Challenge / S.C. Johnson-owned Glade wanted more people to try-out its home air freshener. But with the rise of online shopping, fewer consumers are picking up free samples or attending product demonstrations in physical stores.
Solution / Teaming up with Walmart, Glade took the air-filled packing pillows in delivery boxes of products purchased online and filled them with Glade home air freshener.
Walmart’s air-filled pillows need to be popped prior to recycling, so every consumer is instructed to pop them before binning.
When consumers unpacked their Walmart deliveries and popped the pillows, they got a whiff of Glade’s spring fragrance before being offered the opportunity to purchase the scent via a QR code.
Results / According to a case study video, the activation generated a 83% increase in sales of Glade’s home fragrances on Walmart.com during its first week, as well as more than 11 million impressions in the first month.
The campaign also picked up a Gold in Media at the 2019 Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity.
Free samples not only help consumers learn about products but are a powerful purchase motivator, too. The behavioural scientist Dan Ariely states that, ‘What samples do is they give you a particular desire for something.’ It all comes down to reciprocity, which Ariely notes, is a very strong instinct. ‘If somebody does something for you, you really feel a rather surprisingly strong obligation to do something back for them.’ Scent by Glade takes this emotional response even further by placing the product in its intended environment of use – the home – as well as building a connection between the product and the consumer via an olfactory experience.
