Product Sampling Agency.
Executional is a UK product sampling agency supplying trained sampling staff to put your product straight into the hands of the people who buy it.
Book product sampling staff for a single store day or a national campaign, from 40 UK hubs, with the same team held across every date wherever we can.
What is product sampling?
Product sampling is a marketing method where a brand gives consumers a free sample of a product to try before they buy. Handed over in person by trained staff, in a place the audience is already shopping, working or travelling through, it turns an unfamiliar item into a decision made the same day.A campaign is priced per team, per location, per day, so the cost moves with the size of the run rather than sitting on a fixed retainer.
Checked, Insured & Certified
Right-to-Work documents checked on every person, with Employer and Public Liability cover on every campaign. Food hygiene certification, alcohol licensing, DBS checks and risk assessments available on request.Right-to-Work checked on every person, with Employer and Public Liability cover on every campaign. Food hygiene and DBS on request.
Briefed On Your Product
Your briefing form becomes a tailored document covering the USPs, the audience, the objections and the exact words you want used at the point of handover.A tailored brief covering your USPs, the audience and the words used at handover.
In-House PAYE & HMRC
We are the employer. Payroll, tax deductions, National Insurance and HR responsibilities are all handled in house, never subcontracted.We are the employer. Payroll, tax, National Insurance and HR all handled in house.
In Position, On Time
Shift reminders, geo-tagged check-ins and live attendance monitoring, with a project manager on every booking and 24/7 support while a campaign runs.Geo-tagged check-ins and live attendance monitoring, with a project manager on every booking.
Product sampling staff, wherever your customers are
Get a sampling quote →The setting decides who walks past, what permission is needed, whether there is power for chilled products and how many staff it takes to work the space properly.
Local teams at every stop, picked from the hub nearest the site rather than sent up the motorway.
Choose a campaign type below for the relevant case studies, practical requirements and location guidance.
02
In store product sampling
Department stores, beauty halls, travel retail and food halls.
Read more →
06
Why brands choose Executional for product sampling
Good sampling is not handing things out. It is starting the right conversation and giving somebody a reason to remember the brand after they have walked off. The benefits of product sampling come from those thirty seconds, not from the sample.
The same energy at four in the afternoon as at ten in the morning. That is the difference between a team and a queue of people holding a tray.
We turn hesitation into trial
Handing it over is the easy part. Our teams answer the question that is holding somebody back, so they try the thing they were about to walk past.
We listen while we sample
Our teams spend the day in front of real buyers. What they get asked, what lands and what makes people hesitate comes back to you first hand, the same week.
We connect trial to purchase
Trial and the till sit a few steps apart. Our teams make the next step obvious while the interest is still warm, before the intention has time to fade.
We focus on the right people
Targeted product sampling is not a setting you switch on, it is the pitch and the hour. Our teams are briefed on who to approach, so fewer samples go to people who were never going to buy.
We make the brand memorable
People remember how they were spoken to for longer than what they were given. A warm, informed thirty seconds is what gets photographed, repeated and mentioned at home.
Read about our recent sampling campaigns
A sample of the sampling work, listed by date rather than by how well it went. Every campaign here was run by our own teams.
See all recent work →
See our sampling staff in action
Three campaigns, three very different rooms, one job: put the product in a stranger’s hand and make them glad it happened. Watch how a team opens a conversation with somebody who was only walking past.
30,000 samples, three centres
Fruit and oats handed out with vouchers and a VR experience across Lakeside, the Metrocentre and the Trafford Centre.
Read the campaign →Finish lines and fan zones
Chilled pots put into the hands of people who had just earned them, worked across a run of UK sports events.
Sports event sampling →Desk beers, floor by floor
A multi-location run through London workplaces, delivered floor by floor at the hour people were actually at their desks.
Read the campaign →Why brands keep booking us.
One brief. One team. Every detail managed.
Whether it is two sampling staff for one location or sixty across twenty sites, you deal with one team throughout. Four steps, and you are only involved in the first two.
Send the brief
The product, the locations, the dates, the hours and how many people you want at each. Tell us if anything needs to stay cold or needs a licence and we will price that in from the start.
Get the costing
Itemised line by line, one line per location per day, with day rates and on-costs broken out. Usually back within hours.
Match and brief
The quote is signed off and one account manager takes it from there, matching staff on skills, experience and the hub nearest each site.
Run and invoice
One invoice at the end, however many sites and days it covered. Post-campaign reporting is available as a paid add-on.
Get a fast, itemised quote for sampling staff
Tell us roughly what you need and a real number comes back, not a range. No sign up, and no sales call unless you ask for one.
Or call us directly on 0113 479 0075 or 0203 026 1069
Start your quote here
Two minutes to fill in. It costs nothing and commits you to nothing.
Product sampling agency FAQs
The questions we get before a first booking: what it costs, how far ahead to commit, who arranges the permission, and what you actually get back at the end.
How much does a sampling campaign cost?
There is no single day rate. What moves the number is how many people, how long the shifts run, which city, whether anything needs to stay chilled, and whether a site fee or council licence applies. Quotes come back itemised, one line per location per day, with day rates and on-costs shown separately so you can see exactly what you are paying for.
How far ahead should I book sampling staff?
The staffing is rarely the constraint. Permissions are. A council licence or a shopping centre pitch can need weeks, and the best summer dates go months ahead. For anything on private land or needing a licence, start early. For a straightforward retail booking, short notice is usually workable.
How do I choose where to run a sampling campaign?
The best product sampling campaigns start with the audience and work backwards to the postcode. Who you need decides the setting, the setting decides the hour, and the hour decides how many people it takes to work it properly. A commuter with four minutes wants something they can take and go; a shopper with an hour will stand and talk. The same product can do three times the numbers on a Saturday concourse as it does on a Tuesday high street. Tell us who you are after and we will tell you where they already are.
Do you arrange permissions and site fees?
Yes, where a permission is needed we arrange it. Costs differ by council, by station operator and by centre, so they are quoted alongside the staffing rather than buried in the day rate. Some settings need nothing at all, and we will tell you which ones those are before you commit.
What makes a sampling campaign work?
Three things, in order: the right place for that audience, enough people to work the footfall properly, and a team that is still saying the same thing at four in the afternoon as at nine in the morning. Under-staffing a busy site is the most common and most expensive mistake. Both sampling guides go through this in detail.
How do you choose product sampling staff?
Every booking is reviewed by our operations team rather than filled automatically from a rota. People are matched on skills, experience and location, drawn from the hub nearest the site. Right to work and ID are checked for everyone, with DBS, food hygiene, alcohol licensing and risk assessments available on request.
What reporting do I get afterwards?
Reporting is an optional paid extra, quoted alongside the staffing rather than included by default. It covers attendance confirmation, on-site photos and team feedback. If you do not need it, you are not paying for it. Live attendance and geo-tagged check-ins run on every booking regardless.
Can you run a nationwide campaign?
Yes. Forty hubs means a run across twenty sites is twenty local crews, not one crew and a lot of travel cost. It is booked as one job with one point of contact and one invoice. Touring campaigns that move city to city are set out on experiential sampling roadshow.
How is this different to a product demonstration?
Trial is the objective here: the item goes into the consumer's hand and they decide for themselves. Product demonstration shows the product working, which suits anything that needs explaining before it makes sense. Merchandising is the shelf-side job around both, covering display, stock and compliance. Plenty of briefs use two of the three on the same day.
Which products work best?
Anything where one try settles it. Food and drink is the obvious case, and chilled works fine anywhere with power or insulated storage. Beauty, health, household and pet products all do well. Where a physical sample is not practical, teams hand out trial vouchers, app codes or sachets instead, and unstaffed formats are covered on sampling bins.
