Verlo Mattresses

Telling the ugly truth to sell good sleep

Brand Strategy, Campaign Ideation & Production

A great mattress. A slept-on brand.

The mattress industry has been rocked by DTC bed-in-a-box disruptors with slick marketing campaigns. Meanwhile, family-owned Verlo Mattress has been quietly manufacturing high-quality mattresses for over 60 years. Unfortunately for Verlo, nobody was paying attention.

We turned a legacy of bad marketing into a strength

Sometimes the best solution is the simplest: just tell the truth. Our hook came straight from our client partners: “Honestly, we kinda stink at marketing. But we make awesome mattresses.”

Boom. “Bad at Marketing, Great at Mattresses” was born.

With the help of an earnest but seemingly doomed mascot, Mattie the Mattress, the idea came to life in everything from TV spots to social content.

The Work

Our hook came straight from our client partners: “Honestly, we kinda stink at marketing. But we make awesome mattresses.”

Consumers not only took notice, they went into stores talking about the campaign.

This campaign was the winner of Regional ADDY Awards, Regional Emmy Awards, Marcom, MKE 99 show, Muse, Telly Awards, w3 Awards, and Graphic Design USA.

“That campaign has been a game-changer for us. We spent a long time trying to articulate the value proposition. The KISS principle is a much better approach. Funny and genius.”

– David Marcus
CEO/Managing Director, Marcus Investments

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Work With Us

We’ll pitch you if that’s what you really want. But we’d rather start with a yellow legal pad and a conversation.

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