How Aussie swimwear start-up Skwosh upstaged big brands with $200 billboard

In January 2017, three entrepreneurial Melbourne mates were faced with a problem.

Jack Turner, Adam Walsh and Jack Watts had launched their swimwear label Skwosh just one year prior, meaning they weren’t able to afford to take out a marquee at the prestigious Portsea Polo event.

But they realised may of the guests in attendance would be their core demographic — so they decided to resort to “cheeky” guerrilla tactics.

The trio forked out $200 for a small billboard advertising their company, and hung it up on the busy road outside the event.

They also set up an inflatable pool, and installed a group of their friends wearing Skwosh’s trademark vibrant designs.

It became a makeshift catwalk — and caught the eye of the “bumper-to-bumper” traffic surrounding the Point Nepean National Park, where the Portsea Polo was held.

Mr Walsh, 28, told news.com.au the impromptu marketing campaign led to a $6000 spike in sales in just one day — and managed to upstage big brands by becoming the top hashtag of the entire event.

“As a start-up we didn’t have the capital to go out and invest in a marquee, but we knew a large section of our market would be there, so we decided to do a bit of cheeky guerrilla marketing,” he said.

“A $6000 result was pretty good during our first summer, and we got the number one hashtag on Instagram which was hilarious considering we didn’t actually attend the event.”

Mr Walsh said the brand had also seen similar surges in sales after its designs were spotted on a slew of Aussie celebrities including Andy Lee and Nick “The Honey Badger” Cummins — as well as international A-listers such as Ed Sheeran and basketball star Ben Simmons.

While there was no formal partnership in place with the Shape of You singer, Mr Walsh said sales of Skwosh’s “Mr Cocky” board shorts sold 2.5 times more than other styles after Sheeran uploaded a photo of himself wearing them during his Australian tour in March.

The company also enjoyed an increase in online store traffic afterwards, with the average basket size rising 44 per cent from the same time the previous year.

He said celebrity endorsements from stars like Ed Sheeran were priceless to small, growing businesses.

Skwosh products were originally sold via the brand’s eCommerce site and followers, now up to 51,700, on its Instagram page, but are now also available in 25 bricks-and-mortar boutiques across the country and shipped to 23 countries worldwide.

According to data from payment system Square, which is used by Skwosh, online businesses in 2017 were outselling their in-store rivals by 30 per cent.

Mr Walsh said while Skwosh had expanded into physical stores, online sales were its “bread and butter”.

“As an online start-up, we were able to be more flexible with what we do. I think older retailers that are going out of business aren’t keeping up with consumer trends,” he said.

He said Skwosh was launched after he and childhood friends Jack Turner and Port Adelaide forward Jack Watts realised the swimwear market was dominated by “old, daggy surf shorts”.

“We were three childhood friends who grew up on the beach … and we saw a gap in the market for great swimwear for men,” he said.

“We saw the opportunity to create shorts that were affordable with fun, bold prints that were loud and out-there, and that’s how Skwosh was born.”

The company turned over $70,000 in its first few months and had 10,000 social media fans before launching a single product.

Skwosh’s revenue rose more than 150 per cent last year, and are expecting growth to soar again thanks to the recent launch of a female line.

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