Execution

An estimated half a million homeless people sleep on the streets in every metro city of Pakistan. Most of them are out of town laborers who work hard during the day performing intense physical labor and have nowhere to sleep during the night. Nowhere but the hard pavements. Moltyfoam, Pakistan’s largest manufacturers of mattresses, decided to help. With our promise of a good night’s sleep, we provided a solution to people sleeping outdoors. By using outdoor. We designed the world’s first BillBed – a billboard that converts into a bed at night. We put up 150 BillBeds across 9 cities with a budget of less than $20000.

The Campaign

An estimated half a million homeless people sleep on the streets in every metro city of Pakistan. Most of them are out of town laborers who work hard during the day and have nowhere to sleep at night. Nowhere but the hard pavement. Pakistan's leading mattress brand, MoltyFoam, had suffered a decline in brand love and we needed to prove our goal of providing a good night's sleep to everyone - regardless of their background. We decided to help by provided a solution to the homeless people sleeping outdoors. By using outdoor. We designed the world’s first BillBed – a billboard that converts into a bed at night. We put up over 150 BillBeds across 9 cities with a budget of less than $20000. A short documentary was created and placed on social media. The campaign went viral on social media, attracting the attention of politicians and celebrities alike who took notice of the situation, raising awareness of the plight of these laborers. Even though our goal was strictly CSR, the campaign renewed people’s love for the brand and ended up raising sales by 2%, a significant increase for a 'life event' product. In a recent survey, brand love had increased by 68%, while purchase intent rose by 82%. Most importantly though, we provided a good nights sleep to countless homeless laborers, something they truly appreciated. Same laborers even reported that a better night's sleep allowed them to work more the next day, thereby raising their income.

The Brief

Our goal was to help as many homeless laborers sleeping on the streets and pavements as we could, and hopefully raise awareness to the plight of the homeless. We began by identifying areas within the metro cities where pockets of homeless laborers sleep on the streets. These selected locations were where we would concentrate the efforts of our campaign and hopefully bring back the love for our brand.

Results

The campaign instantly went viral on social media attracting the attention of politicians and celebrities alike who took notice of the situation, raising awareness of the plight of these laborers. Even though our goal was strictly CSR, the campaign renewed people’s love for the brand and ended up raising sales by 2%, a significant increase for a 'life event' product. In a recent survey, the love for the brand had increased by 68%, while purchase intent rose by 82%. Most importantly though, we provided a good night's sleep to countless homeless laborers, something that they truly appreciated. In interviews we took of the same laborers, a few reported that a better night's sleep on the BillBeds gave them the energy to work more the next day, thereby raising their income.

Execution

The creative execution itself was the product. Rather than just spend money on static billboards, we decided to turn them into functional devices that would actually help people get a good night's sleep. We designed the world's first BillBed. By day the BillBeds advertised the brand, and by night - with a simple flick - they transformed into comfortable beds. The weatherproof BillBeds were placed in more than 150 locations in 9 major cities in Pakistan (Lahore, Faisalabad, Gujarat, Gujranwala, Sheikhupura, Daska, Multan, Rawalpindi and Sialkot), all for under $20,000. We carefully selected places that we knew would benefit homeless laborers the most. A short documentary was created and placed on social media. The campaign has been running for more than 8 months now, and we continue to add 15 BillBeds every month in new locations.

The Situation

An estimated half a million homeless people are found sleeping on the streets in every metro city of Pakistan. Most of them are out of town laborers who work hard during the day, performing intense physical labor and have nowhere to sleep during the night. Nowhere but the hard pavements. This kind of an uncomfortable sleep ends up affecting their labor the next day, in turn affecting their incomes, and ultimately trapping them in a vicious cycle. MoltyFoam, Pakistan's largest mattress brand, saw an opportunity to help. And to better its recently declining brand love.

The Strategy

With MoltyFoam's promise of a good night’s sleep, our strategy was to help the people who needed it the most; the homeless laborers who slept on the hard pavements. We decided to provide a solution to people sleeping outdoors… by using outdoor. We designed the world's first BillBed. A billboard designed from the product itself. By day the BillBeds advertised the brand, and by night - with a simple flick - they transformed into comfortable beds. The weatherproof BillBeds were placed in over 150 locations in 9 major cities across Pakistan, at locations we knew would benefit homeless laborers the most.