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Will it chip? Retailer spits out infomercial with Kiwi twist

Kiwi online hardware store Trade Tested has taken to YouTube with its own version of the cheesy informercial genre. A woodchipper at the company’s warehouse near Auckland International Airport is one of the stars of the Will It Chip? videos, modelled on infomercials like the US series Will It Blend?, by blender firm Blendtec.

Scantily clad assistant ‘Kelly’ is joined by part-time product tester Chip, a hard core DIY bloke dressed in black (Trade Tested admits they’re actors, but they look the part).

“We had these big chippers sitting around in our warehouse and the guys there are always testing our product,” says chief marketing officer Matt Weavers. “They thought, ‘what would happen if we put bricks or something in the chipper?'”

The 18-month-old company began by selling on Trade Me and now has its own site and 20 staff.

Its other marketing tactics include remarketing, Google AdWords and Facebook advertising. It also plans a radio campaign in January.

Weavers says the videos are a way to get marketing cut-through. “It gives us an opportunity to show we’ve got a bit of personality compared to the other people in our category.”

Fans will be pleased to know sequels could be in the works, using a log splitter and a wool clipper.

Trade Tested is asking its Facebook community for suggestions for upcoming videos, which so far include air, fish and a box of nails. It’s also running a Facebook competition for fans to win product for answering a questions about one of the videos.

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