Case Studies - Thorntons Tactical Product Sampling of Chocolate Secret Centres

Client: Thorntons

Agency: Ditto

Brand: Thorntons' Chocolate Secret Centre

Campaign: Thornton's Tactical Product Sampling of Chocolate Secret Centres.

Brief:

• To raise brand awareness, prompt trial and drive sales of the new Thorntons' chilled desserts, using high calibre promotional staff conducting a tactical, roaming product sampling campaign, across a variety of train stations and office areas across major cities.

Campaign Description:

• Link Communication's team of enthusiastic brand ambassadors carried out tactical sampling roaming busy city centre office areas and in front of a selection of train stations. Individual samples were distributed to shoppers and professionals at each location, where the teams gave a scripted introduction of the new product, a voucher and verbal encouragement to buy them from a selected retailer.

Locations:

• Selected cities were targeted for their high density office areas, business parks and busy train stations, including: Leeds City Centre Station, London- Liverpool Street Station, Birmingham New Street Station, London- King’s Cross Station, and Manchester Piccadilly.

Branding:

• Thorntons' branded uniforms were worn throughout the campaign, which included quality black jackets, baseball style caps, polo shirts, and insulated hawker bags for the product samples.
• The insulated hawker bags helped the teams carry the samples to the various locations whilst at the same time keeping them chilled, allowing them to be served at the best serving temperature.

Results:

• The campaign was received very positively, with the majority of people happy to receive a chilled dessert sample from Thorntons.
• As a recognised quality brand, once they had seen the Thorntons branded uniforms consumers were very eager to try a sample.
• The samples were distributed very quickly, therefore teams slowed down the sample rate where possible by giving detailed explanations about the product, and promoted future purchases from selected retailers.  
• The test campaign was extremely well received by the client who has since planned their next stage sampling campaign.