Take this photo with a grain of bath salt: There wasn’t a whole lot

of relaxing going on at this year’s Kitchen & Bath Industry Show in

Atlanta. Television interviews took place, prestigious awards were

received and new products were unveiled. The soles of our shoes

were all the angrier for it.

Recession? More like recess! Okay, not exactly, as K/BIS 2009 was a

far departure from the glitz and glamour of previous years. But there

was nothing subdued about the success enjoyed by two of Merlot

Marketing’s clients, Eldorado Stone and Everpure. Back-to-back in-

terviews, a Best of K/BIS award, and the securing of new customers

is just a sampling of our clients’ K/BIS triumphs. Sure, the show was

slower than those of previous years, but we saw the slowdown as

a showdown. Our clients’ new products still generated plenty of

buzz and the feedback from both the media and attendees was well

worth the trip. Through diligent pre-show planning, a full interview

schedule and a comprehensive media guide, these clients turned a

sour situation into lucrative lemonade—made especially delicious

by Everpure’s Exubera System! (Sorry, we’re still in K/BIS mode).

ELDORADO STONEWith an aggressive pre-show PR campaign and buzz surrounding

the new Eldorado Stone products, Merlot Marketing put on its re-

flective crossing-guard gear and directed media traffic to the Eldora-

do Stone booth. Among the show highlights were private meetings

with Food Network Magazine, Veranda, Gourmet, Garden Design, This

Old House, LUXE, Dwell, and Metropolitan Home.

Brent Spann, VP of Marketing for Eldorado Stone, films a House Beautiful podcast highlight-ing the new Gemstone™ CandleWall™

www.merlotmarketing.com

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HAPPY CLIENTS, SORE FEET:K/BIS IN REVIEW

Designer, Melissa Galt, wanted to experience the Eldorado Stone CandleWall™ ambiance first-hand, so she dove right in!

Eldorado Stone leveraged the exposure at the show with

the unveiling of its new Eldorado Outdoor line. Outdoor

kitchens and entertainment areas are a hot trend, but

there’s that pesky requirement of “creating them” before

the tri-tip can hit the grill. Even after days of toilsome and

messy masonry work, a distinguished custom result isn’t

guaranteed. For those seeking an instant transformation,

meet the Eldorado Outdoor line—a collection of modu-

lar units that quickly assemble into custom barbecue

islands, kitchen counters, bars, fireplaces, fire rings and

more. The best part? They’re all ready to be quickly dressed with Eldorado Stone and Brick. “Eldorado

Stone is providing an easier solution to create an outdoor kitchen quickly and in a more eco-friendly

way,” notes Brent Spann, vice president of marketing for Eldorado Stone. “An L-shaped island that

would normally take 64 hours of labor can now be done in just eight.” That equates to at least 55 extra

hours to perfect your barbeque sauce recipe. Move over, Bobby Flay!

Best of K/BIS In addition to the exclusive unveiling of Eldorado Outdoor, the Eldorado Stone Gemstone™ Walls

collection received a Silver Award in the Best of K/BIS competition; bath category. With more than 90

entries, Eldorado Stone was one of 11 manufacturers to have received this award and the only archi-

tectural stone veneer manufacturer to be recognized. To see this award-winning collection for yourself

click here: Eldorado Stone Transformation

(Warning: you will want to remodel your bathroom after watching).

EVERPURE At K/BIS 2009 Everpure continued to demonstrate that water

bottles are so passé. They introduced two new products, in-

cluding the new ViruPure™ Filtration System, which filters out

even the smallest possible viruses from drinking water. If you’re

interested in a whole-home system, be sure to check out Ever-

pure’s new Protega Whole-home Ultra-filtration System. Unlike

point-of-use systems installed at a single faucet, the Protega is a

point-of-entry system; which means it filters all of the water that

enters the home.

Eldorado Stone launches the new Eldorado Outdoor line featur-ing the newest profile color, Moonlight Roughcut.

Between the launch of these industry-first products and

the growing trend of water filtration, the media was

drawn to the booth like contaminants to a water filter

(science geeks will appreciate our analogy). Among the

show highlights were exclusive meetings with high caliber

media such as Traditional Home, Food Network Magazine,

Better Homes & Gardens SIPs, Gourmet, LUXE, Fine Home-

building, and the highly-acclaimed Veranda. A podcast with

House Beautiful magazine was also filmed and is sched-

uled to launch in August 2009. Phew. Just thinking about

it makes us tired all over again.

So, why water filtration for your home? Just check out

the booth display to the right (Merlot’s award-winning

display): “Americans used 50 billion plastic water bottles

last year; and 40 billion ended up in landfills.” With each

bottle taking up to 1,000 years to biodegrade and bottled water costing more than gasoline per gallon,

it only makes sense that we begin to take better care of the environment and ourselves.

A TWEET SUCCESS! But the hits didn’t stop there. Another K/BIS high-

light was Merlot Marketing’s use of social media

to promote our clients’ presence at the show.

And why wouldn’t we? We’re so bloggable.

On behalf of Eldorado Stone, Merlot Marketing utilized social media tools to promote Eldorado Stone’s

new Gemstone™ Walls. Merlot Marketing tweeted (if you don’t yet know about tweeting, we need to

talk) about the company’s new products and YouTube video in an effort to drive traffic to the Eldorado

Stone booth.

As a result of our tweeting live with media and designers from the show, we garnered increased traffic

to the Eldorado Stone booth and website, as well as, increased views of the YouTube video. Through

our K/BIS social media efforts, we have built stronger awareness of the Eldorado Stone brand and new

product lines. See? Social media really does work (if you know how to work it).