Mattresses were excluded from the Canadian government’s current GST/HST break, so Sleep Country-owned brand Endy decided to step in with its own 13% discount on all mattresses during the same period.

To promote the offer, Endy is publishing a full-page letter from its president in this Saturday’s issue of the Globe & Mail, explaining why sleep is just as essential as other items that have been granted the tax break. It is also advertising the discount with a. creative showing an oversized receipt in social, email and SMS. The brand handled both creative and media buying for the campaign.

Endy‘s VP of marketing Julia Cooper tells MiC that the media plan represents a different channel mix for the company. Although it has previously invested in print advertising, it’s not a typical channel for Endy, she says. “We are in fact spending more on this campaign than we typically would to promote a regular sale. There’s a larger conversation to be had about investing in your rest, and from our perspective, that storytelling component is worth its weight in media,” Cooper says.

According to her, the open letter is a way for the brand to use long-form storytelling to engage new audiences. By appearing in a trusted and national news source like the Globe & Mail, it believe it’s able to reinforce the importance of sleep in a way that feels both relevant and impactful, says Cooper.

“While we’re an ecomm-first brand, we recognize the lasting impact of tactile, analog advertising – print is far from dead,” Cooper notes.

She adds that January is also a typically a slower sales period, so with the GST/HST break, the team saw an opportunity to encourage Canadians to invest in better sleep this year. “We wanted to break through that fatigue with something bold and unexpected, something that felt fresh and different from the usual post-holiday noise. For this campaign, we chose to feature a large, oversized receipt, which adds a fun, playful twist, particularly coming from an online-first brand like ours.”

The campaign, Cooper explains, takes a different storytelling approach to its previous work, which broke category conventions by focusing not on sleep, but on the opportunities to live each day.

In 2018, Sleep Country Canada bought Endy, which continue to operate as an independent subsidiary with a product line of beds, sofas and other furniture beyond mattresses.