Serta links with Olympic gold medalist to promote iComfort Pro mattress

Dive Brief:

Serta Simmons Bedding has partnered with Team Whistle on an episode of the sports media and entertainment company’s “No Days Off” YouTube series, Marketing Dive can exclusively share. The effort promotes the sleeping company’s new Serta iComfort Pro mattress.
The custom episode features Sydney Leroux, an Olympic gold medalist and forward for Angel City FC, who highlights how the benefits of good sleep impact her performance. The episode will premier Aug. 14 across Team Whistle’s YouTube and social channels.
Short-form social assets across YouTube, Facebook and Instagram round out the effort. The partnership could help Serta grow loyalty among sports fans and younger consumers and arrives amid a critical period for business.

Dive Insight:

Serta is keying into sports hype through its partnership with Team Whistle and Angel City FC’s Leroux. The move could help the company shore up loyalty among both soccer fans and digitally native consumers and arrives amid a turnaround effort. The company last summer concluded its financial restructuring and exited Chapter 11 bankruptcy. In June, it named a new CEO in Jim Loree, the fourth person in less than a year to hold the position.

Team Whistle’s “No Days Off” series profiles notable athletes whose motivation and drive have fueled their success. The upcoming episode with Serta profiles Leroux and the work she puts in both on and off the field, from running high intensity training sessions to taking care of her children. The episode highlights how quality rest plays out in the soccer star’s performance. “No Days Off” has accumulated 7.1 billion lifetime global views.

Additional short-form social segments are running across other platforms. In “Science of Sleeping Like a Pro,” Leroux assumes the role of a sleep scientist and lists a variety of facts about the science behind sleeping while promoting Serta’s iComfort Pro. A large presence on social could help Serta reach younger consumers as they begin to establish a preference for home essentials like mattresses. For Team Whistle, the move helps the company strengthen its focus on “always-on” social content.

As Serta emerged from Chapter 11 last summer, the company said that it was building a turnaround strategy based around four pillars: product innovation, brand positioning and marketing, sales growth and supply chain investments. Chapter 11 allowed the company to reduce its funded debt from about $1.9 billion to about $315 million.

Team Whistle, a DAZN Group company, has recently teamed with a number of other marketers to support its content, including GNC, State Farm and dishwasher detergent brand Finish. In April, Applebee’s linked with the company on an episode of “Undercover Athlete” that featured 49ers wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk and promoted the chain’s Whole Lotta Bacon Burger.