Damiki Fishing Tackle Renews its Partnership with Fishhound.com
OutdoorHub 01.29.14
Product for Promotion Trade Proves to be More Successful for Bait Manufacturer
Damiki, a leading manufacturer of plastics, hardbaits and terminal tackle, has renewed its strategic partnership with Fishhound.com, the industry’s only word-of-mouth marketing platform. Damiki’s decision to extend its advertising contract with Fishhound through 2015 reflects the positive results the manufacturer has experienced through the online angling community’s Product Showcase program over the last 20 months.
According to Fishhound’s Rick Patri, Damiki was one of the first companies to participate in Fishhound’s Product Showcase, a unique “product for promotion” marketing campaign that leverages the viral nature of social media to rapidly create earned media, generate brand and consumer interest, and influence buying decisions.
“Damiki could have given us $10 in cash or $10 worth of product for the same advertising insertion order, but we all know that it costs Damiki significantly less than $10 to manufacture product that sells for that amount retail, Patri noted. So, if you can get the same advertising value but pay for it with product, why wouldn’t you take advantage of the savings? Plus, Fishhound puts that product into the hands of potential customers and lets them experience it firsthand. No one else can do that.”
In the last 20 months, Damiki has showcased over 25 individual products at Fishhound.com and the results have been impressive:
- 1,940,000 brand (not banner) impressions
- 2,100 individual product reviews
- 2,100 product reviews were shared with 491,400 people via Facebook
- 107,000 people found the product reviews to be helpful
- Over 5,000 new Facebook fans
“We’ve been able to deliver this kind of brand exposure for Damiki on a 100 percent ‘product for promotion’ basis, said Patri. When you compare what a company would have to spend to achieve this with a cash insertion order, the decision to go with Fishhound is a no-brainer.”
The continued succcess Damiki has enjoyed through the Product Showcase is representative of the effectiveness of Fishhound’s Yelp-style”promotional platform. Fishhound members participating in the Product Showcase field-testing program get to try out (and keep) various products provided by partner manufacturers. Upon completion of every field test, each member is required to post a review of the product on Fishhound.com, and once that review is approved by Fishhound’s staff, it’s shared with other members of the angling community through Facebook. This unpaid “word-of-mouth” marketing spreads virally through social media channels, reaching a huge number of avid anglers and influencing their opinions and buying decisions.
Daniel Kim, Damiki’s director of sales and marketing, explains why Fishhound’s unique marketing methods are so powerful. “Fishhound’s program not only puts our brand in front of a huge audience of anglers, many of whom may not have heard of Damiki, it also gets our offerings in the hands of avid anglers who then tell all their friends about the success they’ve had with our products.” Kim said. “It’s clear that word-of-mouth marketing like this – fishermen trying our products, liking them, and recommending to their buddies – is much more compelling than traditional paid advertising options,” added Kim. “The results we’ve experienced with Fishhound prove this to be true.”
For more information on Fishhound, visit www.fishhound.com.
