Sleep Country is making its largest media buy in 30 years for its new campaign, which stars Eugene Levy.

In the campaign, the Schitt’s Creek and Best In Show star takes on the role of Sleep Daddy, a charming figure who advises Canadians to take their relationship with sleep seriously. The new work will be Sleep Daddy’s first of several appearances this year.

Levy’s 15- and 30-second spots will run on connected TV and OLV, along with digital and social extensions, connected audio, digital audio and experiential components. Kingstar Media is handling media buying, and North Strategic is working on PR. Publicis Canada is handling creative.

Nuno Bamberg, Sleep Country Canada’s SVP of brand and marketing, tells Media in Canada that the partnership with Levy marks a significant milestone, as it’s the company’s first spokesperson in almost a decade. Christine McGee, Sleep Country’s co-founder, had been the brand’s longtime face, but she stepped back from daily advertising duties in 2015.

“What we just had to do was retool our investment,” Bamberg says.

He says the partnership with Levy enables the company to streamline its approach, becoming more efficient while gaining a high-profile spokesperson. In previous years, each campaign required a unique creative and media strategy, but with Levy and Sleep Daddy as the brand’s image, the company can now focus this year’s investment on a single, large campaign.

“For us, it wasn’t about finding a celebrity for the sake of it. Instead, we focused on developing a strong insight and then finding the right person to bring that insight to life,” Bamberg says. “We started with the idea and the message, and then we found the perfect fit in terms of a celebrity to make it work.”

According to Bamberg, digital has been the primary focus of the media plan, with significant investment in YouTube and connected TV to target viewers’ specific behaviours that might lead to neglecting sleep, like late-night scrolling.

Connected TV and YouTube has also enabled the company to reach a broader audience than in the past, particularly younger Canadians. “We’ve had great success with Boomers and older millennials, but now we’re focusing on reaching younger audiences, modernizing the brand and humanizing it further,” he says.

Bamberg added that KPIs for the campaign were based on the brand’s previous work, “Stop Sleep Shaming,” which focused on helping consumers relate to everyday distractions that keep them from sleeping through digital, TV and radio spots. The goals included achieving organic reach, brand mentions, organic search, brand consideration, boosting engagement rates and shifting sentiment towards the brand.

“It really took off, especially on YouTube and connected TV, with consumers resonating strongly with the messaging. We saw significant lift – nearly 20% in the first couple of weeks – and those learnings helped us further refine our messaging for Sleep Daddy,” Bamberg says. “This gave us confidence that levity can spark serious conversations about sleep health, driving awareness and consideration in a way that resonates with consumers.”

The new campaign is based on a Sleep Country and Leger study of 1,619 Canadian adults conducted last month, which revealed that 69% of respondents desire a better night’s sleep. The poll also indicated that 26% of participants reported obtaining the necessary seven to eight hours of sleep, while 65% slept for six hours or less.

With files from Laurie Wilson