VDX.tv, a video advertising and analytics company, got into bed with Purple Innovations, the direct-to-consumer company that sells the Purple mattress, and together they woke up to higher brand awareness, brand favorability, ad awareness and scored a 24.9% increase in purchase intent.
The gains were achieved with a campaign that ran across mobile, desktop and connected TV using data and VDX.tv’s unique ad format, which enables multiple creative executions and interactivity.
Purple sells mattresses made of a unique material and grid design in the premium comfort space, according to Rob Towne, Purple’s director of performance marketing.
“Our goal is to get the word out and help consumers know that the technology has certain significant advantages and help drive purchase behavior,” Towne said.
Purple started working with VDX who could help its marketing effort add reach and meet ROI goals, he said. Like many new direct-to-consumer brands, Purple started out as a digital marketer. “After our first couple of years, we have grown to be an omini-channel marketing presence,” Towne said, with ads on TV, radio, podcasts, digital out of home, traditional out of home and in-cinemas, while continuing to “Push the boundaries on search, display, video and social media advertising.”
At this point digital still gets the majority of Purple’s ad spending, but TV is “a growing section within our advertising spend,” he said.
Towne said Purple began working with VDX because it offered proprietary audience data, an opportunity to increase the reach of its campaigns and its proprietary ads units, which let users engage and interact.
“This is a fantastic application for our technology, which is focused on video, because video is the storytelling narrative that can bring a emotional story to a screen and to a customer and have them really understand what it means beyond Purple’s technology, beyond the price point,” said Bryan Melmed, VP of insights at VDX.
Melmed noted that mattresses can be a very intimate purchase. “I don’t think there’s anything you touch longer in terms of hours in a day than your mattress,” Melmed said. “A mattress can be a refuge, or a workspace or just a comfortable place to nap. Those are deep psychological and meaningful value to people and we’re trying to communicate that in a two dimensional space.”
Immersive video helps people embrace the Purple story and the interactive elements help people gather information and reviews and, eventually, how and where to make a purchase. The campaign also adjusted as the pandemic kept people home and inspired more nesting.
VDX.tv is able to use its data to target its CTV ads. Those CTV units have some dynamic elements, including pointing consumers to the nearest retailer if they want to test the product in the growing number of stores in which Purple mattresses are sold. The CTV ads also reinforce and work with and reinforce Purple’s ads on desktop and mobile devices.
Consumers are encouraged to make an order by Purple’s hundred night sleep guarantee.
After the campaign ran, Purple ran a study and found that unaided brand awareness was 54.7% higher among consumers who saw the ads. Brand favorability was up 8.7% and the ad awareness was up 30%.
Respondents were 24.9% more likely to consumer purchasing a Purple mattress after seeing the ad, the study found.
“The ads really resonated with younger consumers,” added Melmed. “They tend to be a little more jaded when it comes to some advertising messages, so when we get that sort of result, it’s particularly welcome.”
Purple also tries to aim its ads at people making life changes, people moving, getting married, sending kids off to college. Those people tend to be in the market for a mattress as well as people who are having poor sleep quality,” Towne said.
The success of the campaign comes at a time when demand for Purple’s mattresses is already outpacing its ability to produce them. It recently added a new factory in Georgia to try to keep up.
“It’s a good problem to have,” Towne noted, adding that Purple produces other products, from seat cushions, pillows and yoga mats to sheets, pajamas and pet beds.
