Bedding-protection products company Protect-A-Bed has launched a back-to-school sweepstakes to promote its Student Bedding Protection Kit. The Wheeling, Ill.-based retailer will promote the campaign through email, social media and its company blog.
Protect-A-Bed is urging consumers to join the “Healthy Sleep Zone Back to School Sweepstakes” by visiting the company’s website and providing their name, email address, physical address and phone number. The site also asks consumers to identify themselves as a student, parent or other.
The company will give away products from the Student Bedding Protection Kit, which is specifically made for students living in college dorms who want to prevent bed-bug infestations. The kit includes a mattress encasement, a mattress protector and a pillow protector.
“Parents are the [target] demographic,” said Mike Simpson, director of marketing at Protect-A-Bed. “Adults and parents are more receptive to being proactive. Younger kids are more reactive.”
The sweepstakes will run through September 2, with weekly giveaways on Fridays.
Protect-A-Bed also launched the “The Bed Bug Plague Giveaway Series” in July, a sweepstakes that included an iPhone game called “Bed Bug Plague.” Consumers were required to enter their name, email address, physical address and phone number to play. Each week during the campaign, which will run through the end of this month, one random gamer will win a $500 Apple gift card.
Whereas the target demographic of the “Healthy Sleep Zone Back to School Sweepstakes” is the parents of college students, the “Bed Bug Plague Giveaway Series” is directed at the students themselves.
“The game is directed toward the kids,” said Simpson. “It was designed specifically for the iPhone-user generation.”
Protect-A-Bed will run magazine inserts next month, as well. The retailer will insert an 11-by-17-inch poster in College Life Magazine with information on how to identify, locate and report bedbugs. College Life’s circulation is about 250,000, said Simpson.
Protect-A-Bed handles all marketing internally, he added. Wordsworth Communications handled PR for each of the aforementioned campaigns.
