retail has increasingly become a larger part of Casper’s brand DNA. The first Casper store (located in Soho, just a few blocks away from the tiny apartment where the company began and grew in its earlier stages) just opened earlier this year, in February. A second store followed in the Oculus shopping center near the World Trade Center. And just a few weeks ago, the Dreamery joined Casper’s lineup of brick-and-mortar spaces. Brooks said that the success of these storefronts made the team prioritize a retail-focused campaign.
“The stores have been doing tremendously well, even more productive that we had imagined,” he said. “And given the importance of New York as a market, with our flagship store and Casper’s roots as a brand, we wanted to do something this summer to promote and celebrate the fact that we’re here.”
The campaign, which Casper worked with longtime agency partner Red Antler to create, will predominantly live in out-of-home advertisements, including a billboard on the corner of Crosby and Houston streets in NYC’s SoHo neighborhood—a quick walk away from the Casper store and the Dreamery.
Consumers will also see ads on the PATH trains that travel to the World Trade Center station, which is just steps away from Casper’s store in the Oculus. The campaign can also be seen at subway stations in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, as well as in digital format on bus shelters across the city. Initially rolled out this week, the campaign will last throughout the rest of the summer, and potentially into the fall months, too.
Brooks said that the humorous tone of the campaigns fits into Casper’s brand ethos. “While we take sleep very seriously at Casper, we don’t take ourselves too seriously,” he said. “That’s been a big part of our brand from the beginning. And the irony of the quotes that populate campaign’s imagery—highlighting a product that helps you sleep in a way that’s reminiscent of a Broadway show marquee, a product meant to do the opposite, is how that comes to life in this campaign.”
“No one would wants ‘snooze fest’ as a review,” said Brooks. “If these were actually reviews of a Broadway show, it probably would be closing its doors pretty quickly.”
