Doner Media

The award-winning and 2008 Advertising Icon of the Year, Serta Counting Sheep are at it again with their boldest move ever! In a new campaign for the Serta Perfect Sleeper, the Counting Sheep are overwhelmed by Serta’s latest innovations for comfortable mattresses.

The campaign, created by Doner, emphasizes how the Perfect Sleeper helps solve the five most common sleep problems while also recognizing it as the first and only official mattress of the National Sleep Foundation (NSF). The NSF partnered exclusively with Serta to improve sleep quality through optimal mattress design and enhanced sleep education.

In the latest television spot, debuting May 18, the famous herd breaks into Serta’s headquarters and finds the Perfect Sleeper. They also uncover proprietary research outlining how the mattress solves the five most common sleep problems.

In order to save their livelihood and get troubled sleepers to count sheep again, the Counting Sheep create a scheme to steal the mattress. As the herd makes their getaway with the mattress atop their back, one remarks how great the mattress feels—comedically emphasizing the comfort of the Perfect Sleeper.

Now in its 11^th year, the Counting Sheep campaign has helped lead Serta to the #1 position in the category for unaided awareness.* With this campaign, Doner continues its longstanding partnership with Aardman, the original animator of the famous sheep as well as the creators of Wallace & Gromit.

Watch “Mattress Heist” below, which will air on channels including the Food Network, TLC, CBS and ABC. The campaign also includes online banners and social media.

*Source: GKF Strategic Innovation 2011.

Creative Credits

Co-CEO, Chief Creative Officer: Rob Strasberg
EVP, Executive Creative Director:  Murray White
SVP, Creative Director:  Kenneth Spera
Creative Director:  Michael Brooks
SVP, Director of Broadcast Production:  Brian Dooley
Producer:  Alexander Page

Country music icon Tim McGraw has partnered with HARMAN to design two styles of JBL^® headphones. The JBL Artist Series headphones by McGraw are available in on-ear and in-ear styles and deliver an impressive acoustic performance at price points music lovers will find attractive.

With the release of the headphone line, Tim McGraw also becomes the next spokes artist for the JBL Hear the truth campaign, created by Doner.

Learn more details about the campaign and the new headphones from the press release here.

Check out the spot and mini-documenarty below, featuring Tim McGraw’s reflections of developing as an artist.

Creative Credits

Co-CEO, Chief Creative Officer, Rob Strasberg
Executive Creative Director – Murray White
Creative Director – Murray White
Copywriter –  Rachel Sokolewicz
Art Director – Travis Brevard
Director – Barry Levinson
Agency Producer- Laurie Irwin
Production Company – Saville Productions
Account Team – Kevin Weinman, Jim Vassallo

To celebrate Cinco de Mayo (a couple days early) our weekly Thursday patio party was turned into a fiesta. Gorgeous 80° weather, sunny skies, Mariachi music, a nacho bar and Mexican beer helped make the party a fiesta to remember.

Some Doner employees also tested their batting abilities, and provided the rest of us with some entertainment, while trying to break open a piñata.

And our headquarters wasn’t the only office to have some fun. Our Cleveland office hosted their own fiesta, complete with a frozen margarita bar, chips and salsa, and a guacamole contest. Participants pitted their avocados against one another, while fellow co-workers chose the best. Brand Leader Karen Cummings was named the winner, and received a gift card to a local Mexican restaurant in praise of her guacamole making talents.

Be sure to watch the video below of our first fearless player to attack the piñata along with some photos of the fun.

Feliz Cinco de Mayo!

Executive VP, Brand Leader Greg Gerfen received the “Outstanding Alumni Award” from his alma mater, Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, Mich., at the school’s Department of Marketing Annual Awards Banquet this April. The distinctive honor recognizes Greg’s distinguished career and his contributions to WMU’s marketing program. This award also ushers him into Western’s Haworth College of Business Marketing Hall of Fame.

Greg has been with Doner over 20 years, working with a variety of clients including The UPS Store, The PGA Tour and Pennzoil. He leads WMU’s Marketing Department’s advisory council, which shares expertise and guidance with students. Greg’s focus while serving in this role is developing new scholarship opportunities and facilitating a Career Development Night with the Ad Club.

During the awards ceremony, Greg also presented the Advertising & Promotion Advisory Board Scholarship to two current students.

Congratulations Greg on receiving this recognition for your talents in the industry!

This week, over 50 Doner employees donated their time and enthusiasm to support Forgotten Harvest. The food rescue organization fights to relieve hunger around Metro-Detroit by rescuing surplus, perishable foods and delivering it to those in need.

Volunteers repackaged tomatoes, beets, and other foods into smaller portions that were then delivered to emergency food providers to share with the hungry in our community. Each group did a great job repackaging hundreds of pounds of food, including the first shift of the week starting us off strong by packaging 607 bags of assorted food staples. The participants were happy to give back to Metro-Detroit and bond with co-workers in the process.

Check out some photos of the fun below.

Thanks to all our participants and especially our photographers Trisha Field, Devin Jones, Libby Costello and Natalie Venuto!