Going Local: Japan’s Salonpas Goes Grassroots in SoCal with Namesake Pain-Relief Product

As a follow up to its successful sampling campaign in Japan, Japanese company Salonpas is taking its pain-relief patches to fairs and festivals in Southern California and enlisting consumers in its “Pain Free Movement.” At each stop, brand ambassadors for the brand target weekend warriors with minor aches and pains.

Stops are in popular day-trip destinations throughout the target area, including Hermosa Beach, Huntington Beach, Irvine, Orange, Palos Verdes, Pasadena, San Bernadino, San Diego and Santa Monica. Street team members are trained massage therapists and pain management experts, who sit with consumers and discuss their pain, and how Salonpas patches can help. If the brand is unable to have a booth at the event, the brand deploys rickshaws full of samples to hand out to the crowds. So far, the program has distributed about 200,000 samples.

“In a category where there’s so much clutter, it’s important to get the product in people’s hands so they can see for themselves how it works,” Tak Shimada, account executive at Salonpas, told Case Study of the Week. “It’s hard to convince them and convert them to users until they use it.” Agency: Tadpole Event Marketing, Venice, CA.