What Branded Publishers Can Learn From A Mattress Company

The journalism world welcomed a new competitor this summer: A mattress company.

Five years ago, you’d have thought it was a joke. But Casper, the company that sells mattresses to Internet-savvy Millennials, joins the ranks of other companies such as AirBnB, L’Oreal, and Red Bull who are dabbling in the increasingly crowded world of branded content by sponsoring entire editorial platforms in an effort to achieve a new kind of visibility.

“Companies that want to be seen as thought leaders can jump into that arena as publishers, and not only tell stories about their own companies, but begin to branch out and tell stories about the industry as a whole,” said Brock Meeks, executive editor at Atlantic Media Strategies.

Casper’s editorial property, Van Winkle’s, introduces a daring approach to the crowded market. The company will refrain from reporting on the mattress industry entirely. Instead, it will focus its editorial strategy around sleep in general. The site is named, cheekily, after the Washington Irving character who fell asleep for 20 years in the Catskills.

Sleep stories are everywhere, the company has demonstrated. Apps that quantify our sleep cycles, cognitive therapy for insomnia, over-the-counter sleeping aids, As-Seen-On-TV snoring remedies, and 800-thread count bed sheets are all evidence of our obsession with learning about, correcting, and perfecting our sleep.

By sponsoring a site dedicated entirely to content about sleep, Casper is creating a digital product whose mission is specific enough to position it as a niche editorial destination, but inclusive enough to draw a wide and consistent audience. What works about Van Winkle’s is not only the universality of its editorial theme, but the hands-off approach Casper promises to use with the editorial workings of the publication.

Aside from writing about mattresses, which Jeff Koyen, Van Winkle’s editor, says is the only topic that’s off-limits to staff, the parent company has no other editorial restrictions in place. This type of open-mindedness is especially important in recruiting top talent, who will naturally be wary of a company that tries to restrict the intellectual rigor and honesty of the work. It’s also important in attracting readers, who are becoming more savvy and aware about what’s real content and what’s not. By being hands off, Casper comes off as confident.

And Koyen, a veteran travel writer whose work has been published in The New York Times, Forbes, and The Guardian, is keen on keeping that journalistic integrity intact.

“It’s actually a very traditional relationship between publisher and editorial — my team of journalists answers to me, I answer to the CEO,” Koyen told Fast Company.

Van Winkle’s editorial muscle was already evident in the site’s first-week launch, with a series of well-reported, specific, and editorially relevant articles. The site featured a piece titled “Is It Bedtime For Benzos?” a critical look into the benzodiazepine industry and the effects of big pharma on our sleep cycles. It clocks in at about 2,800 words and was written by a freelancer with bylines from Mother Jones, The New Republic, and The Nation — a far cry from your typical “Power of Innovation” advertorial.

If Casper maintains its promise to stick with the mattresses and let the journalists do the writing, Van Winkle’s could be poised to become a successful and interesting branded content platform.

Van Winkle’s illustrates why some companies can allow their branded platforms to write content with wide editorial discretion. Short of a headline that reads: “Research Says Sleeping Is Actually Bad For You,” nothing Van Winkle’s publishes will pose an existential threat to the business of its parent company.

But could “Is It Bedtime For Benzos?” work on a branded content property sponsored, for example, by Pfizer, the company that manufactures Xanax? Probably not.

And that’s where the promise of branded content begins to complicate and tensions between the parent company, the writers on staff, and the editorial property become difficult to surmount.

Does this mean that only companies with innocuous products like mattresses can succeed in branded content? No. But it does mean that if your product is controversial, or is likely to be scrutinized in the news, you need to be strategic. It’s important to be upfront and transparent.

Branded content platforms like Van Winkle’s, when they are done right, can help cultivate an important and mutually beneficial relationship: Journalists who are tired of freelancing or worrying about the declining fortunes of their legacy print publications can help establish a new editorial platform, maintain their journalistic integrity, and stop losing sleep (pun alert) over the source of their next paycheck. And brands like Casper can enjoy undiluted visibility on these platforms, and position themselves as the conversation leaders around important topics like the science and culture of sleep.

This article originally appeared on the AMS website. If you’re looking for more on the latest trends in media and technology, sign up for AMS’s weekly newsletter, the Digital Trends Index.