Shopper promotions and insights platform Sampler is buying AI content platform AdMass.

The deal will enable Sampler to integrate the AdMass’ user-generated content collection and measurement capabilities directly into its brand platform and consumer experience. Through this strategic acquisition, Sampler aims to help clients better leverage brand advocates and the social reach of its community of nano-influencers.

As part of the transaction, AdMass’ two co-Founders, Yuri Kaplan and Daniel Lasek, will also join Sampler’s team.

Marie Chevrier Schwartz, founder and CEO of Sampler, tells strategy it began working with AdMass about a year ago on a few commercial opportunities, testing how the tech comes together to run campaigns for clients like Unilever and seafood brand Scout Canning, the results of which she describes as “really powerful.”

Sampler first launched focused on driving data-driven product experiences for CPG brands. Its first product in market was a digital sampling platform, which helps with consumer discovery by delivering freebies in a box like the one pictured, above, to people’s home.

“We see a large percentage of our audience really excited about seeing the box,” Chevrier Schwartz says. With AdMass, it added a page on its platform where it encourages photos, and its tech verifies the post and confirms it is a Sampler box. This helps the company understand what’s in the box and helps it arrange the content in a useful way to share it back to brands.

“What’s really neat is that the team developed some algorithms that actually help us to understand the promotional value of the user, what their influence is on social, how people are interacting with posts they are making,” Chevrier Schwartz says.

The integration will also provide brands with more data, allowing them to target a more precise audience and gain valuable insights that will enhance the effectiveness of their overall marketing strategies.

“To date, you probably know us as the company that digitized product sampling, but we’re also a shopper data company on track to hit one billion first-party data points by 2024,” Chevrier Schwartz says.

Sampler boasts a network of over four million consumers with a potential social reach of 2.5 billion. Chevrier Schwartz says adds that influencer marketing, as it’s traditionally done, can be really expensive, with the average cost of a post sitting at $1,170, citing an IZEA 2022 State of Influencer Earnings study.

According to Chevrier Schwartz, the company is seeing a lot of compelling activity in the food category, with people posting lots of Sampler product-related recipes. Also, in the beauty category, recipients like to talk about looks and what is in their makeup bag online.

The AdMass purchase marks Sampler’s second acquisition in just four months, following digital beauty sampling agency Abeo this spring. The back-to-back acquisitions are part of the company’s strategic efforts to expand its product offering and accelerate growth.