2026 Winner

CASE SUMMARY

Hush, one of Canada’s newest and most innovative bedding brands, needed to solve two problems: reach an increasingly ad-averse Gen Z and young millennial audience, and create brand impact in a category defined by boring, overly art-directed advertising.

Sleep product advertising is easy to ignore. A sea of cozy bedding visuals makes standing out both important and difficult. For a challenger brand like Hush with low awareness, the agency couldn’t rely on traditional approaches.

The objective was simple: increase awareness of Hush pillows with an idea that lived up to the brand’s bold and innovative nature. At the same time, they saw an opportunity in the growing interest in niche sports among younger audiences, driven by streaming, social media and short-form content.

Rather than a campaign celebrating cozy comfort, we wanted to shift the thinking around Hush pillows from passive ‘hopeful’ objects to high-performance equipment – because that’s what they’ve done with their innovative sleep products.

They created the “Hush Pillow Fighting Championship” – true content with Hush’s pillows at the centre, showing their power to really ‘knock you out’. .

A live tournament held in an arena in front of a cheering crowd. Hush was everywhere: on the pillows used by fighters, on their jerseys, on the ring canvas, and on the round cards carried by “ring women.” The audience chanted “Hush! Hush! Hush!” while waving branded rally pillowcases.

The product was the experience. Fighters competed using Hush pillows, turning a product demonstration into entertainment. The winner received a Hush-branded gold belt and $5,000 in “Hush Money”– a branded briefcase filled with cash.

To bring the event to a wider audience and give it legitimacy, the championship aired on TSN The Ocho and ESPN2, where it became the #1 broadcast.

Social “Pillow Content” extended the experience, with highlights, knockouts, and fighter-led content that connected performance in the ring to the great sleep Hush pillows provided the night before.

The event sparked organic conversation and celebrity engagement from Serena Williams, Jake Paul and Lil Wayne, helping amplify reach far beyond paid media.

Together, these elements blurred the line between sport and advertising, making Hush an essential part of the experience.

Strategic planning reframed the problem from “How do they advertise pillows?” to “Where can pillows become the main event?”

Rather than competing within the conventions of the category, they identified an adjacent cultural space – niche sports – where attention is actively sought and engagement is high. This led to a critical shift: from messaging to demonstration, and from media placement to media creation.

Planning also ensured the idea wasn’t just entertaining, but structurally sound as a brand platform- embedding the product into every aspect of the experience so that awareness and demonstration were inseparable.

This approach turned a one-off stunt into a scalable property with long-term sponsorship potential.

“Pillow Fighting Championship” had a significant impact across both cultural reach and business results, exceeding all expectations.

The campaign achieved phenomenal results, generating 370 million organic impressions to far surpass the 200M goal, securing the #1 broadcast spot on ESPN2, and reaching millions across North America. It also drove a 33% increase in e-commerce traffic – more than tripling the 10% target – alongside an increase in wholesale purchase requests and unpaid celebrity engagement from Serena Williams, Jake Paul, and Lil Wayne.

By turning a pillow into sports equipment, Hush elevated a niche curiosity into a shareable cultural moment. The campaign demonstrated a new way for the brand to go to market – by creating something people actively choose to engage with, rather than interrupting them.

Most importantly, it proved the power of Hush pillows to “knock you out” in a way that was impactful, memorable, and true to the brand’s bold approach in a typically sleepy category.

Credits

Chief Executive Officer: Brent Choi
Chief Creative Officer: Erin Kawalecki
VP Executive Creative Director: Bernice Lo
VP Executive Creative Director:Adam Notzl-Keyser
Copywriter: Nikeetaa Ghaneckar
Art Directors: Louise Delfin
Chief Strategy Officer: Graham Candy
VP, Strategy: Kristian Visconti
VP, Group Account Director: Mark Khatter
Account Supervisor: Margaret Han
VP Head of Production: Hanna Bratt
VP, Business Development: Jean Vashisht
VP, Brand Marketing: Nuno Bamberg
Marketing Manager: Jessica Kline
Project Manager: Rhea Singh