The Best Sampling Channels for this Festive Season

The holiday season is upon us, and with it comes the opportunity for businesses to spread some festive cheer through product sampling. Whether you’re an established brand or a small business looking to make a big impact this Christmas, product sampling can be a game-changer. But, which channels should you utilise to ensure your offerings reach your target audience and create a buzz?

Let’s unwrap the best sampling channels to consider this festive season.

In-Store Sampling

In-store sampling is a tried and tested method for reaching consumers during the holiday season. Setting up a sampling station in shopping centres, supermarkets, and high-traffic retail locations can help you directly engage with shoppers on-the-go.

It’s the perfect chance to showcase your holiday-themed products, whether they’re festive treats, cosmetics, or anything else relevant to the Christmas season. This sampling technique allows you to engage directly with your target audience and create a seamless, memorable experience.

Subscription Box and E-Commerce Sampling

Shopping online is time-efficient, easy, and convenient which can make it highly favourable compared to in-store shopping. With millions of deliveries making their way to homes every day, your samples can reach thousands of consumers from a specific demographic and is a powerful way to encourage consumers to trial your products.. which they can then add to their Christmas shopping lists!

On the other hand, Subscription boxes have gained popularity in recent years, making them a fantastic channel to utilise for the festive season. Several subscription box businesses curate themed boxes, such as Christmas, making it the ideal opportunity to include free samples. This approach exposes your products to highly engaged and relevant audiences, and consumers often view these samples as a surprise.

Festive Events and Pop-Up Shops

The Christmas season is filled with festive events, markets, and pop-up shops – it’s the perfect occasion to take part and set up a festive sampling stall to showcase your products.

Consumers will often be in a Christmas shopping mindset, making it an ideal time to offer samples and attract potential customers. These events also create a sense of community and can be a great opportunity for highly engaging face-to-face interactions with potential customers.

Digital Sampling

As we emerge a new digital age, digital sampling has gained momentum over the last few years. Using popular digital channels such as social media, this sampling technique allows you to tap into a hyper-targeted audience offering consumers a chance to claim a free sample which are sent directly to their homes. This is an effective channel to incorporate into your marketing strategy due to the high levels of targeting involved and is easy to tailor to multiple themes throughout the year, such as Christmas.

Airbnb Sampling

Why not add a touch of magic to Airbnb locations across the UK? With thousands of consumers making the most of Airbnb stays during the holiday season, it’s the ideal opportunity to reach potential consumers who are already engaged and are in the festive mindset.

With targeting available from location type to region, to group size and age, it’s no doubt your samples will make a big impact to those celebrating Christmas (in their home away from home!) this year.

The Christmas season offers multiple opportunities to engage with potential customers using product sampling, creating memorable experiences that resonate with your audience during a magical time of the year.

Instead of tapping into just one channel, why not diversify your approach and utilise integrated sampling using in-store sampling, subscription and e-commerce sampling, seasonal events, digital sampling and Airbnb sampling, in order to maximise your exposure and effectively reach your audience this festive season.

If you’re looking for an effective marketing strategy to engage your audience this Christmas, get in touch with us now and learn more about how we can help.


Flavor. Sampling is an Integrated Sampling Agency. We curate the perfect mix of sampling techniques to deliver optimal results for every campaign. Integrating all elements under one house to drive efficiencies in Targeting, Relevance, Measurement and ROI

We plan, execute & measure sampling campaigns built from a blend of tools, methods and techniques – including the ones mentioned in this blog.

To find out more about Integrated Sampling or to find out more about this blog, give us a call or drop us an email at the below…Email: [email protected]Tel: 07977 148 784