Samples usually are one-way, unrequested offers from marketers, and online sampling mostly involves signing up to get freebies yourself. But an offer this cold-and-flu season for Kleenex that lets people send free packs of tissues to friends and family has scored big.
The program let people send samples to friends and family via Kleenex.com and through signups at more than 900 participating retailers in the U.S. and Canada. They could also send virtual Kleenex tissues to Facebook friends, but the million were all actual tissue packs, said Amy Popp, Kleenex brand manager.
“We set out to retake softness superiority in the category,” Mr. Smith said. “So we developed a program behind the claim that Kleenex is America’s softest tissue. … We essentially enabled 1 million consumers to become ambassadors for the brand.”
Kleenex promoted the social sampling via TV, print, digital and social media advertising from WPP’s JWT andmedia shop Mindshare, both New York. TV and digital ads appeared to produce the most activity, Ms. Popp said.
