Nail Brands Berkshire Blanket for Consumer Set

For years, Berkshire Blanket was the original equipment manufacturer of swaddling material. If a consumer were to buy a blanket at The Gap or Eddie Bauer, chances are it was made in Ware, Mass.
Now, though, thanks to an inspired idea by the creative team at Nail, Berkshire Blanket is taking the wraps off its first consumer campaign.
“It’s the best possible validation a creative can get for his work,” said Nail partner and co-creative director Alec Beckett. “This is creative as catalyst for campaign.”
The Providence, R.I., creative boutique formed last year by Chuck Carmone and Brian Gross was approached recently by the manufacturer of thermal, berber and fleece blankets to develop a trade campaign for vertical publications such as Home Textiles Today.
The power and clarity of the creative spurred client executives to run Berkshire’s first consumer schedule to build recognition for the blankets long sold under other brand names or in home and bath specialty shops under its own fairly anonymous name.
“Timing is always critical, and right now there is a void where brands are concerned in the home textiles market,” said Ellen McNulty, director of marketing for the client. “It is our intent to aggressively use this beautiful campaign to grow our business and build branded recognition in the marketplace.”
Ads break in next month’s issue of Martha Stewart Living and are scheduled to run through September. Additional magazines, such as Better Homes and Gardens, Family Circle and Redbook, are under consideration.
Each of three ads in the campaign uses an arresting visual metaphor to promote the blankets’ various features. The layout is clean and uncluttered. A single word of copy describes the feature in the upper right corner. The company’s Web address and its logo anchor adjacent corners at the bottom of the page. In one execution, two white rolled blankets are skewered on a stick like marshmallows. The only copy is the word “soft.” A second execution features a tightly rolled yellow blanket on the end of a rose stem and the word “beautiful.” K