Transcript | 5 : 3 Experiential Tactics to Make the Most of Your Next Sampling Event | The Experiential Table Podcast

CYNTHIA SAMANIAN: You're listening to The Experiential Table episode five.

Today we're talking tactics, mainly how you can take tried and true experiential practices and make them work for your food brand, especially when you're sampling your products at trade shows, markets and more. So are you ready? Let's do it.

Hi there, I'm Cynthia Samanian, your host and CEO of Hidden Rhythm. We design and produce experiential events for some of the best brands in natural food and wellness. I've shared a little bit about this in earlier episodes, but just to recap, I created this podcast because I really wanted to share what I've learned working with clients on six figure budget activations with early stage food brands who are just getting started...and maybe that's you?!

Today's episode covers an area of learning I cannot wait to share with you: how to step up your presence at your next sampling event. If you're running a food brand and setting up tables at your local grocery store or traveling for larger trade shows, this episode is for you. But for those of you who aren't demoing your products or don't even have a product to sell yet, don't leave me. What you learn today will definitely come in handy in the future and really change the way you think about sampling and showcasing your product in the physical world once you're ready. Like I said earlier, we are getting super tactical, so get your pen and paper out and be ready to jot down some notes.

We have three experiential tips here to help you step up your next sampling event and the first is to draw them in. Now, by them, I mean anyone who is passing by your table, whether you're set-up at the grocery store and they're walking in through the door and they're eyeing what you have, or if you're at a large trade show where thousands of people are walking down the aisles and trying to find that next delicious snack. Let me start off by saying this: people eat with their eyes. While you may have the tastiest granola or the most refreshing kombucha, they may not even get to try it unless you're able to draw them in.

Especially in a trade show setting, you probably know this already if you've demoed before, there is so much competition. So, think about how you can actually get people to come to your table, your booth and get them to try your sample. That's one of the things that I love thinking about and when we work with brand clients on experiential events and activations, we think about this a ton and what it really all comes down to - the first thing - is understanding your brand aesthetic and bringing that to life in a physical way. I like to think about what is your brand's Event Identity. Now, oftentimes brands create mood boards and they have colors, logos, all of that good stuff. But think about your Event Identity and create a mood board for it. What are - not only just the colors - but the textures that represent your brand. We do this for every single event we produce. Even when brands have a really dialed-in mood board or they know what they want, we still think about textures, patterns, fabrics, because it really serves as our North star when we want to design a really beautiful display table or booth.

So when you're looking to create a mood board that's tied once again to your Event Identity, there are lots of places where you can get inspiration. I usually start with Pinterest. I find that it’s a great place to begin your search for different textures and patterns, as well as taking a look at different rooms that are styled and seeing how you can draw inspiration from that.

But you don’t have to limit yourself to the digital world. Take a look in your living room or in your closet and see what textures you already surround yourself with. Chances are if you are really close to your brand, perhaps you're the founder, your personal taste has inspired the brand's look and feel. Some textures that I've heard brands claim as part of their identity include silk, velvet, and denim. These are all things that you may have in your closet and you can consider these textures that are part of your Event Identity. And once you have these textures in place and you have your moodboard, sourcing your event decor will be so much easier.

Let me give you an example. We worked with Bare Snacks on designing and producing a beautiful fall-themed pop up called the Bare Beachside Orchard. Basically, we built an indoor apple orchard a block off the beach in LA. Imagine a festive fall wonderland with apple picking, a giant leaf pit, and so much more. For that event, we absolutely had to define the Event Identity. Now Bare Snacks is a pretty well-established brand of apple chips. They also make other fruit and veggie chips. So you might be wondering, “Well Cynthia, they already have a strong brand. How much did you actually have to do for the branding of the event?”

While they already had a brand in place for their product and they had guidelines that we needed to follow, we had to take it a step further and really understand how we wanted the brand to show up in the physical, offline world. So we took some cues from the product’s packaging and dug a little bit deeper. Bare Snacks are actually packaged in a bag that looks like it's a chalkboard. The logo is basically chalk on a blackboard. So we really wanted to tap into that. For the Event Identity, we thought a lot about how to create a modern farmhouse vibe. Yes, it was an apple orchard and we wanted it to be tied to nature, but we didn't want it to feel too rustic or too country. That just wouldn't align with the brand's overall design aesthetic.

So we used a lot of clean white picture frames, white cabinetry, and where we did use the blackboard look, we did so in ways that were very tasteful. We used it in signage and we also used it for this massive contraption that was very educational, so we thought that the blackboard look really played well into the learning element of the pop-up. Our apple crates were a mix of white wood as well as very light shades of wood. And you know, of course, we had incorporate elements of fall, so we had hay bales and endless piles of bright orange fall leaves. We also used denim because it helped keep the look really casual, yet still modern. It would have been very odd if we used silk tablecloths, right? Or really intricate lace table coverings.

Having these elements and our mood board made sourcing for the pop-up, more streamlined, focused and definitely time efficient. We would walk the aisles of Ikea or our local thrift store weeks before the event and when we saw something that fit the look, we immediately grabbed it and knew that it was exactly what we needed and it would work well. So like I said earlier, having your event identity and using a mood board to represent that is super helpful and it serves as your North star. So remember the first tip is to draw people in and you want to do this by creating a visually beautiful representation of your brand and to get to that place you have to understand what your brand’s identity is in a physical space and that is where your mood board comes into play.

Alright. Now if that tip got you super excited and you want to dig deeper then listen up, I'm launching our very first live online workshop and it's called How to Sample with Style. Now this will be a two-hour workshop where I'll walk you through the three key steps to attract more attention at your next event. The first is defining your brand's event identity, which should sound familiar because we just talked a little bit about that, but we're going to dive at so much deeper in this workshop. We're also going to chat about how you can source your event kit without breaking the bank. Now an event kit is one of my favorite resources for small business owners who are looking to do a lot of events. It is your go-to box that has everything you need to pop up so you don't have to scramble frantically the night before getting another jar or getting some extra flatware; you have everything you need from the get-go.

The third thing we'll chat about is how to design an irresistible and engaging display table. So here we pull everything together. I had just mentioned how it's really important to have a display that aesthetically represents your brand and just looks beautiful. Well, in this workshop we talk about how you can actually make that happen.

So you'll also get a PDF workbook which will include checklists and guides to help you with each of these three key steps and you'll get a 30-minute one-on-one coaching session with me to help you implement everything you've learned. I'm offering the two hour workshop, workbook, and the coaching session with me all for just $97 the course is offered on Wednesday, November 20th if you can't make the live class, you can access it after, but this is the only workshop I have right now on our calendar and I'm not sure if or when I'll be offering it again.

So if this sounds interesting to you and you want to gear up for the upcoming season of trade shows and markets, then definitely sign up. You can head over to hiddenrhythm.com/workshop to learn more. I'll also include a link in the show notes.

Alright, now that we've covered the first tip - draw them in - we're moving onto the next experiential marketing tip for your sampling event. The second tip is to make it engaging. If you can create an experience that engages your guests, then you're more likely to have your brand remembered by them long after they've left. Now, this shouldn't be a surprise if you listened to Episode Three, I share much more about this in detail; how the brain works and why certain experiences lead to longer lasting memories. So definitely check that episode out if you want to learn more about this.

Well, make it engaging, sounds great, but how do you actually do that? Right? Well, I want you to think about a few things and ask yourself these questions. How can your guests learn something quickly? How can they customize what they're sampling? Or is there something they can leave with that keeps them engaged well after the event? Now I call this a Signature Experience and it's something we'll also cover in more detail in the workshop I just talked about. An example of a Signature Experience could be this - we've done this before with a variety of brands, but oftentimes there’s a product, whether it's a juice or cocktail bitters or some sort of mixer and they want to showcase that product, but they don't necessarily want people to make their own cocktails with it because that could lead to some not-so-delicious outcomes, right? So what we've done before is a garnish bar or garnish station and it works really, really well.

We'll have the cocktails be made in advance and they will be batched, ready to pour in a cup with ice. And then we'll have small plates and jars that have fresh herbs in them, maybe a little bowl with pomegranate arils and some other garnishes that are really easy to spoon and self-serve. We also had cocktail picks that had cute little ribbons tied at the top that matched the brand colors. Now we've done this, like I said, for a variety of brands and it works great every time because you can customize the look of the cocktail picks. You can customize what you actually put out as garnishes based on the season or what makes the most sense for the brand. If you are a tropical Hawaiian-inspired brand, then your garnishes are going to be a bit different than a brand that's based in the Pacific Northwest and is really tied to evergreens and the nature up there.

Another example is DIY topping bars or build-your-own setups. Now this works well for yogurts, granola, think chia seed pudding parfaits. If you have a food product that you want your guests to experience as a topping, then this is a fantastic way to showcase that. As well as if you have a base. Maybe you make coconut yogurt and you want them to try it plain, great. But having them experience it in a more creative context like adding maple syrup to it or adding dried fruit to it can really help them see how your product fits into their lifestyle.

Now, not all products lend themselves well to this DIY garnish bar or topping bar concept. A great example would be a grab and go snack or a packaged snack that you are just supposed to eat as is versus something that's more of an ingredient or a component of a larger recipe.

Say you make a snack bar that’s ideal for post-workout recovery, then while you could chop it up and put it on yogurt and showcase it that way, maybe the focus of your Signature Experience shouldn't be so much on the specific product.

At a minimum, you, of course, want to have your product out for people to try. But, you can create such a stronger, longer lasting impression if you find a way to engage your visitors on top of that. One way to do that is to consider the context of your consumer. If you want your snack bar to be eaten after workouts, then think about how your target customer spends their time. Well, they're working out! So how can you insert your brand into that context? Right off the top of my head, an idea that comes to mind is a branded gym bag tag station. That's the mouth full. Perhaps you have super cheap key chain rings with some cording, beads, and perhaps your logo as a metal or plastic charm.

In just a few minutes, your guests could create something memorable and fun to hang on their gym bags. Now, of course, this takes time to set up and you need to invest time and money to source the products, but if you spend time getting what you need for your Signature Experience now, you'll be able to replicate it any time you pop up. And you'll see that it becomes less and less work to manage each time. One thing to keep in mind is that you want to keep the experience short, just a few minutes tops. You certainly don't want them to have to spend more time than that, otherwise, they'll skip on over to the next booth. But if you get them engaged and they leave your booth, not only with a sample of your product but also with something in hand that they made, they'll feel much more tied to your brand.

As a bonus, people love customization. So when you think about engagement, there are so many ways that people can engage with your brand and if they're able to make something and actually take it home with them, it's pretty remarkable what that does for retention. People feel more tied to your brand. They, you know, even if they've just invested a few minutes, they're much more likely to remember and recall your brand when they see it on the shelves at Whole Foods or their local natural food store. So definitely keep that in mind. It doesn't have to be expensive, it doesn't have to be fancy, but it absolutely needs to be engaging.

I'll close this tip by saying that while engagement leads to retention, and that's super important, understand that some people are not going to want to engage. And that's okay. A lot of people will just want to come by, get a free sample and walk away. And I'm sure if you've done demoing and sampling before, you're probably nodding your head. That, as I said, is absolutely okay. You're not going to be able to engage with every single person, but there will be people who will have the mental space and will make the time to get to know your brand and get to know what you are all about.

Chances are they love your product and they want more. So you want to have something ready for them. And actually this is a great segue to tip number three, which is to stay connected. Now, you've put all of your hard work into prep for the event, set it up, staff it, get people to come to your booth and engage with them, but you still have one very important step left and that is to collect the information from them and stay in touch. Remember your booth is just one touchpoint in a relationship with your target customer. You absolutely want to keep the conversation going, because in the future you're going to have some big news to share. You're going to increase your distribution and end up in stores that might be down the street from them. You may want to teach workshops that will engage them even further. And, you may want to give them a promo code to start driving sales even if you're just selling online.

But how will you do all of this if you let people just take a sample and walk away? Now people will still do that, but what you want to do is have a system in place that allows people to provide their email in a very simple, lightweight way. More than having people follow you on social media or adding you on Instagram, I really think the emphasis should be placed on collecting people's email addresses. Email is so important, not only because you can directly reach your target customer by sending them a message, but you can also use it for ad targeting. On Facebook, you're able to upload your email list and serve up ads specifically to people who you have the email addresses of.

Thinking through the actual logistics, I think that iPads are really useful for this. You only need to have one. If you have one already, great. You can also rent them for a reasonable fee. Or you can just use a pen and paper. I think iPads are great because you can brand the experience. It looks really polished. And, you can use a basic survey tool. You can use Google Surveys which is free. I really like using Typeform. It feels very professional and well put together. And you want to ask a few questions. First, you want to collect email. You also want to ask, have you heard of our brand before today's event? How useful would it be to know that going into a trade show, 20% of people had heard of your brand or maybe even more than that, or maybe 0%. It's just really great to know what your exposure is and how you've increased your reach by being at an event.

Now you may need to offer an incentive to get people to sign up. People can be a little shy about giving their emails out left and right, so think about ways that you could get them to do that. One idea is to provide a coupon or a promo code. You could also incentivize them by offering a giveaway. These things can be really simple, very cheap. But even if you can get half of the people who come by your booth to leave their email, that would be a huge win because now you know that email addresses of people who engaged with your product and your brand in a deeper way. They're a very warm audience that you can continue to market to in the future. So tip three is all about staying connected with the people who take the time to come to your booth. You don't want your event to be a flash in the pan experience that doesn't lead to future business and sales down the road, right? It's a huge investment of time and money and you need to do whatever you can to continue the relationship in the future.

To recap, our three experiential tips to help you make the most out of your next sampling event include number one, draw them in. Remember people eat with their eyes. Number two, you want to make it engaging because engagement leads to retention. And lastly, number three is to stay connected. You do not want all of your effort to go to waste. And so while it seems like the last thing you want to do after having an event, you need to follow up, follow through, send emails to the list that you have, and continue building that relationship.

Alright, that is it for today's show. If you have a trade show or event coming up, then absolutely put these tips to use. You'll attract more attention, have better engagement and get closer to making some serious sales.

And if you want to dig deeper into these tips and actually have some tools and resources to help you make it happen, then definitely check out my new workshop, How to Sample with Style. It'll be held on November 20th and you can learn more at hiddenrhythm.com/workshop.

We also have our private Facebook group where I continue to share tips and our community grows every day and we're learning from each other. So you won't want to miss that. It's called The Experiential Table. Just search for it on Facebook, answer a few questions, and I'll see you there.

And finally, if you enjoyed this episode, then don't forget to hit subscribe. I'd also love to see your ratings and reviews, so please be sure to do that. And if there's someone in mind who you think might enjoy this podcast, feel free to share it with them.

Next week, we are moving into the holiday season. I will be doing an episode that is a mini case study from an event we hosted last year with a very beloved brand named after a very beloved founder.

Until then, get excited to get experiential...talk soon!