Print
Solutions July 2005
Case
Study
Promoting
a Winning Campaign
In
the fall of 2004, Evan Bayh’s
name seemed to be everywhere in
Indiana—planted in thousands
of front yards, stuck to hundreds
of car bumpers and pinned to sweaters.
U.S. Sen. Bayh, D-Ind., who was
running for re-election in 2004,
quickly became a household name
thanks to promotional products
such as yard and rally signs,
bumper stickers and pins. Bayh
won the election, and Jeffersonville,
Ind.-based distributorship Voluforms
celebrated another successful
promotional products sale.
Bill
Stewart, Voluforms’ vice
president of sales, is used to
selling promotional products to
Democratic candidates. He served
as chairman of the Clark County
(Ind.) Democratic Party’s
Central Committee for 12 years,
and has been a member for 22 years.
Word traveled fast among Indiana’s
Democratic candidates that Stewart
was in the printing business.
Stewart began providing promotional
products to candidates at the
local, state and national levels
before every election. “Being
the party chairman helped a whole
lot,” Stewart says.
Bayh
isn’t a new client. During
his successful campaign for a
Senate seat in 1998, Voluforms
provided him with promotional
products. When Bayh ran for re-election
in 2004, his office contacted
Stewart. Voluforms quickly began
working on several projects, including
pins, labels and 16 x 26-inch
yard signs. In February 2004,
Stewart ordered 1,000 rally signs
from manufacturer Gill Studios
Inc., Shawnee Mission, Kan., for
Bayh’s campaign. The red-and-blue,
screenprinted, 11 x 17-inch signs
were poly-coated and printed on
18-pt. white card stock. Gill
Studios used UV-cured ink to reduce
fading. The signs were printed
head-to-head and scored so they
could be folded over easily. Once
folded, the two signs were glued
together, creating one double-sided
sign. Gill Studios left a 2-inch
pocket at the bottom of each sign
to leave room for a stick, when
needed. The rally signs were such
a success that Voluforms provided
1,000 more in May 2004.
Promotional
products account for 30 percent
of Voluforms’ sales. In
addition, the company offers full-service
printing, document imaging, forms
management, on-demand printing
and medical printing to a variety
of customers, including many bankers.
Although
Stewart keeps busy offering a
variety of services to Voluforms’
wide-ranging clients, he still
keeps an eye on his fellow Democratic
Hoosiers in office. Many people
consider Bayh to be a possible
presidential candidate in 2008.
If that happens, Stewart hopes
his distributorship’s promotional
products will be seen nationwide.
—Kara
Gebhart Uhl
1.
Pay attention to detail. Many
promotional products Voluforms
supplied to Sen. Evan Bayh, D-Ind.,
included an exclamation point
in the form of a star, which had
to line up with the exclamation
point’s vertical line. Stewart
says when he first provided signs
for Bayh in 1998, he had to revise
several times until placement
of the star was correct. “About
all people who buy signs are pretty
picky,” Stewart says. “They
want what they’re paying
for.”
2.
Outdoor promotional products such
as yard signs must be able to
withstand weather such as sun,
wind, rain and snow.
Thick, poly-coated card stock
adds durability, and UV-cured
ink reduces fading. Stewart says
he has driven on Indiana streets
and seen yard signs blown over
or ink that has faded. Yard signs
that can’t communicate a
message because of poor quality
are ineffective.
3.
“You wouldn’t believe
what people produce,” Stewart
says when talking about promotional
products.
Pay attention to manufacturers’
new products. Attend trade shows
and gather samples. Search online.
Creative and unusual promotional
products are appealing to clients
because they differentiate companies
from their competitors.
