I’d like to begin this post by offering an apology in advance for any glaring typos; it’s a little difficult to type while wearing mittens. You see, we here at the Verge Pipe office are in the midst of another harsh and unforgiving week-long winter in Alabama and there isn’t much difference between the temperature outside and inside*.

*Editor’s Note: We love our big open working space with floor-to-ceiling windows, but heat retention is not one of our building’s great attributes. We provide space heaters for all employees and guests. Juuuust to clarify for OSHA and prospective clients.

So as we head into the weekend, I thought I’d bring a little warmth and sunshine to the blog today in the form of Duvin Design, a clothing company based out of the Sunshine State itself. The products they create “are a culmination of the surf lifestyle and everything that comes with it.”

While these guys have gained a strong audience through social media, they have also made sure to establish good rapport with customers through more traditional forms of marketing. I first heard of Duvin (pronounced Doo-vin) when a friend of mine brought me one of their tank tops she had picked up from their booth at a music festival. Events like these give them the chance to do more than just sell things; they enjoy talking with customers and getting to know them. Also, anytime you order something from Duvin’s website, it’s going to arrive in unique packaging with a hand-written note to you, inside.

Duvin is a great example of how a company can convey their real-life personality through 140 characters or less; a photo on Instagram, or a post on Facebook. The digital marketing strategies they’ve implemented on social media have given them a brand image that is personable, relaxed, and most of all, fun.

They get customers in on the fun in creative ways.

To build their Twitter following, they promised Duvin stickers to any existing followers who recommended them to others via retweets. They also said they would hook up new followers with stickers as well. Who doesn’t love stickers?

But it didn’t end there. Once all the stickers had gone out (in hand-addressed envelopes, mind you), they prompted people to tweet pics of ways they had used the stickers. Then they would pick the winner and send them a free Duvin tank top. To build hype for their upcoming “happy hour” collection, they started another Twitter contest in which the best happy hour photo would win a free tank. Again, a brand image that is personable, relaxed, and fun.

Perhaps I’ve emphasized their fun side too much. I’m worried all this talk of free giveaways and tank tops might have you picturing some Axe body spray bros at a beach on a never-ending Spring Break, handing out neon tanks. This is not at all who Duvin is.

Duvin Design is a creative team of a few recent college graduates that knew they had a “damn good product.” Naturally, they wanted everyone else to have share their opinion. But they weren’t concerned with getting a certain amount of ‘likes’ or followers. Instead, they surrounded their clothing line with a culture that everyone from surfers to certain land-locked bloggers would like to be a part of.

To hear more from Duvin’s founders, Garrett Watzka and Shaun O’Meara, listen in to this lightly edited recording of our recent Skype call. The guys from Duvin reveal more marketing insights and more eloquently explain their inspirations and hopes for Duvin Design (@DuvinDesign).

Author: Gray Gill is our Spring Editor & Word-Smith here at Verge Pipe Media. Verge Pipe Media assists public institutions, enterprises and the non-profit sector with Imaginative Inbound Marketing strategies + campaigns. We also have a development team chock full of Marvelous Mobile Migrators, poised to help transition our clients into a mobile + social world with custom software, iOS and Android mobile apps.