Providing a home-grown, Wisconsin-based mattress company with an out-of-the-box solution to their bed-in-a-box problem.
Creative Lead | Associate Creative Director | Director
The mattress industry has been rocked by online bed-in-a-box disruptors who all market themselves as hip, sleek and sexy. Meanwhile, family-owned Verlo Mattress has been quietly manufacturing high-quality, made-to-order, REM-inducing works of art & science for over 60 years. Unfortunately, even in Milwaukee, nobody was paying attention.
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The Challenge
The Challenge
In a market flooded every day by another new online mattress company, how could Verlo break through the crowd?
Without the appetite to out-spend their flash-in-the-pan online competition, Verlo needed a scrappy way to demand attention again.
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The Solution
The Solution
“Honestly, we kinda stink at marketing. But slick marketing won’t help you sleep at night. Only a real mattress can help you do that, and we make awesome mattresses.”
We took our client's words to heart and “Bad at Marketing. Great at Mattresses.” was born, fondly referred to as BAMGAM.
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The Pilot
The Pilot
Leveraging footage from actual Verlo marketing campaigns of the past, we took a humorous “us vs them” approach to show that while other companies focus more on their marketing, we only care about making great mattresses.
Amidst the “poke fun at ourselves” clips from the Verlo vault, our team had incorporated new footage of their mattress mascot, Mattie, attempting — but failing — a "cool" marketing stunt.
We’re obsessed with metrics and by A/B testing different cuts of the pilot spot, we learned that viewers responded especially well to Mattie crashing. With these new insights in hand, we shifted the campaign and launched focused solely on Mattie's failed marketing stunts.
Good news for our creative team. Bad news for Mattie.
In its first year, BAMGAM saw Mattie nearly blow himself to pieces on the 4th of July, almost drown attempting to "jump the shark" like the Fonz, and have a Black Friday photo-opp turn into a nightmare before Christmas photo fiasco.
The campaign would continue into 2020, showing Mattie's increased threshold for pain — including a jump from a high dive, out of a plane, and even off a shipping container for some reason (that's a spoof of a spoof, btw). If there's something Mattie wouldn't do for Verlo, we haven't thought of it yet.
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Skydive
Skydive
What better way to say "goodbye summer" than with a spectacular fall, and Mattie's adrenaline has reached new heights. But when the sky’s the limit, some times you fly too close to the sun.
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Mismatch Sale
Mismatch Sale
It’s February and Mattie decides to ‘leap’ in the Leap Year in anticipation our annual Mismatch Sale. The announcement is all coming together... until it all falls apart.
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Winter Wipeout
Winter Wipeout
Tis the "ski-son" here in Wisconsin. It's "snow" wonder that when Mattie hits the slopes... they of course hit back.
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Dash & Crash
Dash & Crash
Mattie trips and flips as a contestant on a mock Wipeout / American Ninja Warrior type obstacle course show. It’s all fun and games until none of it is.
People are finally taking notice of Verlo again.
BAMGAM has received multiple advertising awards, including a regional Emmy win in 2020. Consumers have been going into stores just to talk about it. CEO and Managing Director David Marcus has raved "that campaign has been a game-changer for us."
With all this new attention, Mattie must be doing something right.
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Honors
Honors
AAF ADDY Awards (Local, Madison) | 2021
Gold — Television Advertising
Gold — Television Advertising
Regional Emmy (Chicago/Midwest Chapter) | 2020-2021
Winner — Outstanding Achievement for Commercials, Campaign
Winner — Outstanding Achievement for Commercials, Campaign
Muse Awards | 2021
Gold — Integrated Campaign
Gold — Integrated Campaign
MKE 99 Awards | 2021
Merit — Integrated Campaign
Merit — Integrated Campaign
Telly Awards | 2021
Silver — Local TV Campaign, B2C
Silver — Local TV Campaign, B2C
W3 Awards | 2021
Gold — Integrated Campaign
Gold — Integrated Campaign
AAF ADDY Awards (Regional, District 8) | 2020
Silver — Television Advertising
Silver — Television Advertising
AAF ADDY Awards (Local, Madison) | 2020
Gold — Television Advertising
Gold — Television Advertising
MKE 99 Awards | 2020
Merit — Integrated Campaign
Merit — Integrated Campaign
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Additional Credits
Additional Credits
Agency: SRH
srhmarketing.com
Team: Sam Hogerton (Creative Director), Betty Strigens (Copywriter), Ryan Kresse (Copywriter), Leo Fleming (Editor), Mauricio Alvarez (Motion Designer)
