Yesterday, teams of ‘Bean Ambassadors,’ plus a Volkswagen Beetle covered in glued-on Jelly Belly candies, began storming a variety of events, retail locations and high-traffic street spots in Vancouver. The lively sampling campaign on behalf of Jelly Belly’s Canadian distributor, Vancouver-based Concord National, will continue for six weeks.
Equipped with its own ‘Jelly Belly Bean Machine’ (the VW), each team is blindfolding consenting consumers, feeding them 10 flavours of jelly beans and challenging them to Name That Bean. The first day of the guerilla campaign ‘was overwhelmingly positive,’ Alexa Freudigmann, client director for PR agency Inventaworld, tells MiC. ‘We distributed 7,200 samples. Workers in downtown Vancouver were lured down from office towers, and bus drivers even invited the teams on board so riders could take the test.
‘Most consumers (engaged yesterday) remembered the Jelly Belly name and brand, but hadn’t actually tried them in awhile and were thrilled to get a sample,’ she adds. ‘This brand is all about fun and flavour, and that message is being delivered with every component of the playful Jelly Belly Team campaign.’
