Britons have been sleeping fewer hours per night, with more than a third of the population saying they don’t get enough sleep. IKEA wanted to remind the nation that the more you sleep, the more you get out of life, positioning the Swedish furniture brand as sleep experts. IKEA’s ‘Tomorrow Starts Tonight’ campaign frames sleep as the unsung hero of great days to come, with a reimagined prequel to the iconic tale of The Tortoise and The Hare. The film highlights how behind every great day, there’s a great night, as poor sleep hygiene ultimately costs the hare the race.

The Tortoise and The Hare is a world famous fable from Aesop, telling the story of a race between a Tortoise and a Hare, the latter clearly a quicker animal who should win the contest. But the inconsistency and the arrogance of the Hare, mocking the slower Tortoise and taking nap breaks during the race, ultimately costs him the win.

It was an interesting challenge to tell a modern day sequel to such a traditional and well loved fable. The fact that the central character is the anti-hero and we don’t reveal the real hero and the key Ikea product until the final part of the film required confidence and belief in our storytelling by the agency and client. It would have been so easy to keep cutting away to a sleeping tortoise to show more product.

The film walks a very fine line, where the viewer both loves and sympathises with the Hare, despite him being the master of his own downfall.