Hat GWP

Filtrate have got a good promotional campaign on at the minute- whenever you buy a pair of sunglasses you get this free baseball cap:

Baseball cap GWP

This is a very good pairing of promotional items, as when it is sunny you not only need some sun glasses but also a hat!!

Pairing promotional items like this can be a successful way of increasing consumer interest in your seasonal products.

Free gift with kids shoes purchase!

Shoe company Umi are offering a really good promotional Gift with Purchase for consumers of their children shoes:

Shoes Free gift with purchase

  Any consumer that buys a pair of children's shoes will get a free ten piece sand art set. This is a perfect promotional product for the target audience, and very unique! This campaign is to promote the company's website, and a very good seasonal product.

Beach Towel Gift With Purchase

In Canada, General Mills has started a very interesting gift with purchase campaign with special promotional packs of cereal. A free GWP beach towel is utilized for the campaign as seen below:

Consumers can claim their free gift after collecting PIN numbers from special promotional packs from General Mills. These designs are very colorful and vibrant making them a very good seasonal promotional product to use in these type of campaigns! 

Raise Money with Unique Logo'd Gear Merchandise

Back-to-school is an exciting time for students and parents, but it's also a time for picking up the annual fund-raising gauntlet. Sports teams, academic clubs, and other school organizations are all vying for the dollars of the same friends, neighbors, and family.

A unique approach is to put together a custom catalogue of goods from  Logo'd Gear. The high-quality products from Logo'd Gear include merchandise for every taste and price range. From clever little custom-designed erasers to sell for less than $1 each, to high-quality clothing and backpacks, Logo'd Gear offers school spirit merchandise that relatives and neighbors would be pleased to buy.

For the kitchen, groups can put the school mascot on aprons, cutting boards, cups and plates. Candy jars and bag clips, mugs and refrigerator magnets come in exciting styles. A palm-sized grater is handy for kitchen or camping. Fido and Fluffy don't have to be left out; Logo'd Gear offers pet food bowls, too.

Everybody needs simple hygiene items. Combs, compacts, emery boards and nail files can all be decorated with the school colors and mascot. Travel needs like soap and shampoo, lotion and hand sanitizer, can be bought in bulk and sold by the unit.

There is no need to use generic school supplies. Logo'd Gear can put school spirit into pens and pencils, rulers, binders, and notebooks in exciting styles and a variety of sizes. Both plain and twist crayons are available. School pouches, calculators, and highlighters can be found in a multitude of styles and customized for any group.

These suggestions are only the tip of the iceberg. Logo'd Gear sells branded auto kits, balloons, baby bibs, bird feeders, blankets, bracelets, candles, playing cards, sandwich keepers, waterproof beach cases, disc cases, and fanny packs. Multi-tools, flashlights, lighters, towels, mouse pads, and yoga mats

await printing. A browse through the Logo'd Gear site reveals just how many items are already available and waiting for a logo. If something can't be found on the site, that doesn't mean it can't be found. A call to Logo'd Gear will set their eager staff off on a search for the perfect item for any customer. The possibilities are limitless.

This article was written by Rigette Ric Saycon from Marketing Genius.

Ways to select promotional merchandise for your business

There are many different ways to promote your business or brand, including direct marketing, advertising, digital marketing and corporate events to name a few. One great addition to any of these are promotional giveaways and merchandise.

Branded promotional products offer an effective way to get your brand in front of more people than you realise and, unlike other advertising media which is often seen once and forgotten, promotional gifts are kept, subsequently promoting your brand and/or message time and time again.

It is, however, very important to consider what you are trying to achieve with your promotional merchandise and choose products that will appeal to your target audience.  For example, if you are a construction company, branded promotional hard hat products would be a suitable choice.

If you were exhibiting at an event and wanted to provide visitors with giveaways you could choose smaller items such as promotional pens, printed keyrings, bottle openers, trolley coin keyrings, branded mobile phone holders or lip balms. These are all products that will be used again and again and have been proven to increase brand awareness, as they are items that people need and use daily.

If your clientele are office workers then you may decide to giveaway office products that could be kept on their desk thus keeping your details within easy reach every day when they require the services that you offer. For example, office paperclip holders, sharpeners, rulers, mouse mats, calendar pods, pens or branded mugs are all items that they would use daily.

Dressing your employees in a corporate uniform or personalized clothing is another way to get your brand in front of people and raise awareness . Especially if you have employees attending an event, corporate clothing is the perfect way to make your staff stand out from the crowd and expose your brand to more people. Polo shirts, jackets, ties, caps and bright clothing can all easily be branded with your company logo so that as many people as possible see it.

When choosing which products to go for you also must consider your budget and volumes of products that you require. In order to predict volumes you should consider the size of your company and also customer base. Who is your target audience? The number of people predicted to attend the event that you will be appearing at?

When the budget, style and qualities have been decided, it is then essential that you think about the design that you want your promotional products or corporate clothing to be branded with and where to order your merchandise from. A goog promotional product distributor will help at the design stage, provide samples of your products before committing to the full order to ensure you choose the right quality product to reflect your corporate image. For bulk orders, it is often a good idea to ask the promotional distributor to store them for you and so that you call them off as you need them.

Don’t be afraid to ask for ideas. Experienced distributors will be able to help create lists and visual mockups of possible promotional products that should consider to ensure you choose a product that is ideal for your corporate logo and/or artwork.

There is no doubt that printed promotional merchandise can work extremely well as a marketing medium, but it is important to consider your objectives carefully and make sure that you choose the most appropriate products to meet those objectives.


This post was written by Angela Wagstaff at Allwag Promotions. Allwag Promotions offer an extensive range of printed promotional merchandise, branded business gifts and corporate clothing. Offering an express service on a wide range of branded promotional products from engraved corporate gifts to marketing giveaways. Visit http://www.allwag.co.uk for more information

The Eye Pillow : A Promotion that sends you to sleep!

Trying to think of an original an agreeable idea for a gift with purchase promotion? Well what about eye pillows?

Men like woman are troubled by all sorts of sleep problems. Eye Pillows are often a very efficient solution to them. The eye pillow, literally a small cushion trimmed to cover your eyes, is made for beauty & health purposes. It can be customized using various colors, materials, shapes, patterns and with the company logo.

Silk eye pillows

These soft and cooling eye pillows serve as :

• mood tonic
• antidepressant
• headache remedy
• detoxifier

As an example Skinlab did a  Ramadhan and Aildilfitri promotion in Malaysia whereby  if a customer purchased when of their listed products he received a free eye pillow.

Promotional eye pillow by Skinlab

Grilling Shirts Gift with Purchase

In the United States of America, Wal-mart is presenting an interesting promotional campaign for Kikkoman.

Free grilling gifts with purchase

The promotion entitles consumers who purchase three Kikkoman products to a free gift- either a; basting brushing, a grilling apron or a grocery tote. This promotion shows us a good way to promote your promotions- by offering consumers the choice of gifts, it makes them feel like they are in control.

 In addition, it means that you a three times more likely to get different consumers interested!!  

Promotional products- Reusable Tote

As part of Sesame Street's online shop sale, the shop is offering a great promotional product; a reusable Tote!

GWP Promotional Product- re usable tote

Consumers can claim the GWP once they have spent over $50 on the online store.

This promotional product is very good for two reasons; primarily, like other promotional products it makes the customer feel special- they are getting a free product as a reward for their corporate loyalty.

Secondly the product increases your corporate reputation for being a eco-friendly firm by the product's re usability. If you look at almost any firm you will see a CSR report- ethical ways of doing business is picking up, and the best way to promote your company doing this is through an eco-friendly promotional product. It shows millions of your audience that your company has a heart!!   

Winter GWPs- Hat and Scarf Combo!

This Gift With Purchase from Hi-Tec is a very good seasonal promotion. When you spend over 50 euros on Hi-tec footwear, you get this scarf and hat combo worth 20 euros:

Scarf and Hat winter GWP

This shows us the importance of seasonal changes for promotions, do not let your promotions get old!!

Cereal Hockey Shirt Gift with Purchase

The marketing team at General Mills in the USA have given us here at the Promo Gift Blog another great example of a perfect Gift with Purchase!
The company's campaign promotes the Winter Olympics, by giving away free Hockey Shirts through a internet based token mechanism.

Cereal Hockey Promotional Campaign

On every promotional pack of cereal the customer gets a code, which they input through the companies website and once they have enough, redeem a free hockey shirt. This kind of promotional campaign is good, as consumers can spend up to US$5 on the cereals to get the hockey shirts, more than likely covering costs used to produce the promotional products.

It is a win-win situation for everyone! The consumers get a free shirt with their purchase of cereals, and the company gets to promote its products and increase sales!!  

Promotional Scarf Gift With Purchase

As part of their promotional campaign, Nintendo is offering a free Scarf with any purchase over US$20.

Scarf Promotional Gift with Purchase

This campaign is found on the Toys-R-Us website. It is a perfect example of a great promotional gift with purchase, utilizing the famous computer gaming character, Mario.

These kind of promotional products can be a great incentive for consumers to purchase your products, and makes them feel like they have earned a reward for their custom.

Promotional products do not have to cost the world to produce, and cost effective products like this can be a perfect marketing incentive for consumers to boost your sales!!  

Associated Promotional Campaigns

Associating your brand with a big event can be very useful for improving your corporate identity, as we can see in this promotional campaign from Capri-sun in the UAE. The company has teamed up with 20th Century Fox for the promotions of 'Rio' the company's new film.

Brand Association- Drinks Campaign

Included in the promotion is the chance to win one of 200  Rio DVDs and a 50 Xbox with Kinects!!

The two companies have devised a picture book: ' My Capri Sun Rio Booklet' as a free gift with purchase on any promotional ten packs of the drink.

 This is a perfect way to open up your products audience. We have seen how advertisers use big sporting events to promote their company, so why not use other promotional events?
  

Scratch & Win Cards : A successful promotion concept

No matter what field you're working in, whether sports, consumer goods, or even events, Scratch & Win Card promotions are always highly successful. They grab your customers' attention and create a form of interactive promotion in between you and them.

Scratch & Win card for charity association

The concept is simple. Each time a customer buys one of your products he has right to a Scratch & Win card. In order to know if his one or not he needs to key in his details into your website. A lucky few win.

Scratch & Win promotions have proven efficient on many different levels and for many varied  purposes:

• enhance brand awareness : imagine thousands branded with your logo present in your major distributors locations
• increase sales : the perfect incentive to buy
• increase customer loyalty : customers keep coming back for more
• enrich your customer database
• boost your fundraising efforts

One fun fact to keep in mind is that studies have shown that people interact 10 times more with S&W cards than with coupons, even though with coupons bring sure benefits whereas S&W cards are uncertain. So remember : people love a game!

Scratch & Win card promotion by Ben & Jerry's Ice cream

Promotional Sports Campaigns

The Adirondack Phantoms (American Ice Hockey team) have given us an example of a great sports promotional campaign. As part of their seasonal promotions the company is giving away a whole host of branded goodies!

These include:

• Jimmer Fredette Bobbleheads
• Youth Jerseys
• Winter Hats
• T-Shirts
• Team Posters

In house mass marketing campaigns like this can be very good to promote corporate identity and promote sales!

Using items like bobbleheads can be unique and catch the customers eye. However, remember to use someone famous to endorse the company or a character from a marketing campaign. Nobody wants a bobblehead of a CEO they have never heard of!!

Promotional Bobblehead

This example of a bobblehead shows us that promotional products can be fun as well as a useful tool for gaining corporate identity!

  

Trampoline: The bouncy new promotional product

Looking for an up market, original and fun promo gift idea? Well look no further

Indeed several big brand companies, for example Nutella, Paul's milk or Wonder White, have carried out promotional campaigns where customers have the opportunity of winning Springfree trampolines. The process was simple: each day, one customer of their brand won a trampoline.

Promo trampoline by Springfree & Nutella

Promo trampoline by Paul's milk

This type of promotion is very interesting as, unlike with most promotional offers - where the strategy is for every customer to win but only a low value gift - here only one lucky client wins, but he wins a very valuable and desirable gift.

What's more this type of promo advertises two brands rather than just one, enhancing the visibility of Springfree and increasing the sales of its partner promoter.

Trampolines are a great example of quality promotional gift but one can easily think of others from sport/gym equipment to massage chairs!

On pack Promotional Product- Carrier Bag

As part of its marketing campaign, Bacardi Breezer have introduced a new on pack promotional beverage carrier. This carrier looks very cool. It is very practical for carrying bottles, as it is specifically shaped to house beverages:

Promotional drinks carrier

The packaging of this product helps it get product differentiation. The beverages are housed in a hexagon shaped plastic packaging opposed to the normal cardboard crate used in the beverage industry:

Promotional Packaging

This kind of innovative packaging makes consumers more aware of your product, as it catches their eye on the shelves!

The free carrier bag included in the packaging is a perfect kind of promotional product; relatively inexpensive, with an innovative twist on a classic promotional gift!

On Pack Promotion meets Cultural Designs

San Miguel, the world wide beer manufacturer were involved in a very interesting promotional campaign in Hong Kong, at Seven Eleven stores. This cultural promotional campaign can teach us a lot about constructing global marketing strategies.

Promotional Products meet Cultural Designs!

As seen above the special designs influenced by a Feng Shui masters, wishing consumers a happy Chinese New Year and prosperity. This is the perfect cultural promotional campaign; the packaging will jump out at consumers when they are looking for a drink, it catches the eye of the consumers and reminds them that the corporation is in touch with them.

By taking into account culturally significant dates in the Far East such as; Chinese New Year, National Day, or Diwali you can make sure that consumers in some of your smaller markets remember your brand!

Promotional Beer Products

This is an interesting promotional package from the beer company, Corona. To promote their product (typically a 'summer beer') through the winter months they have come up with an ingenious winter promotional package.

Promotional Beer Campaign

Included in the package is:

• Poster
• Inflatable Igloo
• T-shirt
• Ear muffs
• Stress balls

Beer Promo Package

These branded goods are perfect to get consumers in the party mood while advertising your company! The Inflatable Igloo is a very interesting promotional product, with enough room at the bottom for ice and room for your beverages at the top, a very innovative product for the beer promos industry.

This is a perfect example of how a traditionally seasonal product can be into a product that is used all year round with some clever marketing tools and promotional products.

Promotional Fitness Products

This is an interesting idea from Nestle brand Fitness, when you buy selected packs of the cereal, save up the tokens to get a free set of branded scales!

Promotional Products- Scales

This promotional campaign shows us the benefit of perfectly picked promotional products. The product itself promotes well being and consumers becoming fitter, so the promotional product is supporting that asking consumers to test the product by weighing themselves!

These kind of products make a perfect match- something that proves your products worth!

Variables to take into consideration before choosing promotional products

When choosing a promotional product for your company many variables should be taken into consideration:

• Target Audience- In any business capability a manager should know who their target audience is- this determines how you market your product, and ultimately your business. This is paramount in choosing your promotional products, as it would be pointless choosing iphone cases for a target audience of 60+, similarly using Parker pens for a target audience of 3-5 year olds wouldn't work.

• Market share- This dictates how much liquid assets your company has and therefore availability of resources. If you control a sizable share of the market, you have to become innovative in your promotional products and campaigns as all potential competitors will be looking at you.

• Competitors- By looking at how competitors are either marketing or utilizing promotional products you can see what kind of products work on your consumers. Watch the market leaders, and find out how they utilize promotional products and develop it for your own company,if you are a market leader then look at smaller companies- often they are better at innovation, so you could learn a lot from their campaigns!!

• Cost- The smaller your company the less disposable capital you may have, so inevitably your are not going to be able to run nationwide campaigns with thousands of promotional products, however often quality is better than quantity. For example if you were a small company and you brought your top 50 customers high end branded gifts such as metal business card holders or other office equipment, this would be more effective in maintaining these customers and possibly get new ones by word of mouth than buying 50,000 pens and giving them away at a convention somewhere.

Promotional Products!

You should always take into account these issues before you start your marketing campaign as they are free and relatively easy considerations to take into to account before you risk a high investment!

Promotional DVD- Streets Paddle Pop

Australian ice cream makers, Street's Paddle Pop show us an example of how your brand identity can be lucrative to your company.

The corporation has just started a promotional DVD with the Paddle Pop lion,a character from the companies marketing campaigns. Every time a consumer buys two multi-packs of

the ice cream they get a free Paddle Pop DVD. This free gift with purchase campaign can be a very successful way of cashing in on your successful character based advertising.

Promotional DVD

These type of promotional campaigns can help your company if you already have brand recognition on a character based product. And can boost your sales especially if you have a target audience of children.

This kind of campaign is very risky however, because a big investment must be put in for construction of a DVD, however it can be a high reward for the right companies! So make sure that you take this into account before you make your own DVD:

• Do you have the correct target audience to release a DVD?
• Do you have enough capital to risk on production?

Promotional Gifts: Rewards

Promotional gifts do not only have to be a source of promoting your business, it can also be a source for rewards to loyal customers. A good example of this is on Jobs Database.com (the international HR tool). As a reward mechanism the company is giving away branded promotional products to loyal customers. To receive these gifts the customers gets bonus points every time the customers spends over $100.

The first is a branded metal name card holder, which the customers gets after they gain 110 bonus points, and secondly a branded Organizer, which the customer gets after 100 bonus points:

Promotional Rewards

These kind of promotional gifts can work very well as high end gifts specifically for companies, as they are the kind of accessories that most corporations use.

National Day Promotions

National Day in China is the perfect time to promote your company through promotional products, here is a good example of this for the National Day 2011:

National Day Promotions

By using these 'goodie bags' you can increase brand identity and corporate recognition. Another good idea is to use collective clustering marketing for this type of mass marketing. Find Complimentors of your company and other local businesses to collaborate towards the cost for the 'goodie bags'.

Similar holidays are ongoing around the world, national holidays in China, Hong Kong and Malaysia.