Marie Redding, Associate Editor04.22.13
The mailer Arcade produced for the Fragrance Foundation, featuring samples of all the Consumer's Choice nominees. |
Consumers are able to go to The Fragrance Foundation’s website from now through May to request a sample of all the Consumer’s Choice nominees – so they can see the fragrance bottles and sniff the scents at home before casting their vote.
Fifty-thousand mailers are being printed now, which were produced by Arcade and designed by Bureau NY. The light pink booklet folds, accordion style. It opens to reveal a photo of each of the 10 Consumer’s Choice nominees, along with a way to sample each.
"The mailer accomplishes the goal of making the voting process a much more interactive experience for the consumer," says Diane Crecca, senior vice president, Arcade, who is also on The Fragrance Foundation's Board.
The Details
Crecca first discussed the idea for the mailer with Elizabeth Musmanno, president of The Fragrance Foundation, just a few weeks ago. "The development process was very fast, and took about a month instead of the usual three months," says Crecca.
Since Arcade was already working with all of the nominated brands on sampling programs, the supplier had all of the necessary approvals to use certain scent technologies with each fragrance, which helped the project move along quickly.
There are three different scent technologies used on the mailer, depending on each brand's preference. They are: Arcade's LiquaTouch, a white pad soaked with the actual fragrance and packaged inside a peel-back label; Arcade's DiscCover, an encapsulated technology used between two clear labels that can be closed and re-opened, which enables users to sniff and/or apply the fragrance to the skin multiple times; and Arcade's ScentSeal, a peel-back label with a fragrance gel inside.
Although it is too early to determine how the scented mailer is affecting the number of votes, Musmanno says that the industry response to the voting process has been fantastic. "With Arcade's scenting capabilities across a vast array of brands, executing a world class scented program for consumers could not have been done with anyone else," she says.
A Smarter Way to Sample & Market
In addition to getting more Consumer Choice votes this year, Arcade says that its iSampling Programs, which are being utilized by many beauty and fragrance brands, all have tracking and measurement capabilities in addition to providing a consumer database.
"Traditional sampling is blind – but through iSampling, in addition to creating a pathway for consumers to request and try your products, each Arcade campaign serves the added purpose of customer acquisition,” explains Crecca.
She continues, “Our fragrance clients end up with a database of interested consumers that they can reach out to in the future. Plus - every consumer that responds to a mailer by going to our website is a fragrance fan - they are practically raising their hands to be more involved with your brand," she adds.
Richard Nightingale, vice president of Arcade Interactive, says that its ability to track and measure ROI - Return-On-Investment - makes its sampling programs unique. "These capabilities have not been available for sampling programs in the past," he says.
Reaching the Next Generation of Fragrance Fans
Perhaps this is the first sign of a move by The Fragrance Foundation to reach out to the next generation of consumers – and better connect with tech-savvy fragrance fans on social media?
Nightingale says that if The Fragrance Foundation continues with additional iSampling campaigns in the future, the consumer data they will receive through this type of outreach and acquisition will continue to grow.
“The Foundation has the ability to become very smart about the consumers that engage through this program,” says Nightingale. He continues, “In addition, depending on where they make it available to the consumer – such as The Fragrance Foundation’s Facebook page, for instance – the campaign can capture much more relevant information on the consumer and their larger communities.”
Crecca adds, "We're happy that the Fragrance Foundation is embracing these new technologies, and we're thrilled to be a part of it."
Read more: A few of the Fragrance Foundation Awards for 2013 were presented at the annual Finalists Breakfast - here are the winners and finalists.