New York, NY, is a forward-thinking city, especially when it comes to the workplace. Catered lunches, cool offices, dogs everywhere — in other words, the perfect work life. But sometimes during the day, you hit a wall and just need to sleep.
If you’re one of the lucky few that has nap pods in your office, we’re all jealous. For everyone else, there have traditionally been two options when you’re sleepy at work: coffee or coffee.
Cue Casper.
Casper, the comes-in-a-box mattress company, has always been known for their innovative brand activations; and their newest idea makes a life-changing sleep accessible to all. The Dreamery — located in New York’s trendy NoHo neighborhood — offers nap sessions throughout the day and provides all the amenities of a five-star resort.
It’s $25 for a 45-minute nap — just long enough to feel rested, but short enough to believably tell your boss you were on a “coffee run in Midtown.” Luckily, I work for a storytelling company (and dreams are technically stories our brains tell us), so it was easy to pitch the value of the experience to my boss and coworkers.
Behind the glass doors of the Dreamery, a star-lit tunnel transports you into a different dimension: one where sleep is king, and the sound of silence surrounds you. I checked in at the front desk and grabbed everything I’d need for 45 minutes of bliss: Sleepy Jones pajamas, skincare samples from Sunday Riley, a boxed water and a toothbrush and toothpaste for my inevitable afternoon/morning breath.
After changing into the most luxurious pajamas I’ve ever put on, a Casper “Night Owl” ran through the rules with me (by which I mean one rule: keep your voice down) and escorted me to Pod 5, where I’d be catching up on my Zs.
As I stepped in, the Night Owl closed the curtains; and for the next 45 minutes, it was just me and the Casper mattress (and a customized card wishing me sweet dreams). You have the option of keeping the lights on if you just want quiet time — but after checking out every nook and cranny of the hockey-puck shaped pod, I tucked myself in and turned out the lights.
The Casper mattress and pillow provided in the pod were so comfortable that I fell asleep within a minute or two of laying down. I expected to hear coughs, or the sounds of people rustling or coming in and out of the area, but the white noise playing over the speakers in the room kept my pod quiet as could be. And then, before I knew it, the lights were coming back on to signal the end of my nap.
I quietly left my pod, brushed my teeth and (unfortunately) had to return my pajamas to the Casper team. Before I left and got on with my day, I grabbed one last boxed water and an iced coffee (free to take from the lobby fridges) for the road. Would I go back again? Definitely. Would I buy a Casper mattress after testing it out? Quite possibly.
But while Casper’s goal was to get me to try their mattress, they also added value to my life by giving me a place to rest during a busy week and making me feel like royalty in the process. I’ve certainly never felt like that in a typical mattress store, and I’m sure not many other people have either.
The experience generated a noticeable sense of trust and loyalty within me. Do I feel that way toward any other mattress brands? I don’t think I could even name three others off the top of my head.
Adding value to a consumer’s life is key in branded content and activations. Let’s face it: people don’t seek out interactions with brands on a daily basis. But when they do engage with a brand, they do it because they want to laugh, learn or feel something (or in this case, nap). Data proves that people resonate with stories and personal experiences in a way they just don’t with other forms of advertising.
As a brand, however, you don’t always have to make yourself the center of the story. Sometimes, the best companies let the audience write their own story and just act as the book cover that holds all the pages together. Casper provided the bed and the amenities, but my sound sleep on one of their mattresses told an exponentially more compelling story than any number of banner ads or social posts ever could.