The #SleepRechargesYou campaign was driven by a 2016 study by the CDC showing that more than
two-thirds of high school students are currently failing to get enough sleep.
Our program goal was to increase the number of teenagers sleeping the
recommended number of hours per night.
Research
has found that sleepy teens may fare worse in school than their well-rested
peers, as teens who are sleep deprived may be more easily distracted and recall
information more slowly. Sleeping fewer than the recommended hours also is
associated with attention, behavior and learning problems. Additionally, lack
of sleep may also impact teens’ athletic performance. When teens sleep,
hormones are released that help them grow taller and develop muscles. Sleep
also helps restore energy to the brain and body.
The impact of sleep
deprivation on teens, as well as key interests of teens, were taken
into account when developing our program messages. We chose to communicate to teenagers
about four areas in which sleep can improve daily life: beauty, sports, learning and
health. Additionally, LCWA determined that the target audiences were not only
teens themselves, but also their
parents and the school administrators, coaches and health counselors who
influence teen behavior.
LCWA reached teenagers
through their peers, working with teen
influencers on social media
to convey
to teens the importance of healthy sleep. Additionally, a we worked with a teen to advocate to her peers with several blog posts
highlighting the importance of sleep. LCWA
and AASM also collaborated to promote the “Sleep Recharges You” campaign via
digital and social media advertising, promoting the benefits of healthy sleep directly via Facebook and Instagram. Banner ads also appeared on websites geared toward teens, such as TeenVogue.com, Seventeen.com and BroBible.com.
LCWA and AASM targeted
parents by announcing recommended sleep duration broken down by age group. These recommendations generated
media stories in more than 1,000 outlets. We also distributed several releases
highlighting the importance of sleep for teens and proactively pitched media with timely angles throughout the
year. A mat release about the importance of teen sleep was disseminated to
reach parents on a local level. To further convey the importance of this issue,
we created blog posts from AASM spokespeople for HuffPost, Thrive Global
and Sharecare.
To reach educators, the AASM
created an educator toolkit, offering lesson plans and a full-sized poster for classrooms on the
importance of sleep. This was distributed in classrooms widely throughout the
country, and LCWA helped generate awareness for the kit through outreach to associations and trade outlets.
Overall, this well-rounded campaign garnered more than 763
million impressions and a media value of $3.5 million. There were more than 1.3
million impressions as a result of the digital and social media advertising
campaigns, and the AASM received more than 1,400 poster requests from high
schools throughout the country and Canada.