If you’re the sort of person who likes to try before they buy, there’s a good chance you’ve come across Blobfish International’s work.
With activations such as promoting Batman on food delivery bags, branding surfboards at Bondi for Woolies, and creating a new media channel for Aperol called Aperol Boats on the Yarra, the Blobfish team are making their mark in the product sampling category.
Mediaweek spoke with Nic Cann, founder and CEO of Blobfish International, about the impact that sampling can have on business growth, and the expansion of the business.
It’s full steam ahead for the Blobfish team, with Cann saying that the team are “seeing exponential growth” thanks to brands realising the power of sampling
Aperol Boats on the Yarra
“From an advertising standpoint, people are booking their outdoor, their digital, their TV, all these other bits and pieces. They’re finding that the power of conversion through the trialling of a product is ridiculous – if you reach the right customer in the right environment, they try that product, and they do buy it.
“Every single one of our clients is repeat. Even the new clients, they come on board and have such a good experience with us that they come back for more. The sampling volume just keeps on increasing as well, which is something that we’re very excited about because it means growth for us. The whole category in general seems to be growing unbelievably at the moment.”
It’s not just the Australian market that Blobfish is working in, with the company also operating in New Zealand and the UK. The perks of having a presence in three different markets are not lost on the team, with Cann saying that lessons learned in one place can be applied to other countries.
“New Zealand has been a really fun market, and sampling is quite prominent over there,” said Cann. “It’s great to see, because bigger brands are investing really heavily in sampling across the world, so in any market we’re in you can see the same trajectory going on.
“In the UK, the toughest part is the time difference – I do a lot of late nights coordinating with the team in the UK.
Promoting Batman on food delivery bags
“It’s really good to have learnings across the different countries. We see things that will happen in the UK, and we can take that and reference it to our Australian clients or vice versa. Even though we’re seen as a drop in the ocean out here, it’s actually super exciting to be able to collaborate across the three different markets.
Historically, brands have had a “pay and spray” approach to product sampling. On the flip side, Cann says that Blobfish “pride ourselves on the data and insights,” working to ensure that there’s minimal wastage around any campaign – if any at all
“We have direct relationships with these progressive industries, such as dark kitchens. We can access information from the restaurants directly to see what feedback and reviews are coming through. We understand the basket size the orders are going out with, the meal types that are going out. To a certain point, we collect a lot of individual data throughout the network as well that we can report back to customers.
“The ultimate results for them are usually multi-tiered. One is brand awareness, which is absolutely integral and we definitely help with that. Secondly, its sales – we do a lot of proximity targeting.”
Branding surfboards at Bondi for Woolworths
Looking ahead, the Blobfish team will be focussing their attention on cementing their position at the top of the product sampling market.
“The one thing that we’ve decided to do as a business is to be extremely specialised with our sampling focus. A lot of companies in market have experiential activations, and then they tap into sampling behind the scenes. We want to own the sampling remit, so we’ve made a strong decision that that will be our core function.
“We want to be the best, most data-insightful sampling opportunity that exists in the Australian, New Zealand, and UK markets. So far, we’re doing very well at that – we are definitely carrying a lot of business in the market, and we are delivering exciting and fun campaigns for our clients.”
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Top Image: Nic Cann