The Dip-a-di-do-da, a decorative container for store-bought dips, created by Myrf Bowry and Leah Dodge of Decorum Interior Design (Photo by Tyler Darden)
Myrf Bowry and Leah Dodge of Decorum Interior Design will appear live on HSN on Monday, Dec. 4, between 5 and 6 p.m. to pitch their invention, the Dip-a-di-do-da, a decorative container for store-bought dips. The product is one of five finalists in HSN and Good Housekeeping magazine’s “American Dreams” Contest.
The finalists are featured in the December issue of Good Housekeeping magazine, and readers are invited to vote for their favorite product on HSN’s website through Dec. 31. One of the products will be selected by Good Housekeeping to receive its Seal of Approval, and the Customer Choice Award-winner could be invited back to HSN again to sell their product on air.
The designing duo created Dip-i-di-do-da in 2012 to add flair to store-bought dips, salsa and hummus after they could not find anything like it on the market. The container is sized to hold a standard store-bought dip and conceal the label. The product is currently available in four designs and 10 colors and is sold on their website, from their office and in 33 boutiques across the country.
Bowry says she entered the contest on a whim last May after seeing it advertised in Good Housekeeping. She sent an application just a few days before the contest deadline and heard back almost immediately with a request for a sample of the product. A few days later Bowry and Dodge received word they were finalists, and before they knew it, they were on a plane heading to HSN’s headquarters in St. Petersburg, Florida, to give a live pitch in front of a panel of judges along with 32 other contestants. In early August, they received word that Dip-i-di-do-da had been selected as one of the five finalists. They had to keep the news to themselves until Good Housekeeping magazine announced the results in its print edition.
Dodge says they have shipped 547 sets of containers in three different color combinations to HSN’s warehouse in preparation for their appearance. After they pitch to a live audience on HSN, they and the other finalists will fly to Nashville to appear on daytime talk show “Pickler and Ben” to promote the contest.
If Bowry and Dodge win, they will appear in the April issue of Good Housekeeping and will return to HSN.
“It’s been a great learning experience,” says Dodge. “It’s exciting to travel new waters. … We went from selling to our friends to touring a major packaging facility.”
Dodge and Bowry worked with ChamberRVA’s Thrive mentorship program to get Dip-i-di-do-da off the ground. Their mentors, Sarah Choi and Lindsay Grant, helped them better understand marketing, social media and sales, with Choi even helping guide them through their pitch for HSN.
The women still spend most of their time working on interior design projects for Decorum, but Dip-i-di-do-da has been a fun sideline business and an outlet for their talents. To date, they have sold about 8,000 containers. “We would love to get into a big store,” Bowry says, “but design is still No. 1. Decorum is footing the bill.”
