Wakefit turns counting sheep into a smart marketing proposition

Launched in 2016, Bengaluru-based Wakefit is promoting a healthy sleep culture with its mattresses, pillows, and protectors which are researched and developed for ergonomically beneficial factors. The three-year old start-up has rolled out its new brand campaign, #KnowMoreSleepBetter, presenting the all-knowing BaaBaa, who will aim to bring the magical world of sleep to the people. 

Global studies and internal studies by Wakefit.co reveal that India is the second most sleep deprived country with 1 in 5 Indians suffering from Insomnia or other sleep related disorders. Wakefit aims to bring excitement and enthusiasm in the space by creating a dynamic world of sleep that helps people take actionable steps towards improving their sleep habits. 

Counting sheep to fall asleep has been a cultural reference for a long time. In its endeavour to get people to talk ‘sleep’, it was important for Wakefit to create a strong visual differentiator and depict it through a character that is quirky yet sophisticated and knowledgeable yet fun. ‘BaaBaa’, the sheep, was conceptualised to reflect Wakefit’s brand personality and is a personification of the brand's values, expertise and experience. 

‘The more you know, the better you sleep’, goes the tagline for this campaign across three brand videos released by Walefit.co. 

Speaking on the launch of the new campaign, Chaitanya Ramalingegowda, Director and Co-founder, Wakefit.co, said, “The sleep industry in India is pegged at Rs 10,000 crore (growing to Rs 14,000 crore by 2021), yet there is little innovation in this space. We have witnessed disruption in the nutrition and exercise segments of wellness, but sleep has so far been ignored due to the lack of visually appealing representation in the space. The idea of the campaign was to create a world around sleep that is inhabited by cool and likeable characters who are eager to unravel the mysteries of sleep and present it in a simple and digestible form .The campaign strongly aligns with our brand ethos of making great quality sleep accessible to people across India.” 

Vineet Gupta, Founding Partner, Spring Marketing Capital, shared his thoughts on collaborating with Wakefit as its brand partners, for this and future campaigns. He said, “Sleep is one of the most important factors impacting a person’s health, productivity and success. However, in today’s world, sleep is often de-prioritised, taken for granted and riddled with misconceptions. Wakefit was founded as a sleep solutions company and aims to bring sleep back into the consciousness and conversation of Indian consumers. We are thrilled to partner Wakefit in their journey of building a brand that is meaningful, fun and differentiated.” 

Wakefit.co also offers 100-nights free trial along with doorstep delivery to more than 19,000 pin codes in India. 

Wakefit.co, with their online experience for sleep solutions, cut out the middle men and serve directly to customer’s needs. By elimination of the middle-men, the products are much lower in price and the company understands the problem or need of the customer and provides them with solutions which are best suited to them. They also have a team of experts who understand the science of sleep to provide these solutions. Various aspects like spine-alignment, body temperature and posture are taken into consideration while doing this. 

With competitors like Kurl-on, Sleepwell, Duroflex and Sleepfit, Wakefit.co has a strong challenge to tackle a market which is mainly dependent on a distributor/ dealer network which makes up 88 per cent of the market. These competitors have been in the market for a much longer time and have a better experience of the market. 

The mattress market in India was around $1.7 billion in 2018 and seems to grow at a CAGR of 10 per cent to make it a $2.5 billion market by 2022. Mattresses in the Indian market are made out of materials like Polyurethane (PU) Foam, Rubberized Coir, Spring and Cotton. 

With a price range between Rs 5,000 and Rs10,000, Wakefit.co falls in the economy and mid-segment of the market. However, competitors like Kurl-on have a range right from Rs 4,000 to Rs 24,000.While the economy segment has a market share of 25 per cent, the mid-segment has a bulk share of the market at 50 per cent. 

Wakefit.co claims to improve their products by creating a feedback loop with the customers who help the brand understand problems and provide solutions according to their needs. They often release a new and improved product every 3-4 months. 

Wakefit.co position themselves as a sleep solution brand and not only make products for this, but also provide the customer with suitable knowledge to understand the science of sleep. It is very important that knowledge to tackle your sleep problems. Through this campaign Wakefit.co wants to give the required knowledge to customer to make suitable decisions and provide this with their humorous ad films for this campaign. They focus on “The more you know, the better you sleep.” Wakefit.co products are available pan India. 

Wakefit.co also have a B2B aspect to their business which aligns with their tagline “The more you know, the better you sleep.” Taking sleep as a holistic science, Wakefit.co believes that as sleep affects human life in a drastic way it should be present even in offices. They deal with the HR departments of various companies and provide nap rooms for free. They provide the products and also paint and provide suitable air conditioning which favours good sleep. They provide a complete sleep solution package. These efforts also include details like alarm tones and nap times. The reason Wakefit.co does this is to ignite conversation around sleep. 

For this campaign, Wakefit.co claims to have spent around Rs 3-5 crore and has focused on digital, OTT, news channels as their channels for advertising. A version for the radio will be launched soon. As a start-up, it has always been important for Wakefit.co to focus on performance marketing like Facebook and Google ads where they can measure the ROI. However, for the first time they have focused on brand building for this campaign.