Sweet Tweets Samples Treats

Topps, the candy company behind decades of baseball cards and Bazooka bubble gum, has a new product: Sweet Tweets. Each fruit-flavored candy is attached to a small note card. Have something to say to your sweetie? Each message card has an emoticon and space for a few words (not unlike a "tweet," as it happens--a fun marketing decision).

The new candy was launched via a Facebook sampling campaign called Mail a Tweet to Your Sweet. Any FB user who clicked to "like" Sweet Tweets could add a few words and have a sample sent to a relative or friend. In just 10 hours, Sweet Tweets was "liked" 12,600 times. The company mailed 20,000 units, a unique way to sample the new product and encourage trial and adoption. 

If you click to the home page of the Sweet Tweets, you'll see dozens of smiling kids and the product's tag line, "Send a Smile." (Surprisingly, I didn't see Sweet Tweets anywhere on Twitter.) Now the question is: Will the samples pay off in repeat sales and profits?