Ocean Spray SVP on the Brand’s Summer Tour: Q&A

Ocean Spray is on tour this summer, sampling its products at fairs, festivals and other special events where consumers gather. Millions of samples are being distributed and the brand has designed a number of ways to directly interact with consumers, including rewarding people with recipes who snap a tag placed on the back of brand rep’s T-shirts, a move to get teens involved.

Ken Romanzi, Ocean Spray senior vice president and chief operating officer, North America, shares execution details and results (so far).

PROMO: How are you executing at tour stops?
ROMANZAI: The cross-country event brings product samples, coupons, recipe books and other great giveaways (from March) through November. Consumers can try some of our latest and greatest products from our sampling van. Brand ambassadors greet customers at every stop to answer any questions they may have. An Ocean Spray tent is set up at each event where customers can interact with video and picture features.

PROMO: What products are you sampling?
ROMANZAI: We are handing out generous samples of our newest products including our Sparkling Juice Drinks, Cranberry Juice Cocktail with Lime, Blueberry Juice Cocktails, Powdered Drink Mixes, Craisins, Dried Cranberries, and other products. Traditionally while on tour we’ve handed out more than 5 million samples from the sampling van.

PROMO: How does this event differ from others Ocean Spray has staged?
ROMANZAI: It lets us directly interact with our consumers across the nation. Visitors can sample products while learning about the products, as well as learning more about Ocean Spray’s rich history and heritage.

PROMO: How does Ocean Spray market the event?
ROMANZAI: We promote the stops in a variety of ways, including on our Facebook page, through press releases and on Oceanspray.com. Another way we drive consumers to our events is by making ourselves present at events across the U.S. that we already know our consumers are interested in.

PROMO: What is the goal for the tour?
ROMANZAI: One of our goals is to introduce as many consumers as we can to our brand and our products; the mobile tour brings the Ocean Spray experience to consumers via events we know they are interested in.

PROMO: How did the integration of SnapTags contribute to attaining the program’s overall goals?
ROMANZAI: Mobile technology is constantly evolving and we’re testing how we can leverage different technologies to connect with our consumers. The SpyderLynk integration allowed us to really amplify customer engagement and continue a productive dialog online after they visit us at the tour. The SnapTag featured on our tour representatives’ T-shirts allows users to bring their offline experience with the mobile tour online, and access additional content including recipes, product information, our Facebook page and more. This helps us to enrich consumers’ experience with the mobile tour with multimedia content that they can continue to engage with once they leave the tour bus.

PROMO: What results are you seeing from the overall tour so far?
ROMANZAI: The tour has surpassed our set goals across the line. We determine this using a variety of metrics from number of samples given out, to consumer feedback and number of people who tried our products after tasting samples on the tour. The event provides us with instant feedback and has exceeded our expectations in customer engagement both at stops on the tour and through mobile technology that allows customers to interact with us well after they visited us on tour.

PROMO: Will we see a replay of this tour?
ROMANZAI: This is not the last of the Ocean Spray mobile tour; you’ll be seeing us again in 2012.