Akavit, a full-service digital agency in Denver, Colorado, won the Gold Stevie® Award for Best Overall Web Design of a Specialty Web Site in The 2012 American Business Awards, the premier business awards competition in the U.S.A. (March 27 is the entry deadline for the 2013 ABAs. If you haven't yet done so, you can request your entry kit today.) Here we looked at how Akavit’s work for Tervis helped to increase sales for this North Venice, Florida, company.
Let’s take a little trip back in time. It’s 1946. Detroit. Engineers Frank Cotter and G. Howlett Davis hit on something big: they harness the natural insulating powers of air to create a permanently sealed, double-walled tumbler. Finally a way to keep hot drinks hot and cold drinks cold. Not to mention, it is virtually indestructible. This outstanding innovation changed the drink-ware industry forever. Talk about a game changer.
Combining the last three letters of each of their last names, Cotter and Davis dubbed their new cup brand “Tervis”. In the years to follow, they worked hard to refine and improve their designs. The original tall, cylindrical tumbler evolved into additional sizes and products. Today, Tervis offers six tumbler sizes, plus hundreds of customizable designs, emblems, and accessory combinations.
The Donelly family purchased the Tervis product rights in the 1950s and incorporated the Tervis Tumbler Company in 1967. To this day, all Tervis products are proudly made in North Venice, Florida, where over 700 people are employed through this family-owned-and-operated business.
In 2011, Tervis celebrated 65 years of making quality made-to-order tumblers and embarked upon a complete rebranding effort. They called upon website awards winner, Akavit, to create a new web design and build an ecommerce site to support their national sales growth and increase online sales by 30%.
Akavit revived the Tervis website with three approaches:
- Optimization;
- Customization, and
- Community.
Based upon sales numbers since the new website’s launch in November 2011, Tervis more than exceeded the forecasted 30% online sales in the first year. In addition, site visits shot up by nearly 1 million more compared to the same date range the year before, and 62% of the site hits were new visitors.
Said Rob Davis, CEO and founder of Akavit: "Winning a Stevie means a lot to us, because this is a business award, judged by business professionals. It's recognition that a website design with a clear online strategy can translate to increased sales for our customers."
About Rob Davis:
Rob Davis, Akavit’s CEO and founder, oversees the business foundations of the company and mobilizes resources for client success. Akavit is a leading digital marketing agency in Denver, Colorado. Akavit client industries span from technology to consumer, with clients including Anheuser-Busch, Camp Bow Wow, Borax, Denver Broncos Football Club, Newmont Mining, Rocky Mountain Health Plans, Tervis Tumbler Company, Rio Tinto, U.S. Bank, and many more. Rob’s past endeavors include as executive-founder-principal of several businesses including Xylem CCI, Creation Chamber, Neoforte Solutions, and Romac Custom Staffing Solutions. He brings years of trench-time in client services, sales, team building, and business management. His previous clients include FinishLine, Quiznos, Qwest, DirecTV, Homespace.com, and IMA. Rob attended the Universities of Florida and South Florida, earning business degrees in marketing and economics.
About Akavit:
Akavit is a digital and mobile marketing agency dedicated to designing and engineering innovative solutions that maximize the effectiveness of a company’s online presence and social marketing campaigns. With expertise spanning from interactive strategy to enterprise level integrations, Akavit has helped brands such as U.S. Bank and Denver Broncos achieve their online goals. For more information go to: www.akavitgroup.com.
