Sleepyhead, the modern furniture and sleep solutions brand, earlier this year launched a city-wide treasure hunt in Bengaluru, turning the city into an interactive playground for customers. Through a journey that spans digital and physical touchpoints, participants can solve clues, unlock rewards and compete to win a living room setup worth Rs. 2 lakhs which is hidden in some secret corner of the city.
As brands look beyond traditional advertising for deeper consumer engagement, Sleepyhead bet on participation-led experiences that bring consumers closer to the brand. Rooted in its ‘Dopamine Comfort’ philosophy, the treasure hunt combined creator-led storytelling, gamification and omnichannel engagement to create a more immersive and memorable customer experience.
Medianews4u.com caught up with Ullas Vijay, Chief Marketing Officer, Duroflex Group
Q. Turning a busy city like Bengaluru into a real-life playground is a huge project. What made you decide to spend your marketing budget on a treasure hunt instead of running regular billboards or digital ads?
Traditional advertising continues to have an important role, but the way people engage with brands is changing. Consumers today, especially younger audiences, are far more likely to remember something they’ve participated in than something they’ve simply seen.
The treasure hunt came from that insight. We wanted to create an experience that blended the digital and physical worlds while giving people a reason to step out, explore the city and interact with the brand in a completely different way. Instead of thinking about media as individual channels, we looked at the entire consumer journey. Instagram sparked curiosity, our stores became part of the discovery process, and the city itself became the experience. For us, this wasn’t about replacing traditional advertising. It was about complementing it with something people would talk about, share and remember. As marketers, we’re increasingly competing for participation, not just attention, and this campaign was designed with that mindset.
Q. Sofas, recliners, and high-end beds are things that people usually think about for months before buying. Do you think a fast-paced game can actually help speed up a customer’s decision to buy from Sleepyhead?
Furniture will always remain a considered purchase, so we don’t look at a campaign like this as a way to accelerate the buying cycle overnight.
What it does is make the discovery process much more engaging. It gives people a reason to interact with the brand, walk into our stores and experience the products without the pressure of making an immediate purchase.
In categories like furniture, familiarity and trust play an important role in the decision-making process. If we’ve created a positive first interaction, we’ve already moved one step closer to being part of the consumer’s consideration set when they’re ready to buy.
Q. The later rounds of the game have real physical tasks for the players. Are these challenges set up in a way that lets people test how comfortable or sturdy your mattresses and couches are?
The challenges were primarily designed to make the experience enjoyable and keep the excitement alive as participants progressed through the game.
That said, one of the advantages of an omnichannel format is that it naturally brings people closer to the products. As participants moved through our stores, they had the opportunity to interact with our furniture in a much more relaxed setting than a conventional retail visit. Comfort is something that’s best experienced firsthand, so if the campaign encouraged more people to spend time with our products, that’s certainly a positive outcome.
Q. The brand talks a lot about providing “Dopamine Comfort” to customers. How does running a high-energy mystery game across the city bring that feeling to life?
“Dopamine Comfort” has always been about more than the products we sell. It’s about the emotion people associate with the brand.
When we were designing this campaign, we asked ourselves what comfort looks like for a younger consumer today. It’s certainly about having a comfortable home, but it’s also about creating moments that bring joy, spark curiosity and help people connect with others. The treasure hunt did exactly that. Friends teamed up to solve clues, families explored the city together, and complete strangers found themselves sharing the excitement of the experience.
Those moments create a different kind of relationship with the brand. We want Sleepyhead to be remembered not just for making comfortable furniture, but for creating experiences that make everyday life a little more enjoyable.
Q. You picked local creator Dumbo (@hey.dumbo) to lead the campaign. Why did you choose him over a traditional celebrity or an influencer endorsement?
We believe the effectiveness of creator marketing is not limited to reach but comes from relevance. Dumbo has built a strong connection with Bengaluru’s young audience through challenge-led, interactive content.
His personality and style naturally complemented the treasure hunt, so the collaboration felt authentic rather than like a conventional endorsement. When the creator genuinely fits the idea, audiences engage because they’re interested in the experience itself. That’s far more valuable than simply attaching a familiar face to a campaign.
Q. How is AI helping create innovative campaigns like this one?
AI is helping marketers become more responsive by making it easier to understand audience behaviour, personalise communication and optimise campaigns in real time. For this particular campaign, though, the bigger role was played by technology and automation in creating a seamless consumer journey.
Whether someone discovered the treasure hunt through Instagram or entered from one of our stores, the experience was designed to feel intuitive, with the backend guiding participants through every stage.
Ultimately, technology should enhance creativity, not replace it. The idea still begins with understanding people. Technology simply helps us bring that idea to life in a way that’s smoother, more engaging and easier to scale.
Q. Where does data and predictive analytics fit into this?
Data plays a role long before a campaign goes live and continues well after it’s over. It helps us understand where audiences are most engaged, how they move across different touchpoints and what kind of experiences they’re responding to.
During the treasure hunt, it gave us visibility into participation patterns and helped us fine-tune the consumer journey as the campaign progressed. For us, the real value of data isn’t just measurement. It’s understanding behaviour. Those insights help us design better experiences, improve future campaigns and make every interaction with the brand a little more relevant than the last.
Q. When looking at consumer buying patterns, did your data show that Bengaluru had the highest number of young people ready to buy furniture which is why it was launched there?
Bengaluru was a very deliberate choice, but not because of a single data point. It’s a city with a young, digitally connected population that’s highly receptive to new experiences. It also has a strong creator ecosystem and one of our largest retail footprints, which gave us the perfect opportunity to bring together social media, physical stores and the city itself into one seamless journey.
Equally important, Sleepyhead was born in Bengaluru, so there’s already a strong affinity for the brand here. It felt like the right market to pilot an experience-led campaign like this before we look at scaling it further.
Q. How do you adapt your marketing tactics for different types of buyers? Sleepyhead is clearly chasing Gen Z with interactive games, while your parent brand Duroflex speaks more to families looking for health and stress relief. How do you decide which media channels and tone of voice to use for each brand, so you don’t end up overlapping or confusing people?
We don’t think about the two brands in terms of age alone. We think about the role they play in consumers’ lives.
Duroflex is built around sleep science, recovery and overall wellbeing. Consumers come to the brand looking for expertise and trust, so our communication naturally leans towards education, credibility and long-term value.
Sleepyhead, on the other hand, speaks to a consumer who’s often setting up their first home and is looking for products that combine functionality with personality. That gives us the freedom to experiment with creators, culture-led marketing and experience-first campaigns like the treasure hunt.
While both brands operate in the home category, they solve different consumer needs. As long as we’re clear about the role each brand plays, the messaging, media choices and creative expression become much more intuitive.
Q. Young consumers want to participate in things rather than just look at ads. Outside of this specific contest, how are you making your regular online and offline stores more interactive for them?
The expectation from retail has changed quite dramatically over the last few years. Consumers can browse products online anytime, so when they walk into a store, they’re looking for something more than just a transaction.
That’s why we’re increasingly thinking about our stores as experience spaces.
Whether it’s through creator collaborations, interactive product discovery or community-led activities, we’re looking at ways to make every visit more engaging. The same thinking extends to our digital channels as well. We want consumers to interact with the brand, not just consume content. That shift from broadcasting to participation is something we’re consciously building across every touchpoint.
Q. A player starts by looking at an Instagram post, gets an automated message, scans a QR code on the street, and ends up inside your store. How hard was it to build the backend technology to make that trip feel smooth for the user?
The real challenge wasn’t building the technology. It was making the technology disappear. Consumers today don’t think in terms of online and offline. They expect every interaction with a brand to feel like part of one continuous journey.
So our focus was on removing friction at every stage. Whether someone started from an Instagram Reel, scanned a QR code in one of our stores or joined midway through the campaign, the experience had to feel intuitive and connected. That required a lot of orchestration behind the scenes, but the consumer never needed to see that complexity. If participants were focused on the excitement of the treasure hunt rather than wondering what to do next, then we knew we’d achieved what we set out to build.
Q. It is notoriously hard to get online-first shoppers to visit physical retail shops. Are the people walking into your Bengaluru stores for this game actually checking out your products and buying things?
One of our objectives was certainly to encourage more meaningful store visits, and it’s been encouraging to see how participants have engaged with our retail spaces.
People didn’t just come in to scan a QR code and leave. They explored the products, spent time understanding the range and interacted with our teams along the way. In a category like furniture, where comfort and design are such an important part of the purchase decision, those experiences matter.
While immediate sales aren’t the sole metric for a campaign like this, increasing product discovery and creating stronger consideration are outcomes that have real long-term value for the brand.
Q. Giving away discount codes and pillows right in the first round is a smart way to keep people hooked. How did this immediate reward strategy affect your initial sign-up numbers?
The idea was to make participation rewarding from the very first interaction. In many campaigns, all the excitement is reserved for the grand prize, but we wanted people to feel there was something to gain at every stage of the journey.
That approach helped sustain momentum and encouraged more people to continue engaging with the experience. While the ₹2 lakh living room setup created aspiration, the smaller rewards made the campaign feel accessible and inclusive. It shifted the mindset from “only one person wins” to “everyone has a reason to participate,” and that was important for us.
Q. As the CMO for Duroflex and the younger brand Sleepyhead, how do you balance your time and budget between Duroflex’s scientific focus and Sleepyhead’s fun, quirky marketing style?
I actually enjoy the contrast because the two brands solve very different consumer needs. Duroflex is built on the foundation of sleep science and recovery. It requires us to build trust, communicate expertise and educate consumers. Sleepyhead, on the other hand, gives us the opportunity to experiment with culture, creators and new formats that resonate with a younger audience.
The common thread across both brands is understanding consumer behaviour. Once you’re clear about the role each brand plays in people’s lives, the tone of voice, media strategy and investment priorities become much easier to define.
Q. Duroflex recently changed its main message to focus heavily on stress relief and recovery. How does a fun, community event like this treasure hunt fit into that larger company goal?
At first glance, they may seem like very different ideas, but they’re connected by a common purpose of improving everyday wellbeing.
At Duroflex, our philosophy of being ‘Designed to De-Stress’ comes to life through better sleep, recovery and science-backed solutions that help people recharge. Sleepyhead complements that philosophy in its own distinct way by creating moments of joy, comfort and connection that help people unwind before they even get home. The treasure hunt encouraged people to step away from their screens, spend time outdoors, solve challenges with friends and create shared memories.
Those moments of play, curiosity and human connection are a form of everyday stress relief in themselves. While the two brands express it differently, both are ultimately focused on helping people feel better, whether that’s through restorative sleep or experiences that make everyday life a little lighter.
Q. One key aim is for stores to feel like active community spaces rather than just places to sell products. Does hosting events like this change how you will design your future showrooms?
Absolutely. Retail today has to offer something that consumers can’t experience through a screen. We’ve always believed our stores should help people experience the brand, not just the products. Campaigns like the treasure hunt reinforce that belief because they show how physical spaces can become places for discovery, interaction and community participation.
As we continue expanding our retail footprint, we’ll keep exploring ways to make our stores more experiential. Whether that’s through events, creator collaborations or interactive experiences, the goal is to make every visit memorable, even if someone doesn’t walk in with the intention of making a purchase that day.
Q. Bengaluru is the first stop for this campaign. Which Indian cities are you planning to bring this treasure hunt to next over the coming year?
The response in Bengaluru has been incredibly encouraging and has validated our belief that consumers are looking for more participative brand experiences. Our immediate focus is to build on the learnings from this edition before announcing the next phase.
Every city has its own culture and consumer behaviour, so we’ll adapt the experience rather than simply replicate it. The ambition is certainly to take the concept to other metro markets over time, but what’s more important is preserving what made it successful in Bengaluru, creating an experience that’s rooted in the city and genuinely brings people together.
