“We help people to try products and to circulate word of mouth” …. One can’t be more clear! Indeed, BzzAgent is a website that offers brands to test their new products by putting them in real situations.

Based on a community of 500 000 volunteers consumers (called “Agents”), the site offers to send samples, or any other form to test a product. In return, the site asks its agents to tell them if they like the product. The generated word of mouth must be reported by the agent directly on the site.

So if you live in Omaha, Portland or in Nebraska, the site certainly will contact you to offer you to taste the new family home delivery menu  of Taco Bell, using a coupon offering 4 portions. Once the test done, you must talk about this around you and visit the site to prepare a report on the reaction of your friends to this information.

The more you bring, it earns you more!

Everybody wins. The brand has the possibility to test its products before launching it, and if necessary, make changes before it is placed on shelves. The Agent, however, if the product works, will be entitled to act as early adopter in his community. It is the glory! Moreover, the information sent by a relative, will be more likely to reach the receiver, since advice are given by a person, regarded as impartial.

For now, the agents are only present in North America, but we can bet that it will not take long for the  to be spread among us.

However, a doubt persists. Let’s talk about the actual size of the community of agents. By studying their statistics, it appears that only 4996 agents actively participate, only women, that is to say 1% of the community announced. So facts or fantasy?

BzzAgent is not the only one to offer this type of device and some players are more sectoralized like BuzzParadise, which mainly target bloggers. We note also that this marketing technique is not restricted to specialized platforms. In fact, many brands offer directly to their consumers to test their products (Vania, Up & Go, Garnier …), the approach here is closer to direct marketing, as offers are addressed directly to potential customers. Finally, there are many platforms that offer to test products or services for remuneration as Tolun or Testerdesproduits. A real business itself .