Taking Food Truck Sampling Cross-Country
Lightlife™ launched a 10-week food truck sampling tour to introduce its plant-based burger option to new audiences. The sampling tour allowed people to trial the product, boosting awareness and purchase intent. As Lightlife’s newest products find themselves in more and more grocery store retail locations, the brand wanted to drive consumer activation.
In partnership with Vox Media, Eater and of course dio, 40-year-old Lightlife set out to distribute samples of its newest products. The food truck sampling tour made stops in: New York City, Toronto, Chicago, Los Angeles, Seattle and Phoenix. Stops included festivals, sporting events and private events. In addition, the Lightlife mobile tour also supported B2B goals by visiting the headquarters of some of their grocery retail partners.
Our team helped facilitate the entire food truck sampling tour; we:
- Wrapped the food truck with full Lightlife branding
- Installed all necessary cookware inside the food truck
- Staffed the campaign with ServSafe certified tour management
- Hired and trained a professional driver to operate the food truck safely
- Researched events and high traffic areas and developed a strategic route, based on Lightlife’s market targets
- Secured all permitting and activation spaces
- Managed the food samples and ingredients, coordinating in-market pick-ups
- Activated the entire campaign, fully turnkey for Lightlife and its partners
At each food truck sampling tour stop, our team had the opportunity to share samples and also connect with the audience personally. The sampling activation gave us a few minutes of interactive time to not only share great food but also key talking points from the brand.
After all, experiential marketing is an opportunity to build deeper brand-to-consumer connections. This brand-in-hand sampling initiative also fostered positive feelings for the brand. By activating with free samples at beloved events and within each community, Lightlife reinforced its unique positioning.
The Lightlife burgers were prepared on propane grills, with our team responsible for prepping, grilling and serving the samples. Consumers were given the options of vegan cheese, shredded lettuce, tomato, ketchup and mustard with brioche, vegan or gluten-free buns. The results: yummy!
“Where are they sold?” asked one festival attendee in Toronto. “I’m totally getting some for our next cookout!”
“I have tried pretty much all the other plant-based burgers, and this is by far the best!” said another consumer in Los Angeles.
“Now I can tell the customers in the store how delicious this is,” said a grocery store employee.
During the food truck sampling tour, we achieved:
- 118,640 estimated impressions
- 38,440 burger samples distributed
- 6,605 coupons distributed
Sampling tours make a quality impression, which has greater impact than most media channels. Brand experiences are interactive and in this case, also tasty.
Let us take your brand on the road! Give us a call to start planning your food truck sampling tour or other brand experience. (No burgers required.)
