Every single year, 1.5 million mattresses are thrown out on the street in the Netherlands (17 million inhabitants). This figure stands at no less than 35 million in Europe and 20 million in the US. These mattresses cannot be recycled and end up in landfills or in the incinerator, causing great environmental damage. Most people are unaware of this.

Dutch bed manufacturer Auping launched the world’s first fully circular mattress: Auping Evolve. This is the only mattress in the world made from materials that can be renewed endlessly into new mattresses.

Challenge

How do you introduce a solution to a problem no one knows about?

Our goal was to raise awareness around the environmental problems surrounding discarded mattresses, so people are open to consider Auping Evolve.

Objectives:

Primary: reach a million people in the Netherlands.

Secondary: a sales increase for Auping Evolve would be nice. No hard sales KPI's.

Discarding old mattresses has become so common around the world, you hardly notice them on the streets. Yet mattresses are a serious source of pollution. This is an invisible problem no one really likes to talk about.

Consumers feel it is up to the manufacturers and government to handle recycling. Manufacturers claim their products are being recycled, when really they are downcycled at best. Meaning they are shredded into stuffing, and later still end up in garbage heaps and incinerators.

In fact, throwing away old mattresses every ten years or so is an integral part of the (old) business model. And on the whole, the industry is offering mattresses at lower and lower prices, making it more and more attractive for consumers to choose cheaper alternatives to sustainable mattresses.

And as long as no one is aware of a problem, no one lies awake at night.

We literally took the problem off the streets and used it as a canvas for the solution. We collected hundreds of discarded mattresses, and then hand-painted and photographed them to form the frames of a stop-motion animation: The Story of 1.5 Million Mattresses.

Bringing up the fact that nearly everyone actively participates in polluting the planet by dumping old mattresses does not get you invited to parties.

So we needed to address the problem in a friendly, non-judgmental way. With care and attention. That is why we chose to introduce Auping Evolve in a classic touch-tell-sell framework.

We needed to connect emotionally, in a positive way in order to engage our audience. We used the animation and the making-of for this.

Then we gave journalists something to talk about. We presented the story of 1,5 million mattresses and the making-of to lifestyle titles, blogs and news outlets. This gave our story a much needed PR boost. We gave special attention to titles catering to our primary target groups - Cosmopolitans and New Conservatives.

Lastly, we equipped our personnel with all materials to help them familiarize clients with the story directly in stores.

We collected many, many hundreds of mattresses, from the street, and took them to a warehouse turned studio. Here, we hand-painted and photographed them to form the frames of the stop-motion animation. (Of course, we used the same eco-friendly water based dye that is used in all of our hand-made mattresses..)

We also made a making-of, showing all the love and attention that went into this experimental endeavor.

We had two flights. From 8 June through 21 June. And from 3 September through 11 October 2020.

This started as a national campaign for the Netherlands, but following the success, we are scaling it up to all countries Royal Auping is active in.

We brought an invisible problem to light

We opened government dialogue on industry legislation

We made our concept available to the industry.

(so far, 4 competitors have implemented Evolve technology)

And…

15,2 million views

40% increase of sustainable brand image

49% increased sales of Auping Evolve