Putting the screws to promotion - Westfair Communications

A nifty little battery-shaped and battery-driven screwdriver that appeared and was popular last holiday season will be back. The promotion was the product of Orangeburg-based Zagwear Inc., which recently signed on to market products with Duracell, Kraft Foods, and BMW.

Zagwear had worked with both Kraft and BMW in the past in a more limited capacity, but is now engaged in a more “multi-faceted, full service” marketing program with them, said Zagwear CEO Toby Zacks.

Zacks said his company is creating and distributing “new owner kits” for those who buy BMW motorcycles.

He said the idea was to provide BMW bike owners with a personalized kit, “that they can use for a vast array of services. The goal is to enhance the premium value of a BMW motorcycle and build continued loyalty to the BMW motorcycle brand.”

Each kit is assembled and personalized by Zagwear and shipped within 4 weeks of the purchase, and includes a personalized cover letter, a BMW branded leather keepsake box, a laser etched glass cube of a BMW motorcycle, key fob, dealer directory, road atlas, leather map case with note pad and pen, DVD and tire gauge.

Similarly, Zagwear is using gadgets to help promote the Duracell brand.

The company created the Duracell “screwdriver on-pack” project.

The promotion, featured during this past holiday season, offered a battery-shaped screwdriver free with the purchase of an 8-pack of AA batteries.

“It was tested in 2007 and it resulted in increased sales (for Duracell),” said Zacks. “They”™ve reordered them for the 2008 holiday season.”

Zagwear, which is one of two North American-approved vendors for Kraft Foods, recently developed a Kraft marketing program that launched to coincide with Arbor Day, which was April 25.

The program was designed for the LiveActive Kraft brand, a brand of Kraft foods focusing on “health and wellness.”

The program, which is ongoing, offered tree seedlings attached to a postcard with environmental tips to anyone who samples a LiveActive product at a Giant Eagle supermarket during the promotion. Giant Eagle is chain with stores primarily located in Pennsylvania.

Zagwear boasts several other Fortune 500 clients, such as Procter & Gamble, Bridgestone, and Diageo.

The company has come a long way since it was formed in Zacks”™ apartment on the Upper East Side of Manhattan 13 years ago.

Since then, Zacks and Judd Karofsky, the company president, have steadily built up Zagwear”™s clientele.

In 2002, when Zagwear became too large an operation to run out of New York, where office space can be extremely pricy, Zacks looked to the northern suburbs.

The company had been renting a warehouse in Rockland County, and eventually decided to move the entire company operation there.

“It made sense to put everything under one roof,” he said.

Zacks also considered moving to Westchester, but said it was cheaper to purchase a building in Rockland than rent one in Westchester.

And Zacks, an Armonk resident, is certainly not envious of those stuck in the heavy morning traffic of the Westchester-bound side of the Tappan Zee Bridge, or the rush hour traffic going back to Rockland in the evening.

“Doing the reverse commute is much easier,” said Zacks.

Though he said Zagwear may eventually open up a satellite office in Westchester, it will continue to be headquartered in Rockland.

“We will be here for the foreseeable future,” he said.