Compressed, Imprinted T-shirts Make for Direct Mail Success for Crop Protection Provider Gowan Company

Challenge: To identify an easy-to-mail promotional product with a high “wow” factor and the ability to drive results

If you’re a hops grower, then controlling pests—like aphids and mites—is a high priority. Gowan Company, a family-owned, Yuma Arizona-based provider of crop protection solutions for specialty crops—like hops—has earned a reputation in niche agriculture markets as the “Go To Company” for crop protection. The company develops, manufactures and markets various crop protection products including insecticides, miticides, fungicides and herbicides. Especially for hops growers is a Gowan brand called Savey, a product said to provide outstanding, long-lasting control of mite populations by interrupting the mite lifecycle.

The Gowan team contacted ePromos with an idea for a direct mail campaign designed to get the word out about Savey to a highly targeted, select group of hops farmers in the Pacific Northwest. Promotions Specialist Jason Wallace tapped his knowledge of promotional products and direct mail, presenting the Gowan team with various promotional ideas that might prove effective in their campaign. Top of mind in the selection process was the promotional direct-mail grand slam: the product’s mail-ability, wow-ability, high impact-ability—and the ability to drive results.

Solution: High quality, compressed T-shirts shrink-wrapped and packaged to avoid junk mail piles

Their choice: a high quality, 100-percent cotton, brand-name T-shirt, imprinted with Gowan’s logo and message that Savey provides 60 days of control for “a smooth, mite-free ride.” But that’s not all. The T-shirt was then compressed under 50,000 pounds of pressure into a unique, interstate-shaped sign compressed T-shirt and shrink-wrapped with a full-color insert card with the complete Savey sales message. The Gowan team went one further still, topping the promotion with full-color mailers designed to make the box a stand-out, must-open piece certain to bypass junk mail piles.

Result: Sales teams request similar shirts for their products; plans underway to roll out campaign in other markets

The Gowan team loved the shirts. But even more importantly, they reported campaign success. Crop consultants and advisors called in to request additional shirts to help promote Savey, while members of various Gowan sales teams requested similar shirts to promote their products. But even these are not the most important measures of success in our eyes—we declare promotional success because Gowan plans to roll out the T-shirt campaign in several other highly targeted markets very soon.

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Gowan Compressed T-shirt Direct Mail (PDF Version)