Frozen food brand Findus has appointed BEcause to stage an experiential sampling campaign to build awareness of its new ‘Fresher Tastes’ range of quality pre-prepared frozen foods. BEcause will create a mobile roadshow to tour selected Tesco, Asda, Sainsbury’s and Morrison’s supermarkets throughout October and November. BEcause Brand Ambassadors will be talking to consumers about the new range and offering them freshly cooked hot samples of the new range. Triallists will also receive money-off vouchers to spend in-store. The in-store campaign will be supported by digital, advertising, PR and sponsorship. Sharon Richey, managing director BEcause comments: “It’s a widespread misperception that frozen foods can’t taste as good as fresh foods.  An engaging and informative sampling campaign is the perfect way to counter these beliefs and change people’s mindsets.”

Last month we wrote about the ‘The Seven Sins of Sampling’ - what NOT to do when planning and executing sampling campaigns.  Avoiding common pitfalls is only half the job. To achieve real success and stand-out with your sampling, you need to balance the basics with the science. To make sure that your sampling campaign reaches the right people at the right time, and gives them an experience to talk about long after their free ‘taster’, we’ve written these Seven Steps to Sampling Heaven: 1. Make it a real experience Think about ways to extend the engagement time with your audience, and give them a richer experience of the brand that they will remember long after the sample in their hands.   But don’t clutter or confuse, often the simpler ways to engage the senses work best.  When sampling Asian food for M&S for example, we used Asian drummers very effectively to capture people’s attention and create a great atmosphere within busy commuter stations. 2. Talk to the right people at the right time Picking the right environment is crucial when trying to minimise wasting samples on freebie hunters.  Homework pays dividends. Profile where your target audience shop, eat and work.  Understand their patterns and behaviours and think about what time of day they have the most time to stop and talk. Balance common sense with technology to ensure you talk to the right person, in the right mindset, with the right message, at the right time. 3. Ensure the perfect serve To create maximum impact, the sample needs to reach the consumer in optimal condition. Meticulous planning is essential and everything needs to be carefully assessed, from the supply chain to how your sample is going to be stored on the day.  No one wants to try a warm beer or a melted chocolate bar! 4. Brand Ambassadors are your Brand Angels Research shows that consumer experiences are hugely driven by the person they are interacting with.  Employ staff that are passionate and engaging and take time to train them. Do they fit the product?  When we work for Pampers, for instance, we often favour mums as our Brand Ambassadors because we know they’ll be able to make an instant connection with the target audience. 5. Stand out in a crowd Be bold and make sure you can’t be missed. Think of your surroundings, how are you going to stand out?  Think back to our M&S drummers mentioned above, it was impossible not to hear the campaign despite it being rush hour in hugely busy stations!  Building an immersive experience where consumers can interact with exhibitions or demonstrations is a great way to increase dwell time. The more time spent experiencing the brand the better. 6. Be meticulous with planning Leave no stone unturned in the planning of the activity, meticulous attention to detail will ensure the campaign is a success no matter what you come up against. You might not be able to control the weather, but you should always have thorough contingency plans to cope with challenging situations 7. Evolve the experience Learn and evolve sampling campaigns with specific focus on the results you want to achieve. Something that worked in theory doesn’t always work in practice so use real-time feedback to instantly adapt the activity to give the best possible experience. Follow these principles religiously, and you’ll be well on your way to higher things with your next sampling campaign. Do you agree? If you have other tips or ideas to include on our stairway to sampling heaven, then please let us know in the comments box below.

Panasonic is launching a Full High Definition (HD) 3D roadshow this May to showcase its 3D TV experience to consumers. The roadshow will run for nine weeks and will visit 33 shopping centres and other public areas in six regions throughout the UK. Brand experience specialist BEcause has been tasked with co-ordinating and staffing the roadshow. Six walk-in theatre booths designed by Bates Design Ltd and built by the Early Action Group, will be placed at specially selected venues for three days at a time, with a Panasonic retailer in the nearby vicinity. Inside each booth, up to four people can sit down and preview the Panasonic 3D home cinema experience with a short film showing a fast-paced mixture of sports, travel, underwater shots and music clips. After the screening, BEcause Brand Ambassadors will talk to shoppers about how they can now bring Panasonic 3D TV into their own living rooms. Interested shoppers will then be directed to their nearest local Panasonic Store. Sharon Richey, managing director of BEcause comments: “This experience is showing consumers that the Full HD 3D experience is no longer limited to the cinema.  By working closely with regional retailers we're confident that this memorable experience will translate seamlessly into sales.” Andrew Denham, marketing director at Panasonic UK, comments: “2010 will be the year that the 3D experience will be available in the living room.  This roadshow will demonstrate Panasonic’s commitment to innovation in this area, and will showcase the way these technologies will revolutionise the way we experience entertainment in the home – from movies and television to gaming.” This is the second large scale campaign that BEcause has co-ordinated for Panasonic. Last year, the agency, together with Bates Design Ltd and the Early Action Group, co-ordinated a successful roadshow to build awareness of Panasonic’s Full HD 3D capabilities in the lead up to Christmas.

British Gas supported the announcement of its most recent price cut with a face-to-face campaign through brand experience agency BEcause. As part of a major two-day communication plan, hit squads of BEcause Brand Ambassadors visited 26 major UK mainline train stations to tell commuters about British Gas’s 7% reduction in the price of gas.  Passers-by to the branded pop-up stands were given a postcard with a text-response number, this was supported on the second day of activity with branded hand warmers and a cover wrap on the Metro. BEcause was brought to bolster an integrated campaign featuring PR and advertising.  Early results estimate the face-to-face campaign directly engaged 400,000 people with opportunities to see reaching over 3 million.

Mellow Birds, the milky coffee from Kraft Foods, is taking its fully-branded milk float on a tour of university campuses as part of an experiential campaign to show the "fun and frothy" side to the brand. Brand Ambassadors will be distributing sample packs of the coffee branded with mild innuendos such as "Give me a stir" and "Invite someone back to yours for a coffee”. The campaign will be supported by a poster and email campaign at each university.  Source: Event