Product sampling is taking centre stage for Heineken this month (September), with the brand using Twitter and Facebook to redeem coupons on their smartphones in return for a free beer.
A site will be set up where people can enter their phone numbers to get their coupons and then pick a bar or restaurant in numerous US cities including Chicago, LA and San Francisco where they can go to claim their drink, the Drum reports.
The first drink on offer will be Heineken, then Heineken Light and Dos Equis, the latter offer to come in this October.
This isn’t the first time a brand has chosen to promote its products and offer freebies through the internet. Back in 2009, Kraft Foods decided to launch its strawberry Oreos in China via the Only Oreo site that allowed people to plant a cookie tree and send digital biscuits to their friends. Each time a cookie was sent, the user was given the chance to win a shopping voucher for ecommerce site Taobao. By shopping online via the Oreo site, people were able to receive a free strawberry Oreo sample.
And earlier this year, Coke Zero launched a digital sampling campaign that made all types of media drinkable using Shazam technology. People were invited to Shazam their ads and interact with them on their smartphones or tablets so they could drink the ad in question.
Campaigns such as this do take time, energy and ingenuity to create but by doing so you can change the way customers interact with your brand – which can only be a win-win.