AI Plus Creative Magic Is Really Powerful, Says The Sleep Company's CMO, Ripal Chopda

The Sleep Company’s (TSC) marketing budget for FY25 is Rs 80-85 crore, with 75-80 per cent allocated to digital platforms while 20-25 per cent is dedicated to traditional media. Ripal Chopda, CMO of The Sleep Company (TSC) speaks to BW Marketing World exclusively, delving into the company's focused marketing strategies, technological innovations and future plans.

Excerpts:

The company had recently laid out its marketing spends in the public domain. Can you elaborate on TSC's marketing budget and strategy for FY25?
On digital, we largely focus on two major platforms - Google and Meta. Being a digital-first company, understanding what is performing and what is not is crucial. Hence, 95-97 per cent of our digital spend is on these platforms. For offline spending, I would say we have a mix of media modelling. For example, we are trying TV in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, which are Telugu-speaking regions. That is one media-based modelling we are doing. We also use print media in certain geographies to try and see if the local impact can be created with a certain reach. Additionally, we are exploring localised outdoor advertising in cities like Bangalore where we have multiple stores, helping us increase brand awareness in specific micro-markets.

TSC recently celebrated opening its 100th store with a giveaway campaign. Could you tell us more about it?
The idea was to celebrate our milestone of opening 100 COCO (Company-owned, Company-operated) stores, with our first store opening in Bangalore. We decided to give away 100 free mattresses as a way to thank the city that helped us reach this milestone. The response was overwhelming with people queuing up as early as 4 AM. To ensure no one left disappointed, we also gave away free pillows after the 100 mattresses were claimed. This campaign was a rollercoaster ride for the team and we wanted people to go back happy and thinking of TSC as a company of value for customers.

The festive and wedding seasons are around the corner. How are you approaching the festive and wedding seasons in terms of marketing?
Festive I think is real important. We typically release our main thematic communication in June, allowing time for the message to establish itself before the festive season begins. Also, we use a lot of local influencer TV celebrities to celebrate local festivals. Like for Onam, we use a big face of TV in Kerala to connect with consumers and celebrate that.

Similarly for Ganpati, Ugadi and others. We use those local faces which helps us connect in the regional languages rather than the larger meta piece. We use the physical people whom the audience is always seeing in those markets.

For the wedding season, we're working on a unique activation campaign set to release in November.

How are you leveraging AI in its marketing efforts and also any challenges you foresee with AI entering the marketing space?
I believe disruptions are always bound to happen. We use multiple AIs both on creative and content parts to enhance our creativity. The way we look at it in our team is that AI plus people create the magic. AI helps us with 60-70 per cent of the work, then import it and tweak the basis of the brand's requirement to do the magic. You can't expect AI to give 100 per cent of the output, but you can expect 60 to 80 per cent of the output to come from AI and then top it up with your creativity to make it really powerful. It is literally a co-creation of AI plus people. 

One major challenge is the potential loss of creativity if people rely too heavily on AI. It’s important to view AI as a co-creator rather than becoming a slave to it.

How are you approaching marketing to different generations' attitudes towards sleep and technology and how do you balance educating consumers about your SmartGRID technology while keeping your messages simple and accessible?
We focus on building awareness by connecting with different generational contexts. For instance, during periods when new homes are made or renovated, we target consumers who are likely to invest in sleep products. Our marketing messages highlight the benefits of peaceful sleep and the advanced SmartGRID technology, which resonates across age groups.

Our core benefit is peaceful sleep. While many in the industry still use outdated memory foam from the 1960s, our SmartGRID technology represents an advancement. In 2018-19, we did a lot of research and came up with this SmartGRID technology and patented it in 2019. Today all our products have SmartGRID inside to deliver our consumers the best comfort possible.

We have just released a campaign which is tested for 30,000 sleep hours, which translates to our 10-year warranty. We give ten years of warranty and that's why we test the mattress for that level, because we have to ensure that the mattress sustains for ten years for the consumers buying from us. Our creative partners came up with the idea and imagine when I'm throwing such a big number to the consumer. It just builds trust with the consumer - a brand which talks everything scientifically and through a technology lens. Hence, the inclination to give me just walk into my store increases. 50 per cent of our job is done. From entering in the store to going out is a journey mandated by the team. 

How does TSC approach data privacy and personalisation?
We maintain our data privacy really strongly. We follow all government rules because we work very strongly with both Google and Meta. We work with the best global standards to ensure that data privacy is protected. We should ensure that as a responsible brand, it has to be really important and we take all the precautions to ensure that happens.

We also avoid hyper-personalisation. While some people might love it, some might not. We do segmentation based on human understanding and then we segment a certain cohort of people in the journey to go back to them and help them close their journeys. 

What can we expect from TSC in terms of experiential marketing this year?
One more piece, which you'll see is in our anniversary month which will be November. We'll be five years old. At that point in time, we are going to do something big and disruptive because the idea is that we need to keep telling and thanking our consumers for all the love they have given us.

Reema Bhaduri

BW Reporters The author is the Editorial Lead at BW Businessworld. Majorly writes on marketing, advertising, experiential marketing and retail. She closely looks upon the vertical of BW Marketing World and BW Retail World.