With under 100 sleeps to go before 2020 Tokyo Paralympics, UK bed retailer Dreams launched a new campaign built around athlete bedtime routines and fronted by two new ParalympicGB ambassadors – Ali Jawad and Jordanne Whiley – which activated its partnership with team ParalympicGB ahead of the Games.
The activation was based around Dreams research into the secrets of an athlete’s bedtime routine as compared to the everyday Brit which showed that 80% of athletes have a regular bedtime routine, compared to just 33% of everyday Brits who have no routine at all.
Indeed, the study found that 88% of the athletes agree that sleep is equally as important as physical training and 70% sleep for eight or more hours every night. The secret, according to the elite athletes, is to have a good bedtime regime.
When it comes to dropping off, athletes favour soothing podcasts and music (52%) to help them sleep, while the everyday Brit prefers a good page-turner (30%) and 25% of athletes switch off devices before bed to help them snooze (compared to just 13% of the general public).
Top five sleep aids for athletes are:
> Listen to music or a podcast (52%)
> Read before bed (41%)
> Switch off devices (23%)
> Watch TV (11%)
> Listen to ASMR sounds (11%)
Other key research findings from Dreams’ study included the fact that 60% of athletes have slept for longer and have fallen asleep quicker during Covid (while 48% of all British 18 to 34-year-olds say it’s been taking them longer to fall asleep since the arrival of Covid-19 with 42% noting that they’ve been more restless and less likely to sleep through the night due to worries about work and home life).
The campaign, created by agency M&C Saatchi Sports & Entertainment, rolled out on 17 May and was led by a pair of online ‘Sleep Taliing With…’ spots featuring silver medal winning powerlifter Ali Jawad and bronze medal winning wheelchair tennis player Jordanne Whiley and the content spanned digital, social and PR.
“Sleep is so important to us as athletes to make sure we train well and perform at our best, and having a toddler I need all the sleep I can get! I’m so pleased to join the Dreams team and help people discover the power of sleep as we look ahead to Tokyo,” explained Whiley.
Dreams Marketing Director Simon Moore added: “We are very proud to be the Official Sleep Partner of ParalympicGB and excited to welcome Ali and Jordanne to our team. Two inspiring athletes who take their sleep training just as seriously as their physical training. We look forward to supporting all ParalympicsGB athletes competing in Tokyo and making the country proud, knowing that they have had the best night sleep possible.”
Comment:
Jawad and Whiley join Olympians Laura and Jason Kenny, Jade Jones, Shauna Coxsey, Max Whitlock, and Maddie Hinch in Dreams’ eight-strong Tokyo 2020 endorser team.
This campaigns follows in the footsteps of Dreams’ recent Team GB activation including an ambassador fronted Olympic 100 Days To Go campaign called ‘Sleep Like True Olympians’.
Established in 1985, Dreams is a leading UK bed retailer headquartered in High Wycombe with more than 2,000 employees selling 11,500 mattresses, bases and headboards per week to customers nationwide through its 200-strong store and online network.
It was back in December 2020 that Dreams announced it had penned an official partnership with Paralympics GB.
Despite polls in Japan showing that as many as 80% of the host population don’t want the Olympics to go ahead due to the pandemic, the same Dreams’ study found that more than two thirds of Brits (64%) currently plan to watch the Olympic and/or Paralympic Games and 60% say that iconic sporting events inspire them to exercise more, eat well and sleep better.
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