Working with a distributor sales network presents very unique challenges for a company like Bemis Clysar, one of the world's leading producers of shrink packaging film.

"In addition to always having to promote its brand and products to end users, a company like Clysar must continuously sell itself to it's own sales people," said Melinda Caughill, Vice President of Marketing at the Milwaukee advertising agency, Third Person, Inc. "These distributors sell many different product lines each and every day. Thus, Clysar has to stay top of mind and on top of the sales priority list in order to maximize sales to end users.  This takes on-going marketing, advertising and sales efforts above any promotions to end users."

"... Clysar must continuously sell itself to it's own sales people. That takes on-going marketing, advertising and sales efforts above and beyond any promotions to end users ..."

When Bemis Clysar began searching for a new advertising and marketing partner, one of their key criteria was that the company have experience working with clients utilizing distributor sales networks. 

"Helping our clients understand and sell to several different audiences is something that we've always excelled at," said Brett Hagland, Lead Account Executive at Third Person. "We welcomed the chance to wow them with how we help improve their marketing and advertising results to these various segments."

One of the first things that Third Person, Inc. helped Clysar with was their direct mail marketing.

"Clysar had some very attractive postcard mailers with a clear call to action," recalls Caughill. "At first glance, it didn't make sense why they weren't getting responses."

"... Clysar went from getting just 2-3 responses to more than 115. That's almost a 4,000% increase ..."

In order to help the company make the most of their next mailing, Third Person conducted in-depth interviews with both the Clysar customer and distributor base.

"Through the process, it became clear that the offer was way too complicated for direct mail," said Hagland. "We needed to do something else."

That something was strategically designed to appeal to both the end user and the distributor sales audiences — a free "21Tips to Reducing ShrinkWrap Packaging Costs" booklet and poster.  

"The 21 Tips Booklet allowed Clysar to give something of value to end users while adding a new, very powerful sales tool to their distributor's sales arsenal." said Hagland.  "The results were impressive.  Clysar went from getting just 2-3 responses to more than 115. That's almost a 4,000% increase."

"It's very exciting when the Third Person philosophy makes such a significant a difference in such a short time period for one of our clients," said Caughill. "We look forward to doing more of the same for them in the future."

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