Promotional Products & Marketing Blog

The latest direct mail promotion from Constant Contact featured an interesting promotional gift that you don’t see very often – custom logo jumper cables!

Why jumper cables? Well, when the company began shopping for promotional items, they knew they wanted something that would “shock” recipients and get them excited about event marketing. Naturally, jumper cables ended up high on their list.  Constant Contact planned to send the direct mail piece to executives at Association of Conventions & Visitor Bureaus across the US, and they decided jumper cables were the perfect way to spark intrigue and attention among their primary audience.

The message of the campaign was:”You’re already great at events, but we can help give them a boost!”

Of course, the jumper cables weren’t strictly symbolic. Many executives appreciated receiving a useful gift that would keep them safe and prepared on the road.

This campaign demonstrates how thinking outside the box can send an important message. In this case, Constant Contact showed their prospects and customers that they are creative and enthusiastic company – and who doesn’t want that in a business partner?

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Earth Hour is a global event organized by the World Wildlife Fund that aims to raise awareness about the need for action on the important issue of climate change. Individuals, households, and corporations that choose to take part in Earth Hour participate by turning off lights and electrical appliances for 60 minutes on the last Saturday in March each year.

To encourage more businesses to take part in Earth Hour, WWF executed this creative direct mail promotion featuring a custom candle. The yellow candle was placed inside of a box  designed to look like a building with all of its lights on. As the candle is removed from the box,  the windows of the building go dark.

The WWF reported that thanks to the direct mail promotions they used prior to Earth Hour in 2010, corporate participation increased 260% from the previous year.

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Today I came across a report put together by Market Research Media that predicts massive growth in the popularity of virtual conferences and digital trade shows in the coming years. These types of online events are in their infancy right now, but MRM analysts expect “a compound annual growth rate of 56% [of the virtual conference marketplace] through 2015.”

I see the benefits of online trade shows, but the report got me wondering – what’s going to happen to trade show giveaways? I think it would be a big mistake for people to abandon trade show schwag altogether simply because the physical event has moved to cyberspace. In fact, I would expect the brand-building power of promo products to increase in the absence of a physical event.

If virtual conferences and trade shows really are the future, I anticipate direct mail promotions to grow in proportion. Companies can send out freebies via mail before or after the show to increase brand awareness and separate themselves from competing exhibitors. Only time will tell how this plays out, but I don’t expect trade show schwag to fall off the map completely – even if the physical trade show does.

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Here’s a lavish promo created for the launch of Red Bull Cola. Inside the custom bag is a custom box and inside the box are samples of the various natural flavors that contribute to the taste of Red Bull Cola. At the center is a sample of the cola itself. Overall a stunning promotional piece to show that the product isn’t just an energy drink, but also a great-tasting drink.

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Here is an interesting direct mail promotion concept: send someone information encased in a slab of concrete with a promotional hammer. It’s pretty much guaranteed to make a statement, but is it cool or really annoying? Surely it is incredibly wasteful from an environmental standpoint, but if it is more effective than 1,000 regular mailers does it even out?

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The 99 cent pizza slice place near us has a line around the block, and even ultra-fancy restaurants like Per Se are adding low-priced bar menus. It was only a matter of time before ad agencies jumped on the bandwagon. After all, they are often perceived as expensive regardless of how valuable their service may be. Grey Amsterdam created this tiny direct mail piece to highlight their new “Lite” offering: small projects at small prices to accommodate the budget-minded client. What’s next? Corporate law firms slashing their hourly rates? Corporate CEOs rolling back their salaries to mere tens of millions instead of hundreds of millions? (via Direct Daily)

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A couple months ago, we featured a free bag offer from PADI, the world’s largest scuba diving organization. It seemed like a very appropriate giveaway to entice divers who might want to subscribe to their magazine. A couple months later, we received this offer, which is cute, because you typically dive with a dive buddy. (For safety!) It’s also, perhaps an economic indicator that shows it’s getting harder to get divers to shell out for a magazine subscription.

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Everybody loves WordPress, right? So what could be a better combo than WordPress and free stuff?

While one giveaway offer had to take a break due to overwhelming demand, it seems they are coming out with some new gear. They even have a flickr photo pool for WordPress Apparel. Does your brand not generate this kind of interest? Perhaps you should develop some kind of incredibly useful free software.

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Here’s a direct mail piece that aims to raise awareness about water conservation. Of course, 41pounds.org estimates that reducing your personal junk mail for 5 years will save 700 gallons of water. Arg.

This security service sent out bullet casings with a message inside saying, make sure you don’t see the other part of this bullet. Presumably sales reps followed up with a call explaining that it would be a shame if something happened to you while you weren’t adequately protected. I could see this promotion having a pretty great response rate.

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I got this package of chocolate-covered grasshoppers yesterday. By FedEx, no less. It was addressed to me care of Everybody Loves Free Stuff, so it seems this blog is the primary source of my influence. According to some research by Mike from our marketing department, “5000 of the most influential people in North America have been sent five chocolate grasshoppers with the hope that they will inspire, engage conversation and raise awareness for the services of Grasshopper.com.”

What can I say? I’m not going to disagree with them. I was already a fan of the grasshopper tacos at the Galaxy, so I’ll definitely eat them. I don’t necessarily need an advanced phone number for entrepreneurs…yet, so I don’t have anything to say about their service. Still, this was a creative promo featuring a product that was unusual and tied in perfectly to their brand name, and they clearly took the time to send it out to folks who could give them plenty of online exposure. Well done, gentlemen!

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