The bread and butter of on-street brand activations are sampling experiences. It's a simple but extremely effective activity that grabs customers’ attention. It usually works best in-person via tablets and touch screens with brand ambassadors standing by to dish out the samples, but can be reconfigured in a number of different ways.

Ideal for food and drink brands, you can tee up a taste-test between two popular flavours. Give the customer the unmarked samples and ask them which was best and why. Alternatively get them to guess the "new" flavour between the two.

After voting, record their reaction or ask them for feedback. Save this information for the client to reflect on after the event, along with the usage stats.

These sort of sampling activation can be used in a wide variety of event spaces:

  • Festivals: give concert goers a taste-test challenge as part of a larger event installation.
  • Sporting events: before the game, have people try out new recipes and flavours.
  • Conferences: on the way into conferences, get products into peoples' hands.
  • On-street promotions: for example, main shopping streets or shopping centers.
  • In-store promotions: particular in supermarkets and grocery stores.

There are also many ways to liven up the experience:

  • Live results: Have a live scoreboard on which sample is the favourite and update it in real time to grab peoples' attention.
  • Play to sample: Provide a multi-choice quiz, a competitive quiz between friends or a quick time-waster for customers to play before receiving a sample.
  • Share to sample: Ask the customer to post on social media with a tag. Once they've shared, reward them with a sample.
  • Vending machines: Automate the experience with vending machines that automatically deliver samples when the activation is complete.
  • Competition: Automatically enter people into a competition to win a big grand prize.

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Timmy O'Mahony

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