Kleenex made waves with its recent “Softness Worth Sharing campaign,” which encouraged people to have FREE Kleenex sample packs sent to friends and family. Earlier this month, a reported 1 million Kleenex packs had been sent on behalf of Kleenex consumers!
What made this innovative campaign so successful? Kleenex gave consumers the chance to not only interact with their product, but to also easily give their friends/family the same experience. In other words, Kleenex identified Advocates, who in turn sent more samples and encouraged their networks to do the same… they were energized and mobilized. Social sampling at its best!
One important part of this campaign was providing a way for people to track the campaign online – including their own “chain of sharing,” where a consumer can see if their sample-sending inspired someone else to send sample(s). When consumers can see the impact of their action, it can easily inspire them to act again and spread the word to their friends about this “cool thing you have to check out!” Again, it energizes and mobilizes Advocates.
We know how important it is to give our Brand Advocates the tools to market our products for us, and now Kleenex has taken this concept one step further by giving consumers the tools AND THE PRODUCT (samples) to share with their networks. They have made it easy and fun for Advocates to create a buzz around a specific product and to share theexperience of the product.
Successful social sampling campaigns rely on consumer-to-consumer connection, and your Advocates are the most powerful way to create those ties.
Ted Rubin
Originally posted at Zuberance