Thought leader: Regional appeal
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by Joel Kaufman, managing director, Link Communication
Too often brands and their agencies lose sight of the fact that the purpose of sampling is to create measurable sales growth for the brands; not just to give products away. This is a common criticism of many mass reach sampling campaigns around London’s busiest stations. Many well-meaning brands give their products away en-masse to the public; without a clear commercial strategy that provides measurable tracking to its impact on their rate of sales.
Sampling in and around central London’s stations is such a common feature that many customers now take it for granted, with little or no appreciation. While the capital’s busiest sites to offer huge audience reach; brands and their agencies would also benefit from casting their nets wider for optimal targeting. By focussing the campaign geography on provincial towns and cities, brands can reach a more closely aligned audience. This provides measurable impact for driving sales into regional stockists, such as a major supermarket that dominates that smaller town. Whereas there is little to no retailer specific targeting at any of the central London stations; due to the wide diaspora of the points of origin of the commuters.
This principal is shown to good effect in the accompanying photos from recent Y Food sampling campaign, planned and implemented by LINK – Effective Brand Experience. Their selection of towns and smaller cities for sampling was based on localised proximity and availability to specific stockists of that product. That means stations with a large Tesco or Sainsburys stockist in the immediate catchment area of the site.
In addition to the more accurate geo-targeting, the novelty of the sampling experience is made clear on the looks of enthusiasm and delight from the recipients. Commuters in these areas do not get to see sampling teams on a daily basis like in London. This makes the impact more memorable, more positive and more targeted, boosting measurable retail sales uplifts for the brand.
