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November 29, 2005Promotional Products Aren't Just for Businesses
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Here's a great example of a customized tote bag that doesn't feature a brand logo, but does feature the fourth amendment, which is at least as important as any logo I can think of. At ePromos we work with lots of not-for-profits, schools and other non-business organizations.
(via BookBlog.) |
Posted by mark at 7:13 AM. Permalink: Promotional Products Aren't Just for Businesses | Comments (0)
November 28, 2005Promo No-No: Bad Coffee
Leave the logo mugs to someone else, the sleep mask is what you want.
Posted by mark at 9:25 AM. Permalink: Promo No-No: Bad Coffee | Comments (0)
November 27, 2005How Creative Gifts Help Small Companies
The Washington Post just published an article about how some small companies are reaching out to their customers with creative holiday gifts.
Here are some tips they mentioned:
"The whole point of giving gifts to clients or customers is to let them know how much you appreciate not just their business, but how highly you think of them. Giving the obvious doesn't convey that message, but getting creative about gifts absolutely will."
"The gift has to be reflective of who you are as a person, and it needs to demonstrate that you've put a lot of thought and care into it."
"One of the keys to being creative about client gifts is to start shopping early. The later you begin thinking about gifts, the less time you have to pick out something unique and order it."
Not bad advice. Of course, if you're just thinking about this now, you're already starting a little late, but we do have over 275 Corporate Gifts that can be customized in 5 days or less. We also have some great high tech gifts that are great for business travelers and food gifts to share around the office.
Posted by mark at 10:57 AM. Permalink: How Creative Gifts Help Small Companies | Comments (0)
November 26, 2005Target Marketing Features Great Direct Mail Promo
Target Marketing Magazine recently featured a cool puzzle promo that was part of a direct mail piece. According to the article this piece "was sent to chief risk officers at target companies," focusing "on how software can help minimize risk." The wooden puzzle they used makes a huge impact and relates strongly to their message. By specifying a small, highly-targeted audience, they were able to deliver an incredibly powerful piece that achieved their branding objectives.
Check out some promotional puzzles.
Posted by mark at 10:53 AM. Permalink: Target Marketing Features Great Direct Mail Promo | Comments (0)
November 25, 2005Museum-Quality Promotional Paperweight
| I stumbled across this promotional paperweight commemorating the launch of Windows 95. Sure, that's only ten years ago, but I guess that's long enough to make it part of the permanent collection at the DigiBarn Computer Museum. It's also an example of how a promotional product can still be generating brand awareness (not that Microsoft needs it) long after it was originally used. |
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Posted by mark at 3:58 PM. Permalink: Museum-Quality Promotional Paperweight | Comments (0)
November 24, 2005Happy Thanksgiving!
| Happy Thanksgiving from ePromos! Don't eat the Turkey Stress Ball! |
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Posted by mark at 6:12 PM. Permalink: Happy Thanksgiving! | Comments (0)
November 23, 2005Our USB Gadget Not Duckly Enough
We have a USB Mini-Vacuum (left), but it isn't featured on engadget because it doesn't look like a duck (right). But actually, our USB vacuum kinda looks like a duck. Well, a little. Maybe. I guess not.
Anyhow, the duck USB vacuum is so innovative they featured it Gizmodo, too. I plan to leapfrog our competitors by developing Platypus-shaped USB vacuum technoglogy, which would undoubtedly be enough get us on the front page of the New York Times.
Posted by mark at 6:48 PM. Permalink: Our USB Gadget Not Duckly Enough | Comments (0)
Mightier Than the Pen, Part 1
This is the first installment of Mightier Than the Pen, which will be an ongoing series of entries that feature alternatives to promotional pens. I want to start by saying that there's nothing wrong with promotional pens. They're popular because they work, and in many cases they're a great choice. However, there are lots of inexpensive promotional products (click that link to see about 1,000 items that are under a dollar), and there many cases there may be other products that are more suited to achieve your marketing and branding goals.
For this example, we picked the Flowering Grow Kit, which is on sale right now for as little as $1.44 and might be a perfect choice for a gardening or floral shop. It's relevant to the business, unique, and features a much larger imprint area to feature the logo and message. Here it is next to a promotional pen, or your side-by-side comparison pleasure:
Posted by mark at 1:28 PM. Permalink: Mightier Than the Pen, Part 1 | Comments (0)
Promos for Beta Testers: How do You Spell Evangelize?
Can't send promotional products to all your customers? Start with the ones that are most likely to be evangelists for your products or services. For software companies, that might mean developers or other members of related online communities, like in the Macromedia example below, or beta testers. Microsoft recently sent out this promotional flyer to folks who beta tested Windows Live. In this case the recipient was both thankful, and posted a photo of the product on his blog, turning promotional product advertising into online advertising.
Posted by mark at 9:33 AM. Permalink: Promos for Beta Testers: How do You Spell Evangelize? | Comments (0)
November 22, 2005Retro Promos: What Kozmo Did Right
Kozmo failed as a business. In fact, it's one of the iconic failures of the dot-com era. So why feature a vintage Kozmo branded bag on a promotional products blog? Because the promotional products they used didn't fail. Promotional products can't make a bad business model work, but they can raise a tremendous amount of brand awareness despite the fact that their business model doesn't work. If they didn't, Kozmo wouldn't be featured in the wikipedia entry for dot-com and sites like Ghost Sites wouldn't do features about unearthing "amazing Kozmo artifacts." And people wouldn't have bought Kozmo messenger bags for hundreds of dollars on ebay. While promotional products are sometimes associated with the dot-coms and their failure, I think a lot of people don't realize that they were one of the few things the dot-coms did right, right?
Posted by mark at 12:51 PM. Permalink: Retro Promos: What Kozmo Did Right | Comments (0)
Small Business: Are You Giving Holiday Gifts?
According to the Miami Herald:
A new American Express survey finds that small business owners are planning to open their wallets a bit wider this holiday season. According to the OPEN From American Express Small Business Monitor, budgets for client and customer holiday gifts are up 15 percent to $1,064 this year, and 71 percent of business owners will be giving holiday gifts -- up from 61 percent last fall.
If you're one of that 71%, check our the Corporate Gifts section of our site for some great holiday business gift ideas.
Posted by mark at 10:30 AM. Permalink: Small Business: Are You Giving Holiday Gifts? | Comments (0)
November 21, 2005Promo No-No: Miami Ice
Skip the Ice Scrapers, try a Sun Shade. Also, I think I'll change my name to Miami Ice.
Posted by mark at 10:21 PM. Permalink: Promo No-No: Miami Ice | Comments (0)
Corrections Department: Macromedia Promos Baton
Peter Elst (see the original Macromedia promos entry below), was kind enough to correct a couple things from my last post:
Peter is from Belgium. So the good news is that the breadth of this phenomenon was even wider than I had indicated. The bad news is that I assume everyone is from the United States, which is sadly typical for an American.
Also, according to Peter, 99% of the people who participated in the baton were not actually Macromedia employees, but people active in the online community. Again, this is a testament to the power of this idea and the community that Macromedia has fostered, and promotional products have helped bring together not only Macromedia employees, but the greater community that surrounds the company and industry, which is even better than what I thought originally.
Also, I need to fix the typekey thingamajig so people can post comments. Thanks Peter!
Posted by mark at 3:17 PM. Permalink: Corrections Department: Macromedia Promos Baton | Comments (0)
November 20, 2005Promotional Products Make Employees Proud at Macromedia
Of course we give promotional products to existing and potential clients, but they're also a powerful tool for increasing brand awareness and loyalty amongst employees. Case in point is the recent blog baton being passed around by Macromedia employees to describe their favorite Macromedia promos. Since Macromedia was recently bought by Adobe, there's some speculation that "all our Macromedia gear may be worth on eBay some day," but more importantly, according to Kim Cavanaugh, who started the baton, "I'm sure there are plenty of other folks who proudly wear the "M" logo, and will miss it when (and if) it goes away."
A round-up of some of the top products from employees around the globe after the jump...
Selections from Kim Cavanaugh's list:
Total Macromedia Shwag in your possession:
10 t-shirts (My brother once asked me if I owned any shirts that didn't have the Macromedia logo on them.)
Oldest Macromedia shwag in your possession:
A white t-shirt with the two-color MM logo circa version 4 of Dreamweaver/Fireworks/Flash. It's been relegated to the lawn mowing t-shirt pile, but I haven't brought myself to part with it yet.
Most Unusual Shwag:
The lap blanket is pretty unique. I think it goes to big shots who visit the MM mothership for sales meetings. At least that's how I got mine. :-)
Shwag you wear/use most often:
The Macromedia backpack. I use it everyday carrying stuff back and forth to work and for whatever laptop I'm using at the moment.
5 Favorite Macromedia schwag items:
Fleece jacket. I don't get to wear it that often, but it sure is comfy when things cool down.
The original "" Contribute shirt. I have four of those, and they're in constant rotation.
The backpack of course. It's just the right size to hold the common things I carry around--iPod, magazines, Tums, Advil, notebook and other odds and ends I don't want to be without.
Team Macromedia long-sleeve cotton shirt. Great fishing shirt. Really. Nice and cool.
Ball caps. Keeps that patch of bareness on the back of my head covered in the sun and looks cool to boot.
Abdul Quabiz in India writes lists his favorite items, and adds:
It is a good feeling to get any Macromedia goodies but it used to be great feeling when I received these for my contributions, answers, efforts...It has been more than five years, I have been associated (externally and now internally) with Macromedia, I can proudly say Macromedia is a great company.
Back in America, Peter Elst has some similar thoughts:
There are apparently some cool MM branded coffee mugs around as well so will definitely have to try my best to get hold of one of those. I can’t wait to see the experts on the ‘antiques roadshow’ talk about the value of all my goodies in 50 years time, I’ll be a wealthy man I tells you. That and the profound inner peace of having worked with the greatest darn bunch of people known to mankind, thank you Macromedia!
Obviously, the promos alone aren't what made employees love Macromedia, but a combination of factors, including using promos and creative ideas like passing blog batons to discuss them, made Macromedia employees feel like they were an important part of the company. Promotional products are tangible items that become a part of employee's everyday lives and their role in the process shouldn't be overlooked. Sure, it's just stuff, and there's nothing expensive or extravagant on the best of lists I've seen, but they're gifts, and a way of welcoming employees into the Macromedia family. More than just stuff, they convey a thought, and it's the thought that counts.
Posted by mark at 10:11 PM. Permalink: Promotional Products Make Employees Proud at Macromedia | Comments (0)
November 18, 2005Faith in Promotional Products
In South Yorkshire, England, a struggling church with the help of a PR Agency used promotional products to increase their congregation from 5 to over 50:
"We came up with the idea of Church Lite and slogans like '50 per cent Less Stuffy', 'More Conversation Than Conversion' and 'More Doing Good Than Do-Gooders'. And we gave away light bulbs and a water spray we called a Calming Spritz, with messages about how the church could do the same job."
Now a documentary about the turnaround is set to premiere on TV, better buy more pews.
(from Yorkshire Today)
Posted by mark at 9:04 AM. Permalink: Faith in Promotional Products | Comments (0)
November 17, 2005Blogworthy Promotional Products
Bloggers will write about anything and everything, including their favorite promos. Here are a few blogworthy promos that I've come across recently:
a small foldable set of screwdrivers, useful, fun and well made.
a 128MB USB key, very useful and fun.
a light that plugs into a usb port and has a flexible neck, very useful, very shiny, very fun, very well made.
(from digital detrius)
a 256K flash memory dongle that I use a lot.
a really nice conference bag that has big pockets, but it wore out after like 10 years of use. It was from the 1996 Netscape Developers conference.
(from get real)
Intel 64 sports sweater.
(from lewis moten)
Way to go Netscape Developers Conference tote! Think about it, a promotional product that the recipient was writing about ten years later. Now that's some powerful branding.
Posted by mark at 9:36 AM. Permalink: Blogworthy Promotional Products | Comments (0)
November 16, 2005Chalk it Up to Creativity: Chalkboard Promos
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If you're like me, your image of M.I.T. is guys writing endless equations on a chalkboard, so it's no surprise that the M.I.T. Advertising Lab Blog did a feature on this chalkboard coffee mug. However, they may not know that there are also Chalkboard T-shirts and Chalkboard Tote Bags. And all of them are fully functional, in the sense that they come with chalk and you can actually write and erase like a regular chalkboard. However, if your boss wants you to write "I will not interrupt when the CEO is addressing the company" a hundred times, you may need something larger. Like an actual chalkboard. Some tiny erasers would be cool, too. Then bad employees could be sent outside to bang them together. |
Posted by mark at 6:06 PM. Permalink: Chalk it Up to Creativity: Chalkboard Promos | Comments (0)
Promos Create Offline Awareness for Online Brand: flickr
How do you increase brand awareness outside the medium where your brand exists? Many years ago I worked on a consulting project for a cable television network seeking to do just that, and flickr is doing the same thing by giving away promotional buttons and stickers.
When you think about it, it makes a lot of sense. flickr is a brand that grew up online and has a devoted base of users. It's more than just a photo hosting service, they have a community of users who promote flickr on web sites and blogs. By creating promotional products for their brand, flickr allows these evangelists to raise brand awareness offline. This valuable because the vast majority of blog readers and already know, and probably use, flickr.
Their users were more than ready to evangelize offline, flickr ran out of promos within a few weeks. If I were them, I would reorder.
Image from flickrBlog
Posted by mark at 4:28 PM. Permalink: Promos Create Offline Awareness for Online Brand: flickr | Comments (0)
November 15, 2005Google Promos from Web 2.0
The Cool Glow Ice Cubes Google gave out at the Web 2.0 Conference were a big hit. Or at least they were interesting enough to show up in multiple blogs last week. They also gave out a Light Up Pocket Fan. The common denominator was that in both cases Google took advantage of the properties of the items themselves to reinforce branding. They didn't have anything to do with search per se (unless you were searching for your drink), but they did get attention and play off the familiar Google color scheme. If you don't believe me, check it out, even without seeing the imprint, they say Google:
Images from debris.com
Posted by mark at 4:04 PM. Permalink: Google Promos from Web 2.0 | Comments (0)
November 13, 2005Do Your Promos Relate to Your Business?
Although we might have suggested the Deluxe Tinker by Victorinox ® Swiss Army ® because a good brand name conveys quality and trust. I figure that would be important.
Posted by mark at 12:33 AM. Permalink: Do Your Promos Relate to Your Business? | Comments (0)
November 12, 2005Smart Schwag?
I just read a nice article at Media Post that notes "Promotional items are tangible, handheld "commercials" that people take the trouble to fly home with, display, use, and share." It also poses the question"Why isn't there more smart schwag that induces a meaningful, lasting brand experience?"
Great observation and great question! Part of the answer is that not everyone uses ePromos, more after the jump...
At ePromos our goal isn't just to sell quality promotional products, but to help companies and other organizations achieve their advertising and branding goals. The way I see it, there are two main components of a promotional product, the promotional part and the product part:
Promotional
Why do people buy and use promotional products that don't take full advantage of the opportunity to promote a message or reinforce a brand proposition? You could also ask why so many TV, radio and print ads for small companies fail to achieve these objectives. One of the benefits of a promotional product is that it is a form of advertising that is relatively inexpensive and accessible to many businesses that don't have the budget or resources to do other types of advertising or do them well.
Unfortunately, most promotional products companies sell products, not a service. At ePromos we train all our sales reps to understand promotional marketing, learn about each customer, determine their ultimate goals, and use that information to create a promotion product that works, not just sell a product. For many of our small business customers, we are their promotional advertising agency. That's why our Education Center features articles and case studies about branding and marketing, not just about products.
Products
Our clients who are ad agencies and large coporporations with well-defined marketing and branding goals may have a better understanding of the promotional aspect, but they aren't necessarily product experts. Luckily, we are. The variety of promotional products is practically infinite, and while we have over 7,000 products on our site, we can also source from over 600,000 products and produce custom items ourselves. We don't expect anyone to know as much as we do about products, even sophisticated marketers.
For clients of all sizes, one of our biggest obstacles is to get people thinking beyond the products they know, like pens, mugs and bags, and discover less familiar products that may be more suited to their business objectives. It's a tough habit to break, but our Account Executives are always happy to come up with unique product ideas. Our web site is also a unique promotional tool that we are continuously improving. For example, rather than search by product type, you can Start by looking at all our products, then filter by price or color rather than browsing down by product type. Looking for a $2 item that comes in red to use in your next campaign? You can, and if you click that link you'll see that there are 354 of them on our site and most of them aren't pens.
I could go on. This blog, our site and our whole company exist to help people do more with promotional products. Why aren't all promotional products as compelling as our favorite television ads? Well, we're working on it, we just aren't finished yet.
Posted by mark at 4:44 PM. Permalink: Smart Schwag? | Comments (0)
November 11, 2005ad:tech Promotional Product Roundup
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As promised, some of the promotional items we saw at ad:tech this week, including imprinted shot glasses, custom lanyards, a football stress ball, and a cool imprinted car. |
Posted by mark at 3:29 PM. Permalink: ad:tech Promotional Product Roundup | Comments (0)
November 9, 2005Desktop Real Estate and the Return of Push Media
I just noticed an article in Adweek about advertisers trying to get content on their customers' desktops. The article is about computer desktops and the return of "push" technologies (remember PointCast?) that send content to the user. I thought this quote from the VP of a photo-sharing service was interesting:
"If you can actually get any real estate on the desktop and have a persistent presence, it's the Holy Grail."
At ePromos we believe the exact same thing, but we're interested in the actual desktop, not just the virtual desktop. Physical desktop real estate is just as valuable for advertisers and isn't subject to the changes in technology or computer usage patterns (remember PointCast?). Great desktop promotional items grab valuable desktop real estate consistently and retain it over time. I'm not saying you shouldn't be interested in the return of push media, just never forget your customers have two desktops.
Posted by mark at 2:41 PM. Permalink: Desktop Real Estate and the Return of Push Media | Comments (0)
November 8, 2005ad:tech Day One
I dropped by ad:tech yesterday and we'll have some pictures of the promos we saw there. There were promotional products at almost every booth (many of which we had produced), and I thought it was interesting that companies who sell technology solutions to help people sell products use products to help sell their technology. Of course, ePromos uses technology to sell products to help these companies sell the technology to help people sell products, but that's another story. Also, I did see a big promo no-no at a booth that was giving away prizes to attendees: they weren't imprinted! The people working at the booth said it was because they decided to do the show at the last minute so they only knew a week and a half in advance of the show. Apparently they didn't know that we have over 500 promotional products that can be produced in one day. Next time around, they know who to call.
Posted by mark at 3:29 PM. Permalink: ad:tech Day One | Comments (0)
November 2, 2005Nail Your Branding
Looking for a highly-visible promotional product with up to ten different imprint areas? Look no further:
Via Brand Infection
Posted by mark at 3:32 PM. Permalink: Nail Your Branding | Comments (0)
Planning your next promotion? Find promotional items, corporate gifts and promotional marketing articles at ePromos Promotional Products, Inc.
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