Sircle Advertising today announced the coming launch of a new beauty sampling website, SircleSamples.com. The SIRCLE model brings sampling into the digital era for brands by creating a fully connected consumer engagement circle of customer targeting, sample experiences, product reviews, and retail purchasing.

“We are very different from subscription sample boxes,” says Sircle Advertising founder and CEO, Cindy Engstrom. “With our program, when a brand’s sample arrives in the mail it is not competing with other products in a box or the logo of the fulfillment company – it’s all about the brand, the product experience, and the insightful data from the interaction.”

The patent-pending SIRCLE model works by openly rewarding consumers with virtual currency for sharing information and social content. The user then trades her virtual currency for product samples of her choice. Brand partners have access to a targeted campaign creation tool where they control which demographic profiles will be eligible to order their product sample, and the brand fulfills orders directly to the consumer for a powerful engagement moment. SIRCLE tracks product reviews associated with each individual sample and follows up with each sample recipient to drive retail purchasing directly from the brand.

Engstrom, a veteran of consumer technology marketing, invested heavily in proving the SIRCLE model on the existing social community of IsThatOdd.com. At just over one year of operation, IsThatOdd.com boasts a high monthly sample engagement and strong conversion rate to making the full size retail product purchase from participating brands.

“We have proven that using virtual currency to obtain a product sample successfully leads consumers to use their real money for retail purchases and builds a natural affinity for the brand,” says Engstrom. “In our own studies over 50% of sample recipients surveyed went on to purchase a full size version of the sample they had tried.”

Brand partners featured on the test site IsThatOdd.com report high satisfaction with the model. “Social Media interaction has more than doubled since we ran our first campaign,” reported Sircle partner Bring It Up.

“Sircle Advertising has provided us with a unique platform for consumer engagement to help build brand awareness and increase sales. Getting product samples into 'pre-primed' consumers gives us an opportunity to shorten the selling cycle,” said Robin Carmichael, Vice President and Chief Operating Officer at Helix Biomedix.

With the IsThatOdd.com proof points, Engstrom then focused on creating a website dedicated to the beauty needs and interests of individual members. On SircleSamples.com, members complete a profile to reflect their personal beauty needs, budget, and style. Additionally, members take beauty and style surveys, connect with friends, share purchase data, and complete product reviews to further enrich their profile and earn virtual currency. Brand partners target distribution of their samples based on user profiles and receive the customer information, product review, and a retail purchase incentive prompt for each sample recipient. SircleSamples.com is scheduled to publicly launch May 14, 2012.

With brand partners like France Luxe, Helix Biomedix, and Bring It Up among the dozen plus brands already aboard, Sircle Advertising is regularly accepting inquiries from brands interested in being featured on SircleSamples.com. For additional information please contact info@sircleadvertising.com.

About Sircle Advertising

Founded in April 2009, Sircle Advertising’s mission is to modernize product sampling for the digital era. Sircle Advertising (formerly Is That Odd, Inc.) works with health and beauty brands to help them increase targeted marketing efforts while driving down customer acquisition costs. Sircle Advertising is a privately held company and is headquartered in Kirkland, Washington. For more information please visit www.SircleAdvertising.com and see its solution in action at www.SircleSamples.com and www.IsThatOdd.com.