Written by
William Geldart
Content Manager
Founded in 2011, Relish has built a reputation for helping brands connect with consumers through innovative product sampling and customer acquisition campaigns.
We spoke to Relish Managing Directors Natalie Betts and Jonny Hall about how the industry has evolved, why product trialling still matters, and what excites them most about the future.
Key Takeaways: The Power of Product Sampling
- Sampling remains a powerful marketing channel because consumers still want to experience products before making a purchase.
- Data and insights are becoming increasingly important, with first-party feedback helping brands measure campaign effectiveness and optimise future activity.
- Successful customer acquisition requires balance, combining online and offline channels with continuous testing and learning.
- Relish's culture is built on VIBES – being Vibrant, Informed, Brave and Enthusiastic – creating a people-first environment focused on trust and accountability.
- The future is full of opportunity, with AI improving efficiency and the Whistl Group creating new ways to connect fulfilment, inserts and sampling.
The Evolution of Sampling (and Relish)
Q: What have been the biggest changes in the product sampling industry over the last decade?
Natalie: A few things stand out. Firstly, allergens. Increased allergen awareness has really reduced the options available in some channels. Some partners take a very hard stance and won't carry any allergens at all, while others will only restrict airborne allergens.
Jonny: Paperless working. We used to print and bind presentations for every attendee at every meeting. It took ages, cost a fortune and took up loads of space, and sometimes people didn't even turn up!
N: Also, client preferences. There's been a shift towards Teams calls rather than getting together in an office and heading out for lunch afterwards. Whilst it's more efficient, we do miss some of that face-to-face interaction.
Q: What makes sampling such a powerful marketing channel in an increasingly digital world?
J: The human need to try before you buy. It doesn't matter how many times you see a brand or hear its message, sometimes you need to taste it, touch it or smell it before you're willing to commit to a purchase.
N: One of Jonny's favourite anecdotes, which we still use 13 years later, is that it cost millions of pounds for Keira Knightley to be filmed running around the streets of Paris to make Chanel feel aspirational. But you still won't buy the product until you've sprayed it on the back of your wrist and given it a good sniff. That's the power of sampling. It gives consumers confidence and removes barriers to purchase.
Q: Are brands becoming more data-driven in how they approach sampling campaigns?
N: They've always been data-driven, but we're now much better equipped to help them answer the questions they want answered. We've invested heavily in data and insights at Relish, led by Zoe Morgan, who runs our Try. Love. Buy proposition. It's a first-party data and customer feedback platform that helps brands understand who they're reaching and what impact their campaigns are having.
J: Alongside Try.Love.Buy we use audience insight tools such as TGI to help shape campaign recommendations and provide stronger performance reporting. It allows us to build proposals in a much more scientific way and give clients more meaningful data back at the end of a campaign.
Q: What are brands most commonly getting wrong when they approach customer acquisition or product trial campaigns?
N: Trying to do too much at once. Sometimes brands have too many messages, too many objectives or aren't completely clear on what success looks like. If your KPI is customer acquisition or first purchase, have you done the testing and due diligence first, or are you simply trying to run the campaign as cheaply as possible?
J: Another challenge is impatience. Too many brands want instant results without taking the time to test, learn and optimise. We also think some businesses put too much faith in digital alone. We were recently told that digital often delivers great response rates but poorer lifetime value, whilst offline can take longer to optimise but delivers stronger lifetime value.
N: The answer isn't one or the other. It's finding the right blend and continuously testing to improve performance.
The Relish Approach
Q: How would you describe the company culture you've built?
J: VIBES. That's our shorthand for being Vibrant, Informed, Brave and Enthusiastic.
We think our interview process is quite tough, but that's because we want to be confident that every recruit has the capability to succeed. Once they're part of the team, we trust them.
We give people a lot of autonomy, but we also expect them to be engaged and accountable. In return, we provide hands-on support, guidance and mentoring.
N: One thing we do miss is having more face-to-face time with clients. Those road trips around the country were often where the best conversations happened, talking business, strategy and generally putting the world to rights. We're always looking for opportunities to get people together because culture is much easier to build when it exists in three dimensions.
The Future of Marketing
Q: What excites you most about the future of Relish and the wider marketing industry?
J: From an industry perspective, AI is incredibly exciting. It's helping remove a lot of the tedious tasks that slow people down, whether that's meeting notes, writing schedules, optimising marketing messages or even creating artwork and video content. It allows teams to be more agile and spend more time focusing on strategic work.
N: For Relish specifically, being part of the Whistl Group opens some really exciting opportunities. There are huge opportunities to connect sampling, inserts and fulfilment in ways that create value for both brands and consumers. For example, fulfilment clients can potentially generate additional revenue whilst helping brands acquire new customers through targeted sampling activity.
J: We're also exploring ideas such as inventory-sharing initiatives that could become an exclusive benefit for Whistl clients.
N: It's an exciting time for the business because we can offer solutions that wouldn't be possible as a standalone agency.
The Future of Relish
More than a decade after launching Relish, Natalie and Jonny remain passionate advocates for the power of product trial.
While technology, data and consumer expectations continue to evolve, they believe the fundamentals remain unchanged: helping brands create meaningful experiences that drive customer acquisition and loyalty.
With AI creating new efficiencies and the leverage of the wider Whistl Group, the future looks bright for Relish and the brands it supports.
Find out more about how Relish can help your brand turn today’s testers into tomorrow’s buyers.
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