Our Blog

Expert views and the latest scoops, from the world of customer experience.

Fizz Academy, one year on

Fizz Academy, one year on

31st July 2019
Fizz Academy is a year old! And while your baby’s first birthday is always a cause for celebration, in business it’s the time to look back, reflect and review. Why did we put the programme into play in the first...
What is the long-term impact of in-store demos

What is the long-term impact of product sampling and demos?

27th June 2019
In-store marketing activities are like Transformers: there’s more to them than meets the eye. Sampling and demo activity is effective at changing customer buying behaviour in the moment. We know people are 25-30% more likely to pick up and purchase...

5 big mistakes brands make with in-store sampling

11th June 2019
It’s no secret that in-store sampling is a great way to get your product in front of customers. In fact, our brand ambassadors have almost 20 million in-store interactions with Costco members per year. But sampling isn’t as simple as...
WDS Awards

Introducing this year’s WDS Awards winners

20th May 2019
In any business, great people should be celebrated and rewarded. That’s why, every year, we host our annual WDS Achievement Awards: an event that brings together our UK and Iceland teams to praise and recognise those who have gone above...
Who's who in WDS

Who’s who in the WDS team?

20th May 2019
To make your Costco demo and sampling experience truly effective, you’ll be working closely with the WDS team. They’re brilliant – we would say that, of course, but over thirty years we’ve built up quite the collection of talented, experienced...
Conversational selling

The fine art of conversational selling

2nd May 2019
In-store experiences have come a long way. Brands now throw everything they have at shoppers, from shop floor DJs to augmented reality POS stalls. But regardless of new trends and technologies, the heart of any demo experience will always be...
8 Demo stand tips

8 dynamic demo stand design tips for vendors

25th April 2019
When a brand like Coca-Cola wants to advertise, they don’t leave a can of soda on a street and hope someone sees it – they hire huge billboards or on-street screens to grab people’s attention. A demo stand is essentially...
Sampling success

10 tiny touches that make a big difference to sampling success

28th March 2019
In-store sampling is a practice that has been utilised by brands for generations as a marketing channel that boasts a direct connection with the consumer. What more marketers need to grasp, however, is that the demos that lead to the...
Amazon moves into sampling

Amazon moves into the sampling sector

21st March 2019
Amazon’s entrance into the sampling sector has been met with no small amount of controversy from the world of customer experience. Many are concerned that the company risks alienating users at a time when data privacy is of paramount importance....
Demonstration success

Demonstration success: what to measure, and how to present it

21st February 2019
If you’re not keeping score, how do you know if you’re winning? Demonstrations aren’t a competition, of course, but performance still matters. You still need to know exactly how your efforts are paying off in real terms. What good are...

Dispatches from the front line: Meeting our brand ambassadors

15th January 2019
Great in-store experiences are all about people. No other marketing tactic puts brands in front of the consumer in such a direct way. And without great front line staff who can engage, amuse, entertain and inspire, an in-store campaign would...
Christmas

The 10 best Christmas experiential marketing campaigns

28th November 2018
Experiential marketing and Christmas go together like mistletoe and wine. With all the merriment and excitement – not to mention the shopping – it’s the perfect time for brands to get creative with how they engage and delight customers. Just...