One audience, chosen on purpose
Tactical Sampling Where The Buyer Actually Is
Tactical sampling starts with the person, not the place. You describe who the product is for, and the locations and timings are worked backwards from that: the gym doors at six, the office district at one, the festival gates on a Friday afternoon.
It is the opposite of covering ground. A broad campaign hands out to whoever passes; a tactical one accepts a smaller number of hands in exchange for most of them belonging to the right person. That trade is the whole point, and it is why volume is the wrong measure of it.
Bookings are made per team, per location, per day. You tell us the audience, the dates and the hours, and we will tell you where and when they are reachable before anything is quoted.
An itemised quote, usually within hours, with day rates, hours and on-costs listed for every location. No hidden fees, one invoice.
Assigned once the quote is signed off, with a project manager on the booking and 24/7 support while it runs.
Our operations team pick people on skills, experience and location, and on a tactical brief that includes picking people the audience will actually engage with.
Your briefing form becomes a tailored document covering the product USPs, the audience and the key messages, written around who you are trying to reach.
Right to work and ID verified. Employer and Public Liability cover on every campaign. DBS, food hygiene and risk assessments available on request.
We are the employer. PAYE, tax, National Insurance and HR are all handled in house.
Shift reminders, geo-tagged check-ins and live attendance monitoring, which matters when the window is ninety minutes long.
Reporting with attendance confirmation, on-site photos and feedback, quoted alongside the staffing as an add-on.
The team worked fast and adapted to our ever changing brief brilliantly, even at 23:30 the night before. On the day the activation ran brilliantly. The whole team brought bundles of energy and were so engaging.
Verified client review
What we supply
Five Ways To Reach One Audience
A tactical brief is solved by picking the moment, not the place. These are the five we use most, and the kind of audience each one catches.
Audience Intercept Teams
The core format. A small team placed at the point a defined audience passes, for the window in which they pass it, and nowhere else.
- Position and timing chosen from the audience profile
- Short, precise windows rather than full trading days
- Delivering the message set out in your briefing document
Suits: challenger brands, subscription services, apps, new listings
Gym And Studio Door Crews
Health, fitness and recovery brands get a clean audience at a gym or studio entrance, and a captive one either side of a class.
- Working the doors around class times rather than all day
- Agreed with the operator, since the doorway is usually theirs
- Chilled kit where the product needs it
Suits: protein, supplements, hydration, sportswear, wellness
Nightlife And Venue Teams
Late windows, queue-side positions and inside bars and clubs where the operator agrees. A narrow audience, reachable only for a few hours a week.
- Working queues, smoking areas and venue entrances
- Staff briefed and presented for a late-night crowd
- Alcohol licensing available on request where it is needed
Suits: spirits, RTDs, energy drinks, entertainment
Competitor Adjacent Crews
Placed near where the audience already buys the category, so the comparison happens on the spot rather than weeks later. Position and permission need care, and we will tell you where the line is.
- Working public space near a known category destination
- Never on private land without the landowner’s agreement
- Briefed to talk about your product, not anyone else’s
Suits: direct switchers, price-led propositions, category challengers
Tactical Campaign Leads
Where a brief covers several audiences, cities or windows, an event manager or campaign lead holds the plan and is your single point of contact.
- Coordinating teams working different windows on the same day
- Liaising with operators, venues and landowners in advance
- Absorbing the changes so you are not fielding them
Before you book
Precision Needs Permission Too
The better the position, the more likely somebody owns it. A gym doorway belongs to the operator, a station concourse to the rail company, a shopping street to the council. A tactical plan that ignores that is a plan that gets moved on.
Where a permission is needed we arrange it. There are costs attached and they differ from council to council, so they are quoted alongside the staffing rather than buried in it.
Product sampling as a whole is set out on the main service page. Where the audience is simply everyone on a busy pavement, that is high street sampling rather than a tactical brief, and where the answer is teams covering ground on foot it is roaming sampling. Tactical sampling is sometimes confused with guerrilla marketing, which is a different discipline again: that is about the idea and the surprise, this is about the audience and the timing.
Recent work
Campaigns Aimed At One Audience
Four campaigns where the location was chosen from the brief.
500,000
Edinburgh Fringe Audience
A festival crowd targeted across the run rather than a city worked at random.
3 settings
Commuters, Gyms And Offices
One audience chased through three different settings on consecutive days.
Festival run
All Points East And Beyond
A drinks brand placed only at the events its buyer already attends.
2 days
The Morning Commute Only
100,000 samples placed in one audience’s hands inside two rush hours.
Get a quote
Tell Us Who You Need To Reach
Send us the audience, the dates, the hours and how many people you want out. We will come back with the locations we would use and a fully itemised quote, usually within hours.
