With January’s healthy eating period fast approaching, now is the time to firm up your VEGANUARY sampling activities!
Which type of vegan-friendly sampling location will deliver the biggest impact for your brand? Here are our top FIVE options for you to consider:
Crackd No-Egg Egg Replacer sold over 100 bottles in just one day at London’s Broadway Street Market
Foodie markets are incredible places for vegan and veggie food brand sampling. They’re crammed full of taste explorers and hungry customers looking to see, try and buy. Unlike supermarkets, shoppers arrive with their antennas up, eager to discover new foods. This creates a perfect atmosphere for introducing your products to people who may not have considered them before.
You can reach vegan, veggie, flexitarian and mainstream shoppers, who can buy straight from the stand. Long term repeat purchases are directed to local area retail stockists or online for brands that need to grow their online following. All the on the day sales are accurately banked using card readers with the takings used to offset the touring costs, contributing to achieve a ‘self funding’ marketing roadshow!
Quorn Professionals used demo chefs to create tasty samples and new trade sales at Plant Based World Food Expo
The Plant Based World Food Expo is the world’s premiere event for the vegan and vegetarian food industry. Buyers and category representatives from the biggest supermarkets, restaurants and food chains in Europe visit the expo specifically looking to find new products to stock and serve for their customers.
The large size of the trade show allows it to cater for all budgets. From compact shell schemes to larger space only stands that can fit sampling trucks, chef demonstrations, fun ice breaker games, data capture and intimate meeting areas. It is worth remembering that it just takes ONE decent trade lead to be converted, to re-pay the expo investment cost many times over.
It’s been an important event for Quorn over the years; see how they changed their stand using their sampling truck in the following year here.
VFC Vegan Fried Chick*n was seen by over 50,000 shoppers per day on its high street tour.
For niche vegan food brands to break into the mainstream, they need to be seen and tasted by the masses. The January sales attract millions of shoppers into major city centres each weekend. High streets allow your brand to reach new shoppers who might not otherwise try vegan and veggie brands. It’s always amazing to see reactions of red-blooded carnivores, who have their minds blown when they taste a vegan product they actually love!
With the mass-market audience reached, high street sampling sites are best suited to brands with wide listings and distribution into multiple chains of retailers. The sample recipients can then make purchases from their regular supermarket on an immediate and long term basis, following the introduction to your brand.
Lazy Vegan reached commuters outside of tube stations, close to stockists.
Did you know that the London Underground has an average of FIVE MILLION passengers everyday!? With 272 Tube Stations to choose from, you can align your locations to your audience profile and your retailer locations. There’s also plenty of range for all budgets too. With a paid site fee your brand can take centre stage inside the very busiest stations. When budgets are tighter, commuters can still be reached on busy street side walkways leading in and out from them.
Don’t forget that while the London Underground is great for reaching London based professionals, the UK has lots of other cities too! The UK’s most vegan friendly cities outside London include: Brighton, Bristol, York, Leeds, Manchester, Harrogate, Oxford, Cambridge & Edinburgh. All of which have incredibly busy train stations that are ideal for sampling at as well.
Mighty M.lk used sip sampling to attain and grow their listings in Tesco, Sainsburys, Morrisons and M&S Food.
If your brand has listings in supermarkets, high impact sampling will create massive scale immediate and sustained sales growth. Unlike social media adverts, it reaches shoppers who are in active grocery buying mode. It also is location specific. Virtually everyone reached has the opportunity to become long term repeat purchasers, as they normally shop in that store on a regular basis.
Each supermarket chain has options for creating effective, impactful brand experiences. Don’t settle for the base line offering of in store “Mable with a Table”. You can reach up to TEN times more shoppers by locating a visually engaging catering event area at the entrance to your stockists. This reaches ALL shoppers on arrival, enabling everyone to see, try and buy your products. Your activity can cover a different store each day, on a flexible tour scaled to suit your budget.
Click on these links to see what your brand can achieve at Tesco, Sainsburys, Asda, Morrisons, Waitrose and Booths supermarkets.