Atishoo! Kleenex chain letter blows away the competition
There are lots of way of getting your stuff noticed. Now a campaign by Kleenex produced a million 'brand ambassadors'
The campaign, introducing a new softer tissue, has lifted market share in the US 1.7 points since October, said Kleenex Brand Director Craig Smith. The company is still evaluating a campaign for the UK. "It's too early to say yet," said spokeswoman Alyson Gomez.
The idea was to let people send samples to friends and family via Kleenex.com or through signing up at more than 900 retailers.
"We wanted the customers to be engaged rather than just give away free samples," said Gomez. Each recipient could nominate someone else for a free gift. the longest "chain of sharing" so far has involved 34 people, - one after the other getting free packs of tissues.Mr Smith said, "People could track online how their samples inspire others to follow suit" and that TV and digital ads produced the most activity.
California jumped out to an early lead, but Ontario later edged all U.S. states with 73,740 packages shared.
"We set out to retake softness superiority in the category," Mr. Smith said. " We essentially enabled 1 million consumers to become ambassadors for the brand."