Bed retailer Silentnight wanted to ensure it didn’t get lost in the festive madness and remain front
of mind with consumers, ahead of the important January sales period.

Crucial to this was site visibility and social media.

We were tasked with increasing web traffic from social media and given a tough KPI of 10% of all traffic to be from social sources.

Objectives

Silentnight specifically wanted to drive share of voice across social media, in the lead up to Christmas,
as part of the brand’s digital strategy. We were not only tasked with increasing website traffic from social
media channels but given a tough KPI of achieving 10% of all web traffic from social sources.

Strategy & Plan

Christmas is a key time for retailers but most people avoid big purchases such as beds or mattresses.
Silentnight wanted to ensure it didn’t get lost in the festive madness and remain front of mind with
consumers ahead of the important January sales period. Crucial to this was site visibility and social media.

With a 70% female following (most of whom are mums) across social media channels (Facebook/ Twitter/ Pinterest),
we needed to develop a campaign that would resonate with mums at a time when they were more pre-occupied than any other time of year!

The typical sleep related content just wasn’t going to cut-through and garner the attention or drive the
traffic volumes the client desired. So, we came up with a simple and effective concept – to develop a digital advent
calendar that revealed generous, female friendly prizes each day, that were synonymous with sleep –
from a luxury Geltex mattress to onesies for all the family.

The advent calendar was hosted on the brand website – silentnight.co.uk – and a budget was allocated
for targeted social media advertising throughout the campaign period.

The competition was teased across social media channels, the weekend leading up to the launch on Monday 1 December.

Twitter ads and Facebook promoted posts were set-up throughout the campaign, specifically targeted
at mums, female professionals, and those interested in various retail and lifestyle brands.

Measurement & Evaluation

Ad performance was regularly evaluated as the campaign progressed and as a result the targeting,
images, copy and ad placement were adjusted to maximise results.

We also measured competition entries, user sessions and where these came  from – paid vs organic.
We needed to show that at least 10% of web traffic was driven by social media.

Results

During the four weeks for which campaign ran, Silentnight received 65,532 unique entries to the advent calendar
competition.  The competition was receiving so much buzz across social media, it was featured on a number of
prominent competition websites which helped to increase reach and drive traffic.

The campaign contributed to Silentnight achieving over 120,000 user sessions (up 20% on November) to its
website in the crucial December period. Just under half of these were new visitors to the site, with 51.2% returning visitors.

Activity across social media to promote the advent calendar, generated over 12,300 user sessions, with 9,100 coming from paid activity and 3,200 from organic.

As a result of the campaign, Silentnight’s social media sources delivered 10.3% of all sessions in December, exceeding the campaign’s target of 10% .