Kleenex Pushes Tissues with “Feelspace” Mall Tour

Kimberly-Clark’s Kleenex is hitting the road with a 10-city mall tour to build awareness around its latest product, Kleenex Facial Tissue with Lotion.

Brand reps are staging a 20-foot-by-20-foot booth in malls nationwide as part of The Kleenex Lotion “Feelspace” experience. Inside, visitors can touch a running waterfall, get a hand massage, or sample Kleenex tissue from wall mounted dispensers. People can also interact with a 42-inch digital touch screen by waving their hands in to manipulate images and textures.

The exhibit also features hanging displays of rug cutouts and other items that encourage people to feel. The booth prominently displays Kleenex’s message, “It feels good to feel.”

“The entire idea is to get people to stop and feel something,” Dimtry Kuzin, Kleenex associate brand manager, said. “It’s a breakthrough way to get to consumers, especially in the facial tissue category.”

Consumers can also visit a 2-foot-by-2-foot station with Kleenex reps to sample and learn more about the product. Kleenex hopes to reach about 2 million people through the experience, Kuzin said.

Brand ambassadors will driver shoppers to the exhibit by handing out Kleenex samples with a coupon worth 40 cents off the product. About 100,000 coupons will be distributed in all. Window clings and floor graphics will also direct consumers to the Feelspace booth. Visitors can extend the experience by downloading a free Kleenex-branded iPhone application through the Apple iTunes Store.

The tour is stopping at malls in Minneapolis, MN, Boston Philadelphia, Atlanta, Denver, Chicago, New York City, Washington DC, Dallas/Ft. Worth and Los Angeles through March 22.

Kleenex turned to an experiential event to show, rather than tell consumers, how its product works and feels, Kuzin said.

“This was the right thing to do to get consumers to try our product,” Kuzin added. “When you feel it, you believe it.”

The promotion supports the company’s Kleenex Facial Tissue with Lotion, which hit stores in October. Other Kleenex products using the new tissue technology are expected to roll out this year, the company said.

GMR, Milwaukee, is handling the event.