Product sampling promotional events can, and have been proven to, significantly boost sales! They are extremely cost-effective, and make your brand and product more memorable and accessible! Drink sampling events have specific requirements which will be explored in this article.
Drink sampling promotional events are exactly what they sound like! Promotional events where sampling staff distribute free drink samples to members of the public. Although the idea is relatively simple, in practice there are a large number of factors to consider when planning such an event to ensure its success.
Previous Push Promotions Help
We have previously published an article titled ‘10 Tips For A Successful Food Sampling Event’. Many of these tips are also relevant for food sampling events:
- Who is your target audience
- The timing of your promo event. E.g. promote breakfast foods and beverages in the morning
- Location. E.g. busy commuter links, near to your target audience/potential customers, outside shops that stock your product
- Presentation and size of your product samples
- Hygiene
- Hiring effective and efficient product sampling staff
- Clear sample information (ingredients, allergies)
- Offers & discounts. To provide further incentives for consumers to purchase your product
- Data capture. So your company can use any feedback to improve your product and/or branding
- Clear branding. So that consumers will associate your brand with your product, and know where they can purchase your product from
Moreover, we have also published an in-depth article considering the requirements for hosting an alcohol sampling event. To read these aforementioned articles in full, click on our news page.
Specific Drink Sampling Tips & Tricks
Sample Receptacles
With food samples, containers aren’t always required, just large plates with cocktail sticks for example. However, with drink samples, physical containers are necessary. Paper cups, plastic flutes, are plastic shot glasses are all commonly used for such an event and should not be re-used for hygiene reasons.
The type of cup used will also reflect upon your brand image. For example, putting your drink samples in ‘champagne flute’ style glasses will make your brand/product appear more luxurious and exclusive. Whereas using short paper cups will make your company appear more accessible (as well as being cheaper for your sampling event).
Hot drinks will have to be served in thicker containers so as not to burn the consumer’s hands. Lids may also be required for safety reasons.
Moreover, receptacles should also be recyclable if possible to prevent excess wastage (you may be distributing hundreds of samples within a day). Make sure that recycling bins are nearby so your event doesn’t add to any local littering.
Temperature Of The Drink Samples
With drink samples, the temperature is of paramount importance! Imagine having a cold cup of hot chocolate, or a warm glass of orange juice. The wrong temperature will ruin your product! This will therefore decrease the chances of people buying your product after sampling it.
Having appropriate equipment to maintain the correct temperature of your samples is essential. The whole point of a product sampling event is to present your product in the best possible way. You want to create buzz with potential customers. So even though investing in cooling/heating equipment may seem expensive, it is necessary to promote your product successfully.
With hot drinks, make sure that there are clear signs regarding the heat of your product. This will hopefully prevent any consumers from accidentally burning themselves. This should be considered in the risk assessment for your promo event.
Push Promotions Experience
Push Promotions have more than 3000 staff on our database and can provide product sampling staff to promotional events anywhere around the UK. Our staff can distribute anything from alcohol to newspapers, cosmetics, and food samples. We can provide enthusiastic, skilled, and experienced staff. They understand the importance of working professionally at a sampling event and can be briefed on food allergies and alcohol consumption.
Innocent
Sketch Events booked Push Promotions to supply staff on behalf of Innocent Drinks for their Trafalgar Square Re-Wilding Event in April 2022. Innocent Drinks is a company that produces smoothies and juice sold in supermarkets, coffee shops, and various other retail outlets. We provided 4 brand ambassadors and 1 event manager to work at the London event.
There was so much going on throughout the 1-day event; which was based around a largescale installation that transformed Trafalgar Square from its usual grey concrete display, into a wild meadow brimming with over 6,000 trees, plants and flowers.
Our ambassadors handed out 10,000 branded innocent seed papers to members of the public so that they could continue their re-wilding journey at home. Each paper contained approximately 150-300 wildflower seeds, as well as instructions on how to plant the seeds/paper and information about the Big Re-wild.
Moreover, 2 brand ambassadors were responsible for distributing free samples of Innocent orange juice- which is 100% carbon neutral! Branded recycling bins were available to ensure that the sample bottles were disposed of appropriately. 500 plants were also given away to the public so they could re-wild their own gardens.
Our staff were supplied with innocent branded t-shirts for the day to make them easily recognisable to the public, and help to further raise brand awareness. Before the event, they were all provided with an extensive briefing back so that they could fully immerse themselves in the events of the day, and speak confidently to the public about re-wilding and Innocent’s products and initiatives.
West Midlands Railway
In 2018 Push Promotions supplied several teams of promotional staff to work at West Midlands Railway free coffee giveaway event. Our experienced brand ambassadors were assigned to various stations around the West Midlands including Wolverhampton Train Station, Walsall, Coventry, Sutton Coldfield, Stourbridge Junction, Longbridge, Bournville, and more!
Although this promotional campaign wasn’t directly distributing drink samples, our staff were present at each train station to giveaway empty cups and vouchers which could be redeemed at either Leon in Birmingham New Street or Centenary Lounge in Birmingham Snow Hill for a free cup of coffee. The price of the coffee was the equivalent of an ‘Evening Day Return’ ticket with West Midlands Railway- highlighting their value for money.
To read about more events that Push Promotions have staffed, click here.
This article is brought to you by Push Promotions; a promotional staffing agency that supplies staff nationwide to support some of the UK’s largest brands at their promotional events and campaigns. We can supply a variety of promo staff including brand ambassadors, product sampling staff, data capture staff, and promotional models. We work closely with brands and agencies to ensure that we deliver the staff that you need!
For more information check out our website or get a quick quote here
