The Name on the Sail

Mark Adcock has spent more than thirty years in the promotional merchandise industry, creating memorable moments that help businesses leave a lasting impression.

Asked what it’s like to be both a business owner and a community sponsor, Mark’s answer is simple.

“I close my eyes and imagine I’m opening a package. Whatever’s inside isn’t what matters most. It’s the feeling of discovering something unexpected. That’s what captures the moment. Makes it emotional. Makes it memorable.”

Mark owns Smashing Promotions in Waimauku, a promotional merchandise business he’s been building since 1994. Early on, he used to visit new clients with a personalised glass, sandblasted with their name. “Ten years later, that glass is still sitting on their desk. I’ve become part of their day.”

Empathy, he says, has always been the difference. Too many promotional products are designed to advertise a business, rather than mean something to the person receiving them.

That same approach eventually became BackingYou. Not as a business plan, but as a response to something deeply personal.

It started with his child being bullied. Targeted. The family had to move schools. Sitting with that experience, Mark found himself asking a difficult question: if this was hard for a family with resources, what was it like for those without?

One of the first answers came while he was sitting in a café, reading about a shortage of swan plants. The monarch butterfly population was under threat. He rang the Monarch Society on a Friday, bought a million swan plant seeds, and turned them into a fundraiser for Youthline.

The metaphor behind the campaign was simple but powerful. Just as a caterpillar struggles through its cocoon before emerging as a butterfly, young people, too, often have to push through difficult seasons before reaching the other side.

The campaign crashed his website and landed him on Seven Sharp.

Around the same time, he helped fund a school play. A thousand dollars, a friend’s script, a small cast, and one message delivered to students around the country: be a witness, not a bystander. Sometimes, all it takes is one word or one small act to change someone’s day.

It was the beginning of something bigger. Mark had discovered that when business and community come together around a meaningful story, people don’t just pay attention; they get involved.

The idea continues to evolve.

“Don’t wait for perfection. Perfection never comes. It’s not about getting everything right. It’s about doing something that might make a difference for someone else.”

Tom’s sail now carries the names of fifty New Zealanders who backed him. Mark is one of them.

“People don’t recount ads,” Mark says. “They recount stories. A story travels with your name attached in a positive way long after the campaign ends.”

If there’s one thing Mark hopes people take away from his story, it’s this:

“If you’ve got the ability to help someone, do it. You never know where that one act of belief might lead.”

BackingYou might have started as an idea, but after listening to Mark, it feels more like a way of seeing the world.