Case Study | The Launch of Gravity Blanket
It was early 2017, and the digital publishing landscape was changing rapidly. Years of meteoric growth, fueled by a generous Facebook algorithm, had suddenly plateaued. Engagement and reach were down. Revenue opportunities were dwindling, or disappearing altogether.
Companies like ours were one wrong move away from collapse (and many did).
Rather than double down on display advertising, which was fast becoming an unreliable revenue stream, Futurism decided to cut out the middle man entirely, and launch our own line of products. We hired a very talented consultant named John Fiorentino to help us find a product-market fit.
To narrow down our options, we developed custom landing pages for each of our prospective products, and ran smoke tests to figure out which one the Futurism audience would be most likely to purchase. The Weighted Blanket for Sleep, Stress, and Anxiety won in a landslide.
As Futurism's ranking creative lead, I was tasked with developing the messaging and marketing materials that would ensure a successful Kickstarter launch. The challenge? Convince first time customers to pay $200 for a strange blanket that wouldn't ship for 3-6 months.
At the time, there were very few weighted blankets on the market, and none that were geared toward our core audience—millennials—specifically. In less than 2 months, and with just $20,000 in capital, we developed a functional prototype, and produced a polished Kickstarter campaign.
From there, we leveraged the Futurism audience to amplify the launch. Within a few days, a number of our direct competitors published copycat video content about the blanket (this was common at the time). Within a week, our rags-to-riches story was covered by the TODAY show.
Ultimately, we raised $4.7 million on Kickstarter. Gravity Blanket went on to be more successful than the parent company that incubated it. And I learned a lifetime's worth of valuable lessons about the power of rigorous data, a nimble team, and great storytelling.
Two of my most important contributions were the core messaging—Gravity: The Weighted Blanket for Sleep, Stress, and Anxiety—and candid testimonial video series—What does a 25-pound blanket actually feel like?—which would convince thousands of people to try our proverbial moonshot.
Role(s): Brand Director, Creative Strategist, Content Producer, Copywriter
Companies like ours were one wrong move away from collapse (and many did).
Rather than double down on display advertising, which was fast becoming an unreliable revenue stream, Futurism decided to cut out the middle man entirely, and launch our own line of products. We hired a very talented consultant named John Fiorentino to help us find a product-market fit.
To narrow down our options, we developed custom landing pages for each of our prospective products, and ran smoke tests to figure out which one the Futurism audience would be most likely to purchase. The Weighted Blanket for Sleep, Stress, and Anxiety won in a landslide.
As Futurism's ranking creative lead, I was tasked with developing the messaging and marketing materials that would ensure a successful Kickstarter launch. The challenge? Convince first time customers to pay $200 for a strange blanket that wouldn't ship for 3-6 months.
At the time, there were very few weighted blankets on the market, and none that were geared toward our core audience—millennials—specifically. In less than 2 months, and with just $20,000 in capital, we developed a functional prototype, and produced a polished Kickstarter campaign.
From there, we leveraged the Futurism audience to amplify the launch. Within a few days, a number of our direct competitors published copycat video content about the blanket (this was common at the time). Within a week, our rags-to-riches story was covered by the TODAY show.
Ultimately, we raised $4.7 million on Kickstarter. Gravity Blanket went on to be more successful than the parent company that incubated it. And I learned a lifetime's worth of valuable lessons about the power of rigorous data, a nimble team, and great storytelling.
Two of my most important contributions were the core messaging—Gravity: The Weighted Blanket for Sleep, Stress, and Anxiety—and candid testimonial video series—What does a 25-pound blanket actually feel like?—which would convince thousands of people to try our proverbial moonshot.
Role(s): Brand Director, Creative Strategist, Content Producer, Copywriter