How to turn sampling into a genuine experiential campaign

sampling

Sampling Campaigns are too often treated as simply that and nothing more – in fact, they’re often barely treated as a campaign at all and are handled like low-quality free giveaways. How often do you see so-called brand ambassadors standing in the street listlessly holding whatever product it is they’re promoting this week and wordlessly handing them out to passers by?

We’ll bet that you’ve seen them far too often. We’ll also bet that, at one time or another, you’ve asked yourself; “how on earth is this meant to promote the product?” Well, it doesn’t take a marketing genius to work out that it doesn’t.

Sampling campaigns are too often treated as after-thoughts by those that run them. They are, almost invariably, badly organised or, rather, organised to a set template that does little to distinguish between products, locales and target market.

The formula, as far as there is one, is simply;

Pick Up Product
Stand In Street
Hand Out
Repeat All Day

Hardly inspiring for anyone…in fact, it may even damage your brand before it even gets going.

But it doesn’t have to be this way, not by a long chalk. With a few adjustments the train wrecks that make up sampling campaigns can be turned into streamlined express taking your brand to success (cheesy we know, but we couldn’t help it).

Firstly, and most importantly, the subject of staffing must be broached. We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again – for some reason it takes reiteration to make people listen – the staff you employ in seemingly inconsequential positions, say standing on the street handing things to people, are not in fact the least important people in your operation. They’re the most important, bar none.

These are the people tasked with giving your product its public face and interacting with the public on its behalf. So why, we wonder, is this the area that tends to get the least effort put into it? We won’t bang on about it too long we’ll just say; employ the right staff and half the battle is won.

When you’ve got your shiny, happy, fully brand aware operatives sorted out you need to start considering your surroundings. The High Street, whilst seemingly a target-rich environment, is very often a poor place to carry out sampling – yet people still do it. Look at it this way – everyone targets the High Street; from shoppers to charity collectors to religious evangelists. Is this really the kind of environment where you’ll genuinely be able to stop and talk to people in a relaxed fashion about what they really think of your product? Of course it isn’t and it’s lazy thinking to believe that because the most people happen to be here that you’ll get the most or best results.

Instead why not try targeting areas away from the High Street where your target market is more likely to turn up? Parks, residential areas, sports grounds – sure, fewer people over the course of the day (and you might even have to try a couple of places to get it right) but the results will be streets ahead of anything you’ll pick up in a crowded, noisy, stressful situation on the High Street.

Finally for now – we think three simple points is good enough for this taster, ring us for more – we are firmly of the opinion that, in order to transform any sampling campaign into something more you’ll be needing props. That’s right; props. It’s all very well talking to someone briefly but we’re in the business of involving them on as many levels as possible. To this end it is important that any sampling campaign is accompanied by materials to further promote interaction. Imagine your target audience is likely to be found in a park on a sunny day (students perhaps), well then you should be arriving at the park with frizbees and footballs to get an impromptu game together and turning a simple product sampling into a genuine interactive experience.

With props you can persuade people to first verbally, then physically and finally emotionally engage with your brand. And, voila, it’s no longer simply a day’s sampling – it’s an experiential event. People remember them.

Leave a Reply