You might want to sit down to read about this tasty campaign with a comfort food brand that turns every consumer into a fan. Goodles boast a big mission of reimagining what might have previously been perceived as bad-for-you, indulgent boxed food and turning that into nutrient-packed deliciousness. When planning how to boost their brand awareness, we knew we had to convince sample participants on the spot.
So we did. We partnered with fitness studios for the “bring it home” approach but also showed up big at a huge race event to take the cooking experience to the people. All together, nearly 10,000 samples of lovable mac and cheese were distributed to convince people that they really could have it all - tasty food that brings joy and is healthful.
The good and gooder goals: increase brand awareness and better target customers
When it comes to boxed mac and cheese, there are multiple options for a customer to consider, including a certain iconic blue and yellow product. But one thing that most of those options lack is the ability to actually claim a healthy noodle that doesn’t hold back on bold taste.
That’s what we were helping this mission-driven CPG brand, Goodles, with - increase their brand awareness and drive retail sales through hyper-targeting around key retailers and targeting ideal shoppers with retail indexing capacity. Given the health focus from the brand, the campaign would need to get products in front of the right people.
Turnkey product sampling campaigns that work out of the box
Tasting is believing. To crack the code on helping this brand, we enlisted the help of our data-rich platform to identify the best consumer demographic and locations for their goals and tapped into the strong partnerships we have with event organizers and fitness studios.
The plan was to sample 2 oz. boxes of mac and cheese to fitness enthusiasts and face fanatics. We partnered with four fitness studios for sample distribution and one race for an on-site cooking activation experience. That way, participants could enjoy the nutrient-packed samples at home themselves, and in the case of the race, grab some bites of the tasty cheesy noodles.
For the comfort food brand, our tactics were ready to go once we aligned on the key goals, and they were able to take comfort in our team’s ability to execute without worry.
Campaign results by the numbers
The approach was a hit. Plus the participants said that the samples were just un-brie-lievably good! We were able to distribute nearly 10,000 samples across all of the locations but the physical products weren’t the only impressions made.
Through the fitness studios, about 8,000 folks were exposed to the brand and at the huge race, 9,000 attendees saw the bright and welcoming pop-up booth we had for the cooked samples. More than 100 boxes were cooked and shared with racers, and we amped up the experience with some extra goodies. There were giveaway items (nearly 200 winners!) and hundreds of coupons given out for purchase at nearby retailers that we had identified through our data-driven platform.
Campaign results by the qualitative feedback
The numbers don’t tell the full story. We gathered a lot of positive feedback from participants, some of which Goodles could use to help them with their product, sales, and marketing strategy too (such as which flavors were the favorites!). Samplers really wanted to know where they could buy the products right after.
Even better, our location partners heard that their health-conscious members were pleasantly surprised at how aligned the products were to their lifestyles. Racers wanted seconds of the cooked samples right away, and gym goers said they looked forward to going home to have the post-workout meals.
Here’s what some of them said:
“Fan for life!”
“I brought my husband over to read the box. I took him a sample and he refuses to believe this is a vegan mac & cheese!”
“I think I’m in love! I initially just wanted some protein from the sample but now I’m sold on eating this regularly.”
Good and gooder goals gotten
This campaign was only the beginning of all that this delicious CPG brand wants to do to keep sharing their tasty noodles with the world. We were able to make huge progress on their goals and are looking forward to spreading the word of their mac-and-cheesy goodness.
Ready to unbox the power of product sampling in your marketing strategy?
Recess can help. 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.
