Sleep Council

Wake up to sleep

The Sleep Council briefed Rapport to launch a national competition to engage with media and communication students on the promotion of vital messages about sleep. Students were invited to take part in the Sleep Council competition to capture the essence of effective sleep – the Why? and the How? – in healthy lifestyles. The benefits of a good night’s sleep are known by most, but many, particularly students, don’t know how to achieve. A national competition would help support public health lobbying by The Sleep Council, an organisation whose members represent the bed products sector.

Prizes to kick start an interest in sleep

Offer a set of prizes that reward creative students, working singly or in teams of two, for a national competition that offers the chance to be able to put a live brief advertising campaign in their portfolio. Media and creative students work on a number of briefs throughout their courses but these are created by exam boards or the lecturers themselves. This offered a live brief with the opportunity to see it implemented. Rapport created a promotional campaign for multiple channels to engage lecturers, teachers and media and communication students with The Sleep Council competition. After creating a database of target audiences – College/Sixth form lecturers, University lecturers, University and College students – Rapport’s creative team worked on the competition content which comprised relevant lesson content with a competition poster and photocopiable entry instructions for students. The competition promotion ran over the Autumn term using emails, social media entries by  The Sleep Council members, an online presence created for The Sleep Council website and PR, essential to engender interest and coverage.

Proof positive that creativity is alive and kicking

Hundreds of students across the UK woke up to the challenge from The Sleep Council and submitted competition entries, some of which may not have met the whole brief, all of which reveals there are newbies on campus ready to step into the shoes of today’s top creatives. The judging panel had a difficult task to shortlist winners and, finally, to select an overall winner. Many more students woke up to vital sleep issues through the teaching content.