If we were to tell you that an omnichannel product sampling campaign that included only 11 brand activation event locations reached nearly a quarter million potential customers, you might think we were making numbers up. But we’re not.
It may seem un-bean-liveable but with the power of a leading bean brand and their recognizable products, we were able to open a can of beautiful bean-loving possibilities easily. This family-owned bean brand brought smiles to all of the sample recipients in a variety of settings from farmers’ markets to fun runs to festivals.
Campaign goals: drive brand awareness, target a specific market, and manage short-coded inventory
For a brand that has been in the market since 1908 and already has solid recognition, resting on their laurels was not an option. To continue their mission of helping people imagine beautiful bean possibilities with versatile legumes, they wanted to partner with Recess on increasing brand awareness, targeting a specific potentially lesser-tapped market, and managing short-coded inventory in meaningful ways.
The target? 45- to 65-year-old consumers who are health-conscious and would respond positively to sampling 16 oz. cans of delectable beans at various events. Because of our data-driven software platform that could home in on the exact consumer traits and behaviors they desired, they had confidence that Recess would be able to execute without issue.
An omnichannel product sampling strategy full of flavor
It’s fairly common for customers to need to see and taste a new product to believe that they’ll want to buy it, so we planned a strategy that would place the bean samples in the best settings possible. This meant that we’d have to distribute the products at races, schools, farmers’ markets, and cultural festivals where the target demographic would most likely be.
Not only would the samples need to be present but they would need to also draw in the primary audience, especially since these would be canned and not all eaten right away. We decided to go big and bold by displaying product information prominently at events and providing QR codes on pull-up banners that would direct people to a dedicated landing page.
Campaign results by the numbers
The many life experiences and interests of this particular demographic meant that the variety of locations and channels we planned on would secure success. The promotional pull-up banners and samples strategically placed at brand activation events were distributed at 2 farmers’ markets, 6 races, 2 school locations, and 1 cultural festival. This resulted in extraordinary numbers.
By deliberating targeting their desired demographic, we reached nearly 250,000 people and distributed 111,000 cans of delicious bean samples. The physical outreach was complemented by digital tactics with strong results as well.
More than 46,000 focused emails were sent to consumers filtered by pre-identified traits with a nearly 50% open rate and 35% click-through rate, and social media channels were leveraged for multiple posts with stellar impression metrics.
Baking customer feedback into the plan revealed key insights
In addition to the widespread positive sentiment we heard about, our partners and leading bean brand client learned a lot through the customer feedback gathered at each brand activation event. These insights gave them actionable input for their product, marketing, and sales strategies.
For example, they learned that many of the sampling consumers were not aware that they had a zero-sugar product, an important fact for the older demographic. This excited the customers who were even more eager to try a healthy version from a familiar brand. The farmers’ markets attendees were particularly keen on this as they expressed typically associating baked beans with unhealthy ingredients. These are good to know so that teams can further emphasize the healthfulness of their products in the future.
Campaign goals: Check, check, and check
By tapping into the strategic partnerships in our network and getting hypertargeted using our software platform, our team at Recess was able to help the leading bean brand accomplish their goals of increasing brand awareness more strongly, reaching their specific target audience efficiently, and handling short-coded products effectively. Omnichannel product sampling was the way to go to tackle so many ambitious objectives.
Want to focus your product sampling campaigns more precisely?
Recess is ready to help you target the audience you want. With more than 15,000 opportunities for sampling which you can filter by consumer demographic, customer behavior, location, proximity to retailer, Recess can support your unique brand activation and sampling event execution in turnkey, measurable, and scalable ways. Talk to a Recess expert to learn more.
