Sampling for household and cleaning
Cleaning products are bought on habit and switched on proof. Somebody else's benchtop is the proof.
The category where the demonstration is the ad
Household and cleaning is a habit category. Most shoppers buy the same thing for years, not because they love it but because switching costs them a Tuesday evening if it goes wrong. Breaking that habit takes evidence that the new thing works on the kind of mess they actually have, which is not the pristine tile in a brand ad.
It is also the category where customer content is most naturally interesting, because the format has a built-in payoff. Something is dirty, then it is not. Nobody has to be persuaded to watch.
theSalt runs it through purchase. Customers buy the product at their own supermarket, use it on their own kitchen, laundry or bathroom over the window the brief sets, and post what happened. Performance claims in the content are checked before anything is licensed or amplified.
Tested on real mess.
A cleaning product cannot be judged in a moment, so the brief runs across a normal week.
Brief
The product, the job it has to do, and the outcome you need proven.
Match
An opt-in survey filters for households that already buy in the category.
Buy
They pick it up in their own shop, and proof of purchase is matched to the customer.
Use and post
Across a real week, on real mess, then posted with the advertising label attached.
Check and boost
Performance claims are checked, then the strongest content earns paid support.
Where the category is bought.
Grocery dominates, but the hardware and value channels matter more here than in most FMCG categories.
New World, PAK'nSAVE, Four Square
The Foodstuffs banners, where the weekly shop happens
Woolworths NZ
Plus franchised FreshChoice and SuperValue
The Warehouse
Value and bulk formats
Mitre 10, Bunnings
Outdoor cleaning, garage and heavy-duty
Pharmacy
Specialist and sensitive-skin formulations
Brand direct
Subscription and refill formats
Every performance claim has to be held up.
Cleaning is a claims category, and a customer saying a product removed something is a representation the brand has paid for. Section 12A of the Fair Trading Act prohibits unsubstantiated representations, which means claims made without reasonable grounds at the time they were made, even if they later turn out to be true.
In practice that means the brief tells customers what the product is approved to do, and moderation catches anything that goes past it.
- Claims stay inside the label. If the pack does not claim it, the content does not claim it.
- Comparisons are handled carefully. A customer comparing your product to a named competitor is a comparative advertising claim, with all that follows.
- Records are kept. The original content, the proof of purchase, the incentive record and the substantiation are held for every asset.
- The advertising label applies. Ad, Advert or Advertisement at first interaction on every paid post.
Household, counted.
Labelled by the market the campaign ran in.
Unilever Sunlight
A formula change had triggered doubt in the category. Real households trialled the product at their own sink and said honestly what they found.
- 9x return on customer reach
- 3x return on performance media
- 226% of the planned content volume delivered
Kiwicare Weed Weapon
An outdoor treatment rather than an indoor cleaner, but the same mechanism, measured against the brand's own paid advertising.
- 2.78% click-through on customer content, against 1.07% on brand paid ads
- 4,937 paid clicks at NZ$0.20 each
Source: Kiwicare Campaign Report, January 2026.
What household brands ask us.
Can customers compare our product with the one they used before?
They can describe their own experience of switching. A direct comparative claim about a named competitor is a different thing and needs substantiation held by the brand before it is made.
What if the product does not work as well on their mess?
Then the report says so. That is a genuinely useful finding, and it is cheaper to learn it from twenty households than from a national relaunch.
Does this suit a repeat-purchase product?
Particularly well. The category is bought on habit, and the campaign is designed to interrupt a habit rather than to announce a launch.
How long is a household trial?
Usually a week or more, because a cleaning product used once tells you nothing you could not have guessed.