Giving Dreams Beds a Voice

Ever wondered what your bed would say if it could talk? What would it sound like? Fun and cheeky? Laidback? What kind of accent would it have?

In our recent campaign for Dreams, our leading bed characters are heard belting out Queen’s ‘Somebody to Love’ (What a tune! I’d say they deserve their own award for that). However, the story behind their voices is more than their charming singing abilities. Developing the characters prompted questions on how we wanted them to sound.

Advertising is loud. It’s persistent. It’s crowded. There are different ways to stand out, and voice is a powerful tool to do so. System1 teaches us that the rich emotional expressions from human voices can influence how we receive messages, feel emotion and take action. So, when bringing the Dreams beds to life, their voices played an important role. It started with two questions: “What are the Dreams qualities we’re looking to communicate?” and “What role do the characters play in bringing these qualities to life?” We had the answers to these questions and used it to guide voices and accents research - providing input to the Creative team.

Did you know certain accents can make you trust someone more, make you come across more friendly or even influence how intelligent you sound? They can sway opinions. So, if we wanted our characters to be warm, charming and loveable, their voices, inclusive of their tones and accents, needed to reflect this. In the UK, we have many attitudes and opinions on regional accents. Turns out, RP, Northern and Scottish (Edinburgh) are consistently rated as attractive in ranking lists. The Geordie accent is also high on the scale of accents to put a smile on your face (one might say a little win for our North Eastern agency).

But what makes them attractive? RP (also known as Queen’s English) was the standard accent the BBC used historically for its quality and expertise perceptions. Northern and Scottish accents come across as warm, friendly and loveable. Feeding this into focus group testing showed how accents reflected variety, and the unique characters of the beds (fab!). We had comments that supported online research, like the Geordie accent seen as “fun and cheeky”. But beyond accents, we found that tone was an important reference point. Some voices came across “forced” or “too quirky for beds” or would “talk too fast which didn’t feel relaxing”. Someone even mentioned that one of the voices sounded like Big Brother… The research provided valuable input for the Creative team and client for character development. Choosing the voices for the beds became more than an accent job, but one that considered voice inflections. If beds suddenly start talking tomorrow, the character in their voices needs to be appealing and welcoming.

Our four lead characters are out in the world now. They share a few quirks, sure, but their distinct personalities and voices make them a fun group. They’ve got warmth, charm and character in spades. And they have their own contribution to the Dreams message. Beddie is lively, outgoing and confident with his RP/Estuary accent. Bedwina, the more shy and reserved of the bunch, has a Northern Irish accent. Matty’s Northern accent is cheeky and mischievous, but he’ll always make you smile. And Snusan is bright and inquisitive with her Scottish accent. The excitement, charm and joy in their voices bring our lovely beds to life.

Despite attractiveness studies, accent bias is still prominent. Sixty-two percent of radio and podcast ads feature Southern accents. A core learning point? Whether it’s for beds that burst out charming vocals or a completely different sector, it’s important we know the qualities we want to project and align it with voices in campaigns, which might require a bit more regional flavour and representation. Just look at Yorkshire Tea’s ‘Where Everything’s Done Proper’ ads or the classic Boddingtons ad with Melanie Sykes, promoting it as ‘The Cream of Manchester’. A small detail like accent can influence how people receive a message.