Dive Brief:

• Mattress brand Simmons partnered with Charli and Dixie D'Amelio, the sisters who rose to fame on social video app TikTok, to design a memory foam mattress and to promote it with an online sweepstakes. The Charlie & Dixie x Simmons mattress is available to buy from the brand's website, per an announcement by Serta Simmons Bedding.
• Simmons is offering two people a chance to win a "room refresh" by posting videos on TikTok of their current bedrooms, along with an explanation of why they need an upgrade and the tags #SimmonsDreamRoom and #Contest in the caption. After that, entrants must submit the video and complete an entry form at a Simmons microsite by May 16.
• Simmons will pick two winners to share their vision of a new bedroom with the TikTok stars, who will work with Simmons on the design. The sisters this summer will reveal a before-and-after look of the bedrooms on social media, and let fans decide whose design was better, per the announcement.

Dive Insight:

Simmons aims to raise awareness for its brand among Gen Z consumers by partnering with Charli and Dixie D'Amelio on a new mattress design and online sweepstakes. The new mattress is geared for people who spend more time in bed, working from home or consuming digital content — trends that have been accelerated by the pandemic.

"Our beds are the new offices for our generation, where we check messages in the morning, where we listen to music and podcasts, where we stay up late FaceTiming with our friends, scroll aimlessly on social media to get inspired and most importantly, it's where we look forward to going after a busy day," Charli D'Amelio said in the press release.

Charli is TikTok's biggest star with 113.4 million followers, while Dixie has 51.1 million, giving Simmons the ability to reach a broad audience of younger users of the social video app. TikTok is more popular with U.S. consumers ages 13 to 21 than with older generations, according to researcher Morning Consult. However, the app has gained a following among young adults, with 48% of people ages 18 to 29 saying they use TikTok, according to Pew Research Center. As a newer platform, TikTok is less cluttered with advertising than more established rivals, giving brands a chance to stand out with creative videos and influencer partnerships.

Simmons's collaboration with the D'Amelio sisters is another sign of how brands are teaming with social influencers on campaigns as part of a strategy to cut through ad clutter and reach consumers directly. The D'Amelio sisters also have worked with Abercrombie & Fitch's Hollister clothing brand and Morphe cosmetics on products aimed at younger consumers. Charli last year collaborated with Dunkin' on a coffee drink inspired by her favorite menu item, and followed that release with a branded merchandise line for the coffee chain. Influencer marketing tends to resonate with younger consumers, with almost almost half (44%) of Gen Z saying they have made a purchase decision based on a recommendation from a social influencer, compared with 26% of the general population, according to researcher Kantar.

By asking consumers to enter their contact information for a chance to win a redesigned bedroom, Simmons can add to its first-party data about prospective customers for future marketing campaigns. Gathering consumer data has become a bigger priority for brands as they face the possibility that their audience targeting will be hampered by Google and Apple's changes in privacy policies. With the expected loss of third-party browser cookies and device identifiers, media outlets, measurement firms, ad agencies and ad-tech companies are working on alternative ad-targeting solutions.