Food and drink sampling
Dig In puts your food, snack or drink into the hands of UK students in their halls, in the week they do their first weekly shop. Each September our Welcome Bag reaches 500,000 students, 3 in 4 freshers, across 1,000+ halls. Every campaign can carry a survey, so you see who liked it and who says they will buy it. Coca-Cola’s 2026 sampling scored 89.9% likely to buy for Original and Zero (n=3,019).
First shop sorted.
Trusted by more than 150 brands, including
The proof.
2,395,000
Coca-Cola products into students’ hands in 2026, across Freshers, Refreshers and Live Activations
95.2%
likely to buy Reese’s after the Freshers 2025 sample (n=2,085)
likely to buy Coca-Cola Original and Zero (2026, n=3,019)
Why students and food.
Students arriving at university are buying their own groceries for the first time. The brands in their cupboard by the end of Freshers are the ones they reach for at the supermarket. Trying beats being told: a sample in their hands does what an advert cannot, and the survey tells you whether it worked. Our surveys also tell you what students want. In Coca-Cola’s 2026 surveys, 51.0% of students preferred zero or reduced sugar (n=3,393), and 60.0% had never heard of Sprite Chill before it reached them.
More results, since 2018.
96.9%
likely to buy HI-CHEW (Freshers 2024, n=2,814)
96%
intend to buy Yorkshire Tea again (Freshers 2021, n=2,025)
95.3%
likely to buy Milliways (Refreshers 2026, n=1,117)
93.9%
likely to buy NOMO, and 98.1% would recommend it (Freshers 2025, n=1,518)
91.6%
likely to buy Blue Dragon, with taste rated 9.2 out of 10 (Freshers 2026, n=794)
89.3%
likely to buy Costa Coffee, and 96.7% would recommend it (Freshers 2025, n=2,792)
87.0%
likely to buy Pot Noodle, and 96.5% would recommend it (Freshers 2026, n=1,675)
30,300
Nando’s restaurant vouchers redeemed from the welcome box (Freshers 2018)
33%
of students who redeemed a Lidl voucher were new to Lidl (Freshers 2023)
Food and drink brands we’ve worked with.
Food and cooking
Baxters, Batchelors, Blue Dragon, Boka Foods, Chicago Town, Colman’s, Filippo Berio, Flava It, FrieslandCampina, Hellmann’s, Kepak, Liquid I.V., Marmite, Mighty Oats, Müller, Nescafé, Olio, Pot Noodle, Prep Kitchen, SimplyCook, SMASH, Soreen, Super Noodles, Tabasco, The Independent Oats Company, Violife, Whitworths
Snacks and confectionery
Bazooka Candy Brands, Boundless, Doritos, Ferrero, Hershey’s and Reese’s, HI-CHEW, Kinder, Lorenz, Maoam, Mentos, Milliways, NOMO, Pipers, Popworks, Proper, The Curators, Walkers, Wrigley’s Extra
Soft drinks, coffee and energy
Blue Skies, Boost, Britvic, CANS, Carabao, Coca-Cola, Cocio, Costa Coffee, Drink Me Chai, Highland Spring, Jimmy’s, Lavazza, Nespresso, Pepsi Max, Purdey’s, Red Bull, Rockstar, Sparkling Ice, Sprite, Starbucks, Ting, Unrooted Drinks, Vita Coco, Xyber, Yorkshire Tea
Restaurants, delivery and grocery
chaiiwala, Co-op, Deliveroo, Domino’s, GDK, Gopuff, Greggs, itsu, Lidl, Nando’s, Popeyes, Yum! Brands
How it works.
1
Tell us the product, the audience and what you want to learn. We send dates and price bands.
2
Book your slot in Freshers (September) or January Refreshers (300,000 bags for January).
3
Send stock and artwork to our warehouse. One sample, voucher or leaflet goes in each bag.
4
Bags reach students in their halls as they move in or come back after Christmas.
5
You get a delivery report and survey results: taste, likely to buy and would recommend.