In this Q&A, DTC Daily speaks to Nick Guastaferro (pictured below), VP, head of brand, creative & communications, at Resident, the business that owns Nectar Sleep, about Nectar's new brand positioning. Nectar, which is the largest mattress brand in terms of unit sales in the US, launched in 2017, and generated USD$40m in revenue the first year and over USD$250m in 2019. In May 2019, Nectar became a brand within the Resident family of home goods brands.

Nectar has recently crafted a new brand positioning - can you explain what this is? 

With the success of Nectar, we learned a lot about consumer mattress preferences and recognised that people want different types of mattresses. That’s why we changed our business model and created a house of hyper-targeted brands that enables us to appeal to different types of consumer needs.

In May 2019, we launched Resident, which houses Nectar, DreamCloud, Awara, Level Sleep, Wovenly, Bundle and Cloverlane brands, helping to move from “just another bed-in-a-box mattress company” to a home goods destination. Resident continues to disrupt the existing digitally native model within the home category by leveraging data and deep analytics to launch brands and products that cater to consumer needs.

How does Nectar’s most recent campaign articulate your new brand positioning? 

Resident reaches a wide audience through its diverse brands, each serving a different subset of consumers. Unrivaled in comfort, Nectar inspires consumers to “UnHustle” in their day-to-day lives. Our ad campaign celebrates Nectar’s belief that bedhead is a good thing and takes a cheeky, playful tone to encourage consumers to “UnHustle” with Nectar.

Nick Guastaferro, VP, head of brand, creative & communications, Resident

In a crowded category, how do you ensure your campaign and brand stand out? 

At a time when other mattress brands are bombarding you with yawn-worthy promises, Nectar’s Yawn Yawnson, the ultimate motivational sleeper, makes sleep exciting again. Yawn’s “Awaken Great Sleep Program” encourages bed-head followers to “UnHustle” and prioritise sleep.

With this campaign, Nectar further establishes itself as the category instigator by taking on societal norms that reinforce “hustle” culture and keep us from achieving our maximum sleeping potential. We took a hyperbolic approach with a high-energy parody that addresses the all-too-familiar anxiety we face around the topic of sleep.

How are you intending to roll out this campaign across different channels? 

The campaign features spots that will run on YouTube, Facebook and Instagram and have been cut specifically for each platform. We decided on these platforms given this is where we know our customers are scrolling and engaging with Nectar. We worked with Youtube, Facebook and Instagram to customise the content based on the consumer’s experience with the ad and intent to purchase.

We also partnered with creative agency, Mustache, to develop and produce the storyline. To our delight, we ended up with a ton of great content! The challenge was to determine how to package and distribute all of the amazing content we had for each platform to best engage with our audience. Further, the campaign comes to life through brand partnerships, influencers and sales promotions.

Now the new brand positioning is in place, what’s next for Nectar? 

“Awaken Great Sleep” is just the start of a sleep revolution. We plan to continue the “UnHustle” movement and inspire people to prioritise sleep.