Who says there isn’t a little bit of room for potty humor in the professional world? When your client quite literally is reinventing toilet paper and the hygiene experience, it’s almost mandatory.
Dan Lunoe, business development executive, and Matthew Whiteley, global head of sales, for Counselor Top 40 distributor BAMKO (asi/131431), recounted a case study from when they worked with Dude Wipes on a branded kit, where capturing attention on social media was the goal.
“Dude Wipes wanted to make a splash on TikTok,” Lunoe says. “Dude Wipes is a pretty unique client, right? They’re taking on the toilet paper market. To be blunt, people have been wiping their butts the same way for a long time. Dude Wipes is trying to change that. So, when you’re trying to change something people do on a daily basis, you have to think outside the box.”
The irony, of course, is that thinking outside the box in this instance quite literally required making a box.
“Let’s give clients a totally new purchasing experience. That’s really what they focused on,” Lunoe says. “Understanding that and then thinking through how we could make this happen for them – we knew it wasn’t going to be with a traditional promo piece. It was going to be something involving packaging or some kind of printed component.”
BAMKO has been pushing the print side of the business lately. Within the last year, Whitely says the distributor has been focusing more on the commercial print side of things.
“When we started bringing in our team from an operations and business development perspective, specific to print, what was fascinating was that they were like, ‘Any paper substrate,’ and you’re going, ‘OK, what does that mean?’” Whitely says. “When you expand on that, it could be anything from vehicle wraps to forms to business cards to user manuals. There are all sorts of different things that fall under commercial print. Packaging falls under commercial print. Those are all things that we’re looking at and having conversations with.”
Podcast chapters:
0:24: Introductions
1:31: Selling print and promo together and adding commercial print
3:09: Dude Wipes case study
4:17: Using TikTok to gain attention for the promo
9:19: Managing speed bumps with communication
11:09: How distributors could emulate this campaign and add print to their business
14:31: What falls under the “commercial print” umbrella?
16:46: Surround yourself with experts to grow
Key Takeaways
• BAMKO (asi/131431) has long blended print and promotional products, but only recently made a strategic push into commercial print by building dedicated infrastructure and expertise.
• BAMKO helped Dude Wipes create a memorable unboxing experience using custom packaging and printed components, leveraging TikTok to drive brand engagement and disrupt the traditional toilet paper market.
• The packaging was designed not just for delivery but as a fun, educational and brand-reinforcing experience – featuring humor, influencer-friendly design and interactive elements like tattoos and stickers.
• BAMKO emphasized the importance of being a consultative partner, solving technical challenges like substrate issues in black-heavy packaging, and guiding clients toward better outcomes.
• Distributors should focus on listening to client goals, keeping solutions simple and leveraging internal experts rather than pushing trendy products. Being a strategic partner is key.
• BAMKO’s definition of commercial print includes everything from packaging to vehicle wraps and forms. Its expansion into this space has deepened client relationships and supported vendor consolidation trends.
