How Does a Trial Group Event Work?
Last Updated: 2026-08-28
1. What is a Trial Group Event?
A trial group event is where supporters who get to try your reward early, during the Launching Soon (Pre-Launch) period, leave reviews in the Community or help drive participation in your project. Anyone can run a trial group event — you don't need a large number of products or a large number of participants. If you're able to offer even a small group the chance to try your reward ahead of launch, it's worth doing.
2. Preparing and Running Your Trial Group
1) Preparing the trial group
- Run your trial group during the Launching Soon period.
- So that reviews can start appearing in your Community as soon as your project goes live, you'll want to complete recruitment, selection, and shipping of trial products before your project opens to the public.
- Prepare a sample of your productfor supporters to try in advance.
- The scale and format of your trial group should match the nature of your reward.
- A small group works perfectly well — you don't need to distribute large volumes of samples or recruit a large number of participants.
- Reviews shouldn't be submitted as comments on a News Update. Structure your trial group so that participants post their reviews in the Community tab instead.
2) Announcing the trial group through a News Update
Publish your trial group recruitment as a News Update right after your Launching Soon page goes live.- It's common practice to require supporters to set up a notification as one of the application conditions.
- Consider designing a review incentive event to encourage thoughtful, detailed trial reviews.
When writing the News Update for trial group recruitment, be sure to include:
- The recruitment period
- The announcement date for selected participants (if you're selecting by lottery or review)
- An approximate date for when trial rewards will ship
- What the trial reward includes
- The obligations expected of trial participants
3) Preparing a trial group application form
You'll need to prepare your own application survey.- Clearly request the information you'll need to run the trial group (name, phone number, shipping address, etc.).
- Make sure supporters don't post personal information anywhere public, like in comments.
- Confirm consent for personal data use and marketing communications upfront (noting that data may be used for future events).
- For any reward requiring age verification, be sure to add a date of birth field to both the News Update and the application form so you can confirm each supporter's age.
When building your application form, keep these points in mind:
- Confirm that all the information needed to ship the trial reward is included in the form.
- Request consent for the collection and use of personal information. A supporter's name, phone number, and address used to ship a trial reward all count as personal data — collecting this without consent can constitute improper use of personal information.
- Pay close attention to your privacy settingswhen building the form, since exposed personal data can lead to legal penalties under relevant law.
- If building the form in Google Forms: turn response viewing off when accepting submissions.
- If building the form in Naver Forms: set response visibility to "Private."
| Sample application form fields |
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3. Announcing Trial Group Selections
When announcing who's been selected, be careful not to expose personal information like names, phone numbers, or addresses.
If you've planned a review incentive event, be sure to let selected participants know how to submit their reviews for it.
Example projects:
- "It's not skin, it's porcelain!" Han Go-eun Mask Pack (Beauty) — Trial Group Recruitment / Trial Group Selection Announcement
- Fully Quench Your Skin's Thirst with Kombucha! (Beauty) — Trial Group Recruitment / Trial Group Selection Announcement
4. Applying for Wadiz Trial Group Marketing Benefits
Wadiz runs a curated collection featuring projects that host trial group events. Applying for the Trial Group Event Marketing Benefit gets your project featured in Wadiz's curated collection page, along with a range of additional marketing benefits.
How to apply for the marketing benefit
- Review the details and apply through the Trial Group Event Application Form.
- You'll receive an email within 1 business day letting you know whether your project has been featured in the collection.
- Collection exposure runs from the day after you apply until the day before your main Funding round opens.
- Only projects meeting the stated application conditions can be featured in the collection; projects that don't meet the conditions may not be able to proceed.
- Once you've applied, your project will be featured for the applicable period regardless of whether you've published a News Update for your trial group event.
5. FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions)
Q. How do I decide how many people to recruit for my trial group?
A. There's no fixed number set by Wadiz — it's recommended that you start small, scaling your trial group to your budget and your reward's unit cost.
Q. Can global makers also receive trial group marketing benefits?
A. Yes — global makers can run trial groups and access the same marketing benefits as Korean makers.
- A trial group is a maker-run event built on Wadiz's existing features (News Updates, Community), so it's available regardless of whether you're a Korean or a global maker.
- For a global project, the same approach applies: announce trial group recruitment as a News Update during your Launching Soon period, then direct participants to leave reviews in the Community.
- If your trial rewards need to ship internationally, just be sure to clearly state the shipping conditions — including logistics costs and customs duties — in your trial group announcement.
Just Start on Wadiz.
Your step-by-step guide from preparation to funding success—available now at the Wadiz Maker Center.