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Advertising team builds on tradition

David Perry -- Furniture Today, March 5, 2006

Atlanta — One of the nation's leading advertising firms had some ideas on how to bring back the Simmons bowling ball campaign.

The firm was so excited about the prospect that it offered to do its work for free. It pictured people, lots of people, falling onto a Simmons mattress. Maybe a whole team of football players.

"It was puffery," recalled Tim Oakhill, senior vice president of marketing at Simmons, who saw the spots. "There were 13 people on a bed. They thought it was a joke."

But Oakhill and other Simmons execs weren't laughing. That wasn't what they had in mind.

Fortunately for Simmons, some homegrown talent had a better idea of how to pay homage to the original spots but to break some new ground as well. Simmons' Atlanta-based public relations and advertising agency, three, had some serious ideas "that got to the meat of the campaign," Oakhill said.

Under three's tutelage, new commercials were shot that evoked the tradition of innovation that Simmons says is a hallmark of its Pocketed Coil technology. In the "Test of Time" commercial, Simmons bedding is shown withstanding bowling ball drops — with bowling pins remaining in place, of course — in footage that looks like it was shot decades ago.

And the man in a lab coat pictured in the original commercials gives way to an attractive woman in a lab coat. Since women are the primary mattress purchasers, a woman was needed in the commercial, the three team felt.

It was a team that was very familiar with the original bowling ball campaign. Jackson Houk, three's CEO, and co-creative director Brad Ramsey both worked on that campaign while employed at Simmons' former ad agency, TuckerWayne.

The new campaign, backed by an $8 million investment this year, will consist of national cable and syndicated television commercials, online advertisements and in-store displays — all created by three, which uses the lower case "t" to help the company name stand out.

The coordinated elements in the campaign, carrying over to the in-store displays, are designed to keep consumers focused on buying a Simmons mattress.

In the original spots, consumers came into the stores looking for "the bowling ball mattress," but were sometimes switched to other mattresses on the sales floor, Simmons officials said.

Contouring comfort and support are key messages in the commercials. Simmons says the lack of motion transfer in its Beautyrest mattresses is due to the fact that the Pocketed Coil springs are encased in fabric pockets joined to one another in the middle, not on the top and bottom as in traditional innerspring designs.

"Each Pocketed Coil spring reacts independently to changes in weight and pressure, helping to provide individualized comfort and support," said Rolf Sannes, Beautyrest brand director. "Our new ad, which shows a model supported from head to toe on a Pocketed Coil unit, makes it easy for consumers to understand this idea."

The model is Cristin Mortenson, who has appeared on Broadway and on the silver screen. She spent a day on a Hollywood soundstage dropping a bowling ball on a Simmons mattress. Time after time the bowling pins were undisturbed by the drops.

"The pins never fell," she recalled. "I thought, 1This really works.'"

The new commercials begin running in March.

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