Firm Gets Sweet Smell of Success off to a T (Shirt)
A company director has found himself the face of an international fashion craze after colleagues put him on a T-shirt.
The shirts featuring Mike Sweet, technical director of Stafford-based Addmaster, are appearing across the world. The company created the shirts to promote Biomaster, a bacteria-killing additive that stops clothes from smelling, and it gives a monthly prize for the funniest photographs of people wearing them.
So far, photos have been sent in from Crufts, Las Vegas, Wimbledon and on safari in South Africa.
Addmaster managing director Paul Morris said: "Mike was the first to come up with the idea to put Biomaster into fabrics to kill bacteria and stop smells.
"The textile part is the fastest growing part of the business. We have taken on agents and we are doing a lot of exporting.
"We started to play him up about it and decided to come up with a T-shirt that we could send out to our customers, that had been treated with Biomaster, and Mike has got a good sense of humour and a funny face, so we put his picture on them.
"Now, people are taking our products on holiday with them, which is great for us."
Addmaster gives out a bottle of Veuve Clicquot champagne to the funniest photograph sent in to www.treatedbymike.com every month.
People have to be wearing the T-shirt - which features a photo of Mr Sweet and the words "I've been treated by Mike Sweet!" - to be entered into the competition.
Mr Sweet admitted he was not told about the marketing campaign originally, but is happy with his 15 minutes of fame.
He said: "I am not in the marketing profession, but this is certainly a novel approach.
"I wasn't party to the idea in the beginning, but I am happy with it now. It is a bit of fun." The Stafford Science Park company developed Biomaster to be added to paper, plastics and textiles.
It uses silver-based anti-microbial additives which if used correctly can help stop the spread of infection - which means it can help in the fight against hospital superbugs like MRSA.
Hosiery brand Pretty Polly and Buff Scarves are among those to place orders for clothes treated with the additives.
Marketing consultant Julie Grant, of Hanley-based Plinkfizz, said the campaign will help Addmaster by pushing the product's reach into their home lives.
She said: "I think this is a great idea because customers are always looking for something unique and different.
"The whole idea of having the T-shirt on photographs taken in a special place taps into the social networking trend.
"A really innovative idea that captures customers imaginations will boost sales."
Sentinel Business reported earlier this year how Biomaster's success now accounts for £2 million of Addmaster's turnover, and that is expected to hit £3 million in the current year.
Addmaster has more than 50 products in use by the NHS.
Source - The Sentinel, August 2008
Biomaster is a registered trademark of Addmaster, based in Stafford UK. Addmaster is Europe's leading supplier of performance additives for a wide range of applications and industries. By working in partnership with its customers and focussing on research and development, highly innovative additives have been created and successfully introduced into many manufacturing environments. Addmaster's advanced products are being used by many of the world's industry leaders in the plastics, paper, paint, textile and coating industries.
Addmaster, founded in the year 2000, sees its major objective as capitalising on the lack of innovation which exists in these industry sectors, and has won many business awards for innovations in product development and marketing.
