Carolina Handling wins 2022 ADDY Awards for unique, memorable sales tool

It’s not every day that a material handling solution provider wins an award for creative excellence, and Carolina Handling won three for “If Santa Had a Lift Truck,” a children’s book created and published by the company’s marketing team.

Carolina Handling took home two Gold ADDY Awards for Book Design and Direct Mail, and a Silver ADDY for copywriting during the 2022 ADDY Awards hosted by AAF Greenville, the Upstate South Carolina chapter of the American Advertising Federation.

“The idea for the book came from an internal meeting where our sales team shared with us that many of our customers think of us only as a lift truck provider,” said Carolina Handling Director of Marketing Donna Waldrep. “The book depicts Santa utilizing several of Carolina Handling’s intralogistics solutions for improved efficiencies while he prepares for toy delivery on Christmas Eve.”

The exclusive dealer of new and used Raymond lift trucks in South Carolina, North Carolina, Georgia, Alabama and the upper panhandle of Florida, Carolina Handling also offers fleet service, fleet optimization, warehouse automation and training with a goal of helping customers move more, faster and at less cost.

Written by Carolina Handling External Marketing Specialist Daniel Lyles and illustrated by Devin Smith, “If Santa Had a Lift Truck” shows Santa’s operation utilizing Raymond forklifts, order pickers and floor scrubbers, as well as pallet racks, warehouse fans and lighting, and automated solutions such as iWAREHOUSE and conveyors.

There’s even a Carolina Handling service technician on hand to keep Santa’s sleigh running like new.

“The book is a fun way for our customers and potential customers to learn about all of our warehouse solutions,” Lyles said. “We used a little holiday magic and the nostalgia of Christmas Eve to bring awareness to our full line of products and services.”

The book project also helped reinforce the relationship between sales and marketing, Waldrep said.

“We believe that marketing’s job is to support the sales department and to help increase sales within the organization,” she said.

And in an industry where integrated warehouse operations have become critical to competitive success, “If Santa Had a Lift Truck” gives Carolina Handling a storytelling tool to communicate its full line of equipment, services and capabilities in a unique way.

“Storytelling takes what can be a technical, complex issue and brings it to life in a memorable way,” Waldrep said. “We especially needed to stand out in the material handling industry, and this project helped us do that.”

Founded in 1966 with five associates working from a former gas station in North Carolina, Carolina Handling today has more than 660 associates housed in offices in Charlotte, Greensboro, Raleigh, Atlanta, Birmingham, Greenville, SC and Piedmont, SC.

The company continues to grow, and as business and industry struggle with issues such as labor shortages and increasing e-commerce and distribution demands, Carolina Handling’s Intralogistics Solutions Group has become the fastest growing part of the company, according to President & CEO Brent Hillabrand.

“We help customers transition into automation by focusing more on the steps that it takes to improve their processes,” Hillabrand said. “We really try to put a focus on solutions versus products. When we do that, the products lead themselves to whatever the solution is.”

Santa’s story of continuous improvement will be published this holiday season in a sequel to “If Santa Had a Lift Truck.” To view the “If Santa Had a Lift Truck” flip book, visit www.solutionsforsanta.com.