iD Additives, Inc., a leading North American supplier of additives including foaming agents, purging compounds and rust remover and preventatives to the plastics industry, was a recent sponsor and exhibitor at the MAPP 2020 Benchmarking and Best Practices Conference. This event, which was held virtually Oct. 19-23, provided some lessons and success stories in marketing in the age of COVID.
In addition to their sponsorship, iD Additives did a pre-conference presentation on “What Does Industry 4.0 Mean for Your Toolroom and Maintenance Team?” It was at the end of that session where Carolyn Young, iD Additives’ marketing specialist, saw some activity in their virtual booth.
“As we were finishing up with the pre-con session, I went online and saw that Craig Swanson from Dymotek was live on our booth,” she said. “Bryan Whitaker, one of our technical managers, and I started chatting with him, and he asked about our products and Lunch ‘n Learn program. I asked him to hop into our Zoom Live Room on our booth so he could see a live feed showing our warehouse and set up. After talking for almost an hour with him, we booked a Lunch ‘n Learn session!”
Lunching and Learning – From a Distance
In this age of COVID, not only are tradeshows virtual and online, but so are iD Additives’ Lunch ‘n Learn sessions. So instead of paying them an in-person visit, iD asked Dymotek, who has two separate locations in Ellington and Somers, Connecticut, to send them information on local places where they could order lunch. iD Additives ordered lunch online for the two locations, Dymotek employees picked it up, and the Lunch ‘n Learn was on.
“Between the two locations we had 10 people attending,” said Craig Swanson of Dymotek. “It was a great interactive session – our employees got to hear about iD’s products and services, and ask questions and get answers in real time.”
The session, held on Zoom, lasted almost two hours and covered various MRO practices at Dymotek, which led to serious discussions about two main products at iD Additives: iD Purge and iD Eco-Pro 360 systems for rust removal and prevention. All of iD Additives’ technical managers were live on the Zoom chat to answer questions and discuss best practices.
“We’ve known Dymotek for a while, as they are also MAPP members, and we’ve seen them at previous conferences,” said Nick Sotos, president of iD Additives. “We made better connections with them through this virtual conference than we ever had in the past. It shows us that there are always new ways to connect with our customers.”
Based on this connection, iD is sending Dymotek purge samples and will be scheduling follow-up calls to discuss their MRO operations in more detail. “The MAPP virtual show, and our subsequent Lunch ‘n Learn, really led to productive discussions with Dymotek and a better understanding of their business,” Sotos said.
For more information, visit https://www.idadditives.com/lunch-learn.
