Archrival Launches

BETA PREVIEW 

www.FBsamples.com

June 12 -  Veteran beauty consultant Excelsior Beauty, and youth marketing expert Archrival have seized an opportunity in social media to create Free Beauty Samples (www.FBsamples.com) to sample and market new beauty brands and products through Facebook.  The business, a joint venture between beauty consulting firm Excelsior Beauty, Paris, and social media marketer Archrival, Lincoln, Neb., which built and manages Red Bull’s page among others, is now in beta.

Omaha-based Free Beauty Samples shares customer feedback with clients, and gauges the popularity of new products based on recommendations. Sales that originate on Facebook and completed online may be traced, or a company can send out an 800 number with its samples.

“The most effective sales drivers for beauty brands is sampling. Traditionally, there are three methods of putting samples into the hands of consumers – sampling in department stores, direct mail, or publication inserts,” said Charles Hull, co-founder and chief creative officer, Archrival. “Each methods has its’ drawbacks and in an increasingly ROI-driven industry, traditional methods have become outdated.”

In late 2008, Archrival and client, beauty consultant Nick Hudson, decided to develop a new business built on Facebook’s Platform to reinvent the way beauty companies sample, turning it into a sharply focused strategy that delivered measurable results.

Free Beauty Samples utilizes Facebook’s social ads system and a carefully culled set of keywords. FBS targets recruitment ads towards women ages 18+ with an interest in beauty. Members are promised free beauty samples from leading and interesting brands, sent to them each month.

Building a Membership Base

Through social ads and word-of-mouth, Free Beauty Samples is building a membership base of 50,000-plus women who have shared their gender, age, location, and skin type, in exchange for free beauty samples from major brands, coupons, and special offers.

During Free Beauty Sample’s registration process, members are asked four questions about their skin type. The signup process is simple since the Facebook API allows Free Beauty Samples to automatically populate much of the information.

FBS members can simply receive their monthly mailing of Free Beauty Samples. They can also rate, comment, review and share the product with friends, and see what their friends said about the products.  And, they can receive beauty news and updates from Free Beauty Sample’s carefully selected panel of independent beauty experts who contribute to the Free Beauty Samples blog and Facebook.Fan page.

Free Beauty Samples offers partners a turnkey sampling service that tells them exactly who their products will be sampled by, by age, skin type, location, and gender. In addition, Free Beauty Samples provides every brand with consumer feedback.

“A traditional website would have required Free Beauty Samples to spend considerable resources in advertising dollars and development time to get people to sign up for the service,” said Archrival’s Hull.  “By utilizing the free Facebook platform API, we built a Facebook application that provides the core functions of Free Beauty Samples, and leverages the social integration points provided by Facebook to allow the Application to spread virally among the Facebook community.”

Now in Beta

Currently, Free Beauty Samples is in startup phase and is testing the beta launch of the service. The service attracted 500 members within two days of launch with very little promotion. We capped membership at 500 to keep our first mailings manageable while testing the logistics involved with fulfillment.

Free Beauty Samples is currently finalizing partnerships with leading beauty brands and retailers. Membership should be open to 50,000 subscribers by summer.