Mixtape Marketing has announced that Samplify has been shortlisted for a 2021 All Ireland Marketing Award in the Best New Product category. This marks an incredible achievement for the agency, which only launched Samplify in June 2020.
Samplify offers the only direct route for brands to get product samples into consumers' hands during these turbulent times. Since launching, Samplify has grown its community to 20,000 consumers and aims to send a box full of product samples to 6,000 of them each month.
Recipients of the box are pre-selected based on certain criteria requested in advance by the brands to ensure the samples are going directly to the demographic they are intended for.
In its short life, Samplify has delivered over 35,000 boxes to homes across the Republic of Ireland. Via those boxes, an incredible 284,000 product samples have been tried and tested by Irish consumers.
“We are thrilled with the response to the service from both brands and Samplifers (the moniker assigned to the members of Samplify’s community),” says Niamh Kellett, director of Mixtape Marketing.
“Brands are delighted with the high levels of engagement that they are experiencing, with Samplifiers becoming mini brand advocates as they share their feedback with their own community of followers.”
And the process could not be easier, explains Neil Devlin, a fellow director of Mixtape Marketing. “Brands that want to get involved just need to book their slot in advance to make sure we can accommodate them,” he says. “We have bookings right up to November now so the spaces fill up quite quickly.”
Along with the product sample, brands can include a voucher or coupon and some product information.
Add-ons
As an additional add-on, brands can also follow up with a post-campaign survey, gathering more in-depth feedback after the products have been trialled.
“The response rate on surveys has been really high, with our last survey having a completion rate of 89%,” explains Albi Larkin, director with Mixtape.
“The surveys can measure things like propensity to buy after trial, opinions on packaging and design, brand recognition and taste preferences, to name a few. The post-campaign reports then offer some really rich feedback for the brands that traditional sampling opportunities don’t allow for.”
In January of this year, Mixtape saw an opportunity to further expand the offering, adding an additional string to their bow called Samplify Engage.
Samplify Engage provides brands with smaller budgets, those without physical products or those that may not have the capabilities to provide 6,000 product samples, with an opportunity to interact with the community online.
An email detailing the competition and any relevant brand information is sent to the database of 20,000 Samplifiers.
Then brands simply put up a prize that is featured on the Samplify Instagram page and people are encouraged to enter via a like and share competition. Initial competitions have yielded very impressive results, with KPI’s being met within two days of the last competition being posted.
'Pivoting and Diversifying'
Samplify is an excellent example of a company pivoting and diversifying its offering during this unprecedented and difficult period. “Mixtape Marketing intends to keep Samplify as an offering long after COVID-19 has disappeared,” says Niamh Kellett.
“The rich consumer feedback and targeted sampling that Samplify provides is a niche offering that simply did not exist prior to launching, and one that offers an excellent return on investment for the brands involved.”
All logistics for Samplify are handled via the Mixtape Marketing warehouse in Blanchardstown, where the boxes are picked and packed by hand and delivered next day by a reliable courier partner.
Brands can find out more by emailing [email protected] or calling 01- 8665640 to book a campaign.
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