So you’ve decided that you want to be advertising products for the rest of your life…
So it is time for you to be applying for admission to colleges and you have decided that you would like to major in advertising. Advertising is a relatively new field and it is often hard to find a school that offers advertising as its own major. The first thing you have to decide is what kind of degree you want to finish college with and then you have to decide what kind of college experience you want to have. If you are majoring in advertising because you are very creative and artistic then you may want to attend an art school. Art schools will help you to fine tune your creative skills and to graduate with a nice portfolio. Some art schools, however, do not offer a typical campus life with dormitories. Therefore, you may prefer a larger university that will give you a well rounded education. To help you with your choice we will take a look at an east coast college that offers advertising as a major.
Temple University
Temple is located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and is not for those who fear city life. Unlike most campuses that occupy their own secluded space, Temple University is right in the center of everything and everyone who is the city of Philadelphia. You hear traffic lights chirping while you sleep, a red light may make or break you getting to class on time, and public transportation is the fastest way to get anywhere off campus. These attributes may excite you or they may repel you, but no matter how you view the culture of Temple University, you will absolutely leave that school with a solid education in advertising.
Temple’s advertising department is split up into four tracks that students may choose to follow. Your first year you will take general classes which include Intro to Advertising in which you will get to role play that you are advertising products for an advertising agency to give you real experience on your chosen career and how you fit into that world. You will take Intro to Media and Society in which you will learn the progression of media and how advertising products has changed with technology and will continue to always change. You will take Intro to Advertising Research because behind every great campaign there must be the proper facts to back up the strategy that you choose in advertising products. Lastly, you will take persuasive writing because the core principle of advertising products is all about persuading consumers.
Your second year you will delve deeper into the separate aspects of advertising. You will take Advertising Strategy and Positioning which teaches you how you come up with successful ideas for advertising products. You will take Media Planning I which gives you a basic understanding of how advertisements just placed and tracked. Then you will take Visual Communications which helps you to see all that goes into choosing graphics, symbols, and type. Lastly, you will take Intro to Copywriting because it is important for everyone in the advertising field to know the basics of how to get their ideas for advertising products across to the consumer or even the client.
Your third year you will choose a track. Whether you choose the research, the management, the art, or the copywriting track, you will take two classes that focus specifically on your concentration. Then every track will take Creative Thinking in which you study the great creatives in history and their methods for coming up with such great work. The fourth class requirement for every track is to complete either an internship or to interview to get into Diamond Edge Communications, Temple’s own student run agency.
Your last year in the Temple advertising department, all tracks will come together for either a campaigns class in which you will work like an actual agency to create advertising campaigns for their portfolios or you can join the American Advertising Federation competition in which you create a campaign and enter it into the national competition. If you choose the art or copywriting track, the two tracks will collaborate with each other for Portfolio class in which they will actually be advertising products with a creative partner to build up their personal portfolio. Management track students will take Advertising Account Management to really learn what they would do in their future positions in an ad agency, while research track students will take Account Planning. All advertising students will take Interactive Media to learn about how advertising products has moved online in recent years. The last class that the students will need to take is Morality, Law, and Advertising because sometimes advertising products you do not agree with can present a personal moral dilemma or your particular pictures or words in an ad could cause a legal suit.
After all of that, you will come out of school four years smarter and with a Bachelor’s of Arts degree in hand. If advertising products is your passion, look into Temple University. Their hands on classes and experienced professors prepare you for the real world as you watch it right outside your door in the big city of Philadelphia.
Many of you have probably just survived the annual corporate summer picnic, complete with hot dogs, ice cream, soda, and maybe even a few beers. While all of these treats are to be expected at the event, along with the ever-anticipated performance by the company band (which could probably use some better talent), there is one more little treat that usually marks off the event: a promotional gift. While some colleagues may roll their eyes and toss it aside after picking up their grab bag, many often find these little pieces of appreciation worthwhile. A promotional gift from a company is more than just another piece of junk to add to the pile, it can actually be a valuable tool for your and your employer.
It is likely that many people won’t often use that heart-shaped stress ball a company hands out, or the mouse pads that hardly have any use these days. But, a well thought out promotional gift that will be used frequently by employees will be appreciated more and will result in more “free” advertising for a company when they are branded with a logo. When a promotional gift is both functional and relevant to employees’ needs, however small they may be, it will be well received and used on a regular basis. If a company spends a little bit of time recognizing the needs of their employees and making an effort to address their challenges through giving a promotional item, the workers will feel that their dedication and hard work is valued at their company.
There are many benefits of using promotional gifts in the workplace as a way of saying thank you or just as a way of recognizing and addressing employee needs and concerns. Here are a few tips to keep in mind when considering purchasing them for your employees:
- Quality counts. Employees don’t want any more junk to store in their desk drawers or items that break after one or two uses. Spend a few extra cents or dollars on quality items that will stand the test of time – remember, the longer your item lasts, the longer your logo will be out for people to see.
- Choose the item with a purpose in mind. Don’t just order 10,000 pens because they’re easy to hand out and “everyone can use one”. Sure, everyone uses pens on the job, but it may not be of such value as other, more considerate options. We mentioned before that the item should meet a need of your employees. Maybe you have overheard comments in the lunchroom about there never being coffee mugs available for employees to use, or that some departments need a way to transport files to meetings and conferences away from the office. Solution: Recognize their need and fill it. For this example, purchase some quality coffee mugs and stock the shelves of the break room, or buy some USB flash drives for the department that needs them the most.
- Shop around. There are many companies that find value in using promotional gifts as an important tool in their operations, and as such, there are many businesses out there dedicated to providing those items for any corporate gift-giving needs. Many businesses allow you to get free samples and quotes over the phone or online, so shopping around to find the best offers should not be too difficult. Find the company that can provide several options for your corporate gift ideas, as well as provide added discounts and assistance through the completion of your order.
- Make sure you send along the message of “thank you” or “good job” with the gift. Some companies choose to have those exact phrases printed on their promotional gift along with their logo, while others leave out the words and just print their logo. Either way works fine, but be sure that if you only include a corporate logo on the promotional gift that you also acknowledge the company’s appreciation and the value that employer brings to the organization. This can be done by including a small card along with the promotional gift, or through an announcement that is made when handing the gifts out.
- Consider the market your company targets when choosing a promotional gift for your employees. Not only do you have to think about employee needs and quality of the item when choosing the best gift, you should also consider your target consumer market as well. If you want your promotional gift to indeed be “promotional”, then you must think about how and where these items will be used and if they may be seen by those who can possibly be customers of your business.
There is certainly a lot to think about when choosing a promotional gift from your business. Hopefully these tips can help make the decision a bit easier and make your promotional gift an effective tool for acknowledging your employees as well as advertising your business.
Corporate gifts go a long way towards strengthening relationships both within a company and with new and existing customers. Small tokens of appreciation or items branded with a logo can do a lot for a company’s reputation while also making their brand visible to hundreds or potentially thousands of customers.
For employees, corporate gifts can improve morale in a team and help to motivate employees by offering up a little something that says “thank you” or “good job” and lets them know their hard work and dedication is valued. Whether it be a product branded with a corporate logo or a new gadget that just hit the market, employees take great pride in getting acknowledged and rewarded for their hard work. Some larger corporations choose to have something like an “Employee Recognition, Gifts and Rewards Program” that provides a bit of an incentive for people reach their goals. It has been proven that employee recognition programs are the best way to keep employees engaged and motivated to do good work, so the small initial investment on a company’s side is well worth it. Constant recognition of your employees’ efforts not only rewards the employees, but the company as well. Installing such a program can help reduce employee turnover rates, create a happier work environment, increase employee desire to work and produce great results, and establish a healthy competition within the workplace.
Corporate gifts are often a nice gesture and can work wonders on improving morale, but there is one thing that must be kept in mind when choosing a gift for employees: quality and usability count. If a product has a less-than-standard quality, it will likely not last very long, and it may end up in the garbage can soon after it was given out. A quality product that can stand the test of time and durability will continue to represent your brand well, be admired by the receiver and will continue to serve as free advertising for your business for years to come. Usability is also an important factor. If an item is handed out to employees that has little use, it will likely not result in appreciation from your employees or in increased sales or new customers. Choosing an item that can be worn well or serves an actual purpose will far outlast a product that sits on shelf and collects dust.
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When used as promotional products, corporate gifts can be a wonderful way to reward existing clients while also generating new business. Items like pens, t-shirts, flashlights, tote bags, and more can be branded with a company name or logo to increase a company’s reputation and raise awareness of products, services or upcoming events. Brand recognition is normally key to growing a business, and using corporate gifts or promotional products can definitely increase brand awareness and recognition. As a promotional giveaway, companies can almost never go wrong with the items that they choose to brand, and because one satisfied customer is likely to spread the word to his or her friends and family, your business has the potential to increase by almost three times.
Quality and usability are just as important with promotional items as they are with corporate gifts, but there are also other factors that need to be considered if you want to launch an effective promotional campaign. The place where your target market thrives should also be considered, as you want your items to be seen and used by those who would most likely turn to your business’ goods or services. For example, a company that makes baby products like bibs, diapers and toys, will likely not have much success handing out free products at a neighborhood basketball court. However, they would probably have more luck at a local children’s park where kids and their parents play.
Relevance to your industry is also important. While most promotional products like t-shirts or pencils can be used for any industry, it may, in some cases, be a good idea to relate the product specifically to your business. An IT firm, for example, may choose to create promotional pens to hand out to the first fifty customers in the store that day. While this is a great idea, one that may have more of a direct relation and impact to their business would be to hand out promotional USB flash drives imprinted with their logo. A car dealership may want to hand out free key chains with their logo or name on it instead of a calendar or planner. A golf course may want to give away free tees or umbrellas to their patron golfers instead of a mug which they likely will not use on the golf course. Identifying and targeting your specific market and tailoring specific products to them will greatly increase your brand’s equity.
Corporate gifts can be a great gesture of appreciation to your current employees or be a great introduction to your company for prospective customers. With their positive return on investment and motivational factor, corporate gifts bring a company many benefits. Relevance to your audience, quality and usability are the three important factors that must be considered when making a corporate gift purchase to ensure their optimal impact.
When doing business in the corporate world, it’s all about the promotional items. We all love receiving free presents, and promo products are no exception. However, there comes a time when our desk can only be cluttered with so much paraphernalia. If you really want to step outside of the box and grab the attention of your business partners, try giving them gifts that could actually come in handy or better yet, presents that are perfect for each different season!
First let’s get the dreariest of the seasons out of the way, yes, I am talking about winter. We might still get that giddy feeling with the arrival of the first snowfall of the year, but that excitement melts away as fast as the snow. Pretty soon, we find ourselves in that depressive state thanks to the frigid temperatures and deathly driving conditions, and come Ground Hog’s Day, we are crossing our fingers that the winter weather is soon behind us.
Just because Christmas is over, doesn’t mean the gift-giving ends there. If you really want to perk up your client’s winter woes, send them promotional items that will lift their spirits, but most importantly, ones that they can use! For instance, winter time is also dubbed the flu season, and nothing is worse than undergoing that nasty bug. To keep your business partners happy and healthy, send them a personalized hand sanitizer with your company logo. That way when they make it through the winter without a sniffle in sight, they can thank you. Another idea that is more practical is a promotional windshield scrapper that we all can use when up against our biggest traveling enemy…frost. And to round out the season of promotional giving, a nice pair of gloves is the perfect winter accessory.
With the long awaited spring season in our midst, it’s time to get back outdoors. Remind your clients that the warm weather is finally here by giving them a personalized cooler that is perfect to take along for those sunny day picnics with the family. Spring wouldn’t be spring without those famous April showers, but have no fear, you can be assured to stay dry that month with a company umbrella. Lastly, once the rain clouds move out, make way for the sunshine and most importantly, baseball season with a promotional cap and ball so you can have your own major league game without even making it to the ballpark.
With school out of session, it’s time to hit the beach for summer R&R and nothing says it’s time to relax like the perfect beach goody basket filled with the best promotional items to enjoy the sand and surf. Start off by giving your business partners a company towel so that even when they are on vacation from the office, they can still be reminded of your business. Any beach day would not be complete without games. Give your clients something that the whole family can enjoy. For instance, you can send them a promotional beach ball, sand bucket and shovel, Frisbee or football.
After three months of summer fun, it’s time to hit the books once again as fall rolls around the corner. Back to school shopping can be an expensive and daunting task, so here is the time when those bland promo pens and folders that we try to avoid shelling out come in handy. Send a school package stuffed with the perfect school essentials: pens, notebooks, binders, folders, etc. Another sign of fall is the holiday that all kids look forward to…Halloween! Now you can be a part of every child’s trick or treating experience by sending a personalized canvas tote bag that is perfect to carry as you traipse around the neighborhood for those sweet treats. You can even add to the loot by making your own personalized candy box!
Every company sends promotional items, but the trick is to think out of the box so that it’s your company that stands apart from the crowd. People get bombarded with items that end up sitting in the back of our drawers that always get tossed in the trash come spring cleaning. By thinking along the lines of practicality with a creative seasonal twist, you are sure to blow your clients away and make them really appreciate their business with you. With the changing seasons, switch up your gift giving ideas so that your partners can be reminded of your appreciation throughout the entire year.
Aside from swanky advertising campaigns, flashy billboards and word-of-mouth marketing, most businesses turn to another method when looking to increase their brand’s visibility: promotional products. While we may think that consumers are constantly inundated with unneeded items like free t-shirts, coffee mugs, pens, umbrellas, stress balls, and more, there is no doubt that having and using these products gets a brand noticed and increases a company’s value. This practice is nothing new; promotional products have been around since the time of George Washington and have been an effective marketing tool ever since. Today, promo items are more popular than ever, and everyone from small Mom and Pop stores to international retailers are using them to increase their brand’s value. Take a look at why promotional products have become so widely used and why they will remain an effective marketing strategy for many years to come.
A Brief History of Business Promotional Products
I bet you didn’t know that even the great George Washington had a hand in promo items! Well, it’s true; the first known promotional items were commemorative buttons dating back to the first American President’s election in 1789. Then, in the early 19th century, advertising calendars, wooden products and rulers become popular as advertising materials, but there was still no official “market” for these branded items.
That was until a printer in a small town in Ohio, Jasper Meeks, got a local shoe store to supply area schools with book bags carrying the store’s logo on it. This soon caught the attention of another printer in the same town, Henry Beach, and in fear of losing ground on this hot idea, he too began to print logos and company names on products. Soon, Meeks and Beach were printing on and selling items like card cases, fans, buggy whips, marble bags, and even hats for horses. It was a hit, and a small idea became a big deal for those making the products as well as for those companies displaying their names on the products.
In 1904, the industry now included 12 manufacturers that were creating promotional items, and they decided to band together and hold the first industry association meeting. They created the Promotional Products Association International (PPAI), which now has about 8,000 members around the globe. Companies realized that their brand, logo and even special events could be viewed much more widely than before and their sales and profits began to increase. Seeing the value in business promotional products, they continued to create them and supply local schools, sports teams and organizations with items and also began giving out promo products as corporate gifts to their employees.
Why Promotional Products Work
Studies from Baylor University have shown that promotional products increase the customers’ positive feelings and overall feelings of goodwill towards the company. These positive feelings ultimately translate into increased sales. One study from the Dallas Marketing Group & Promotional Products Association showed an incredible 51.3% increase of quarterly sales due to the promotional products distributed previously in the year. Promo products also work because they’re easy for both the promoting company and the vendor.
A company can buy relatively inexpensive items in large quantities and supply them to local schools or sports teams, give them away as a raffle prize, hand them out at trade shows, or supply them to employees as an appreciation gift. Unlike traditional business marketing materials, such as a brochure or print advertisement, promotional products are designed with the idea that the customer will retain the item and put the product to good use while being continually reminded of the business whose branding adorns the product.
These items work well and help the company increase sales and revenue.
The vendor, in return, has the ability to get many large-scale orders and repeating business. Often, the items themselves are low in cost when ordered in bulk, so the vendor can spend very little on the products themselves and charge a little bit more to their customers when they imprint their logo on the product, earning a considerable profit.
There has also been a lot of research done by the organization that started it all. In late 2009, the Promotional Products Association International (PPAI) designed a two-part study intended to evaluate a cross-section of the American consumer population about television, print, online and promotional products.
Here’s what they found:
- 94 percent could successfully recall a promotional product they had received in the past two years
- 89 percent could recall the advertiser of the promotional product.
- 83 percent reported that they liked receiving promotional products
- 48 percent would like to receive promotional products more often
- 69 percent typically keep the promotional product
Those are some pretty impressive statistics and living proof that promo items are effective for brand awareness.
The second part of the PPAI study focused on comparing promotional products to mainstream media (television, print and online advertising) and evaluating their reach, consumer recall, and reaction to each.
Here’s what they found:
- Promotional products were the only media that showed staggering results in recall and reaction.
- Compared to TV, print and online advertising, promotional products delivered higher recall rates of the company/brand, and/or the product or service.
- Consumers made a purchase after receiving a promotional product (20.9 percent) more often than after viewing a print ad (13.4 percent), TV commercial (7.1 percent), or online (4.6 percent).
Products and Uses
Many are often surprised at how quickly promo products became popular in nearly every industry, but when they realize just how many products are available for imprinting, it is easy to see that the options are almost limitless.
We have all seen the typical colorful stress ball or frisbee being tossed around the yard, the snazzy pens proudly displaying a local bank’s logo, or the boxy white t-shirt emblazoned with a big corporate logo, but there are many other effective ways for companies to display their brand.
Here are some lesser-known but very effective promotional products that have uses beyond gathering dust in one’s closet.
USB Drives: Especially popular in our all-tech world, USB drives are an easy way to promote a brand and help spread information about a company’s products or services. Because they can hold files, a company can attach a white paper, advertising image, or other marketing material to the USB drive and hand it out to prospective clients and customers.
Flashlights: A great idea for every industry, from manufacturing companies to schools, flashlights are a great way to help promote the idea of safety. There are many different kinds available too, so a property management company might want to purchase keychain flashlights to give to their prospective tenants, while an auto-supply company might want to give garages or dealerships clamp flashlights to be used when working on cars.
Eco-Friendly Tote Bags: The “go green” movement has swept the globe and everyone is trying to be more environmentally friendly these days. A great way for a company to show their commitment to this movement as well as provide a very useful item, tote bags are a good option for nearly every industry.
Golf Tees: It’s often said that many business deals are closed on the golf course, so this is a great option for any business looking to expand their current client base.
Custom Poker Chips: Especially popular for businesses surrounding casinos and resorts, custom poker chips are an especially unique way to promote your business. What may seem like just a little detail that would be overlooked by eager gamblers, poker chips are often in the forefront of play and examined by hundreds or thousands of players per day. Seeing the images of your logo on the chip will store in their memory even though they may be hard at work playing Black Jack.
With all of the new items that come out each year, we cannot forget about the classics. There is still much to say about the “old standbys”, like t-shirts, mugs, water bottles, and especially pens. There is no doubt that pens are in; personalized writing instruments are the most-recalled advertising specialty items (54% of respondents recall owning them), followed by imprinted shirts, caps and promotional bags. Among the “wearables” category, promotional bags were reported to be used most frequently with respondents indicating that they used their bags an average of 9 times per month. They also deliver the most impressions: each promotional bag averages 1,038 impressions per month.
Brand awareness is the most common use for promotional items, as many of the buying companies want their corporate logo or name to be visible to thousands of potential buyers.. Other objectives that marketers use promotional items to facilitate include new product introductions, employee relations and events, trade show handouts, new customer generation, dealer and distributor programs, employee service awards, and public relations.
Promotional items have also been are also used quite frequently in politics to promote candidates and causes. Like we mentioned in the History section, it all began way back with George Washington, and this tradition with promo items continues today. though many of the items, like pins, pens and stickers do not last that long.
Promotional items as a tool for non-commercial organizations, such as schools and charities are often used as a part of fund raising and awareness-raising campaigns. A great example of this was the Livestrong wristband, used to promote cancer awareness and raise funds to support cancer survivorship programs and research. In one year, the Livestrong campaign had 50 million yellow wristbands around the wrists of supporters, raising over $50 for cancer research.
Many high school and university sports teams also use promo products to help raise funds for their tournament fees, new uniforms or equipment updates. Teams will get t-shirts or other apparel printed with their logo and sell them to fans, family and friends to wear in support at their games.
There is also a lesser-known use for promo products: collecting them as a hobby. Most people would not find this fascinating, nor would they think of it as a profitable or worth while task. However, big brands like Coca Cola and Ford that have been effectively utilizing promotional items for their marketing and advertising initiatives have a long history of products that are now considered “antiques” and are worth quite a bit of money.
One of the best ways to use promotional products inside of a company is to use them to boost employee morale. It is a fact the the companies that have a system set up to give out rewards have a happier and more satisfied staff. Promotional products are great for this because they are one of the ways to feel good about working about a place. A company can set up a “competition” of sorts or a set goal that everyone strives to reach and reward all of their hard work with some of the company’s promo products.
When a company takes that extra step to include employees in marketing and development it benefits the company in the long term. Employees who feel that a company cares enough about them to offer a few extra bonus items during the year are more likely to remain employed at that company and to feel appreciated and continue to work efficiently as a valued employee.
Trade Shows
Trade shows and conventions have been a venue for businesses to get together and share information and new products with their competitors and customers for quite some time. The use of promo products at these events can help establish a company’s brand, and expand client relationships in order to create a lasting impression for products and services. Promo product use at trade shows has been quite popular and very effective. In fact, according to a study conducted by the Promotional Products Association International, 72% of trade show attendees who received a promo product remembered the name of the company that gave them the product.
With so many promo products to choose from, a company should be sure they are picking the right ones to make the best impact for the brand and ones that will correlate with their trade show marketing objectives. If the main goal is simply to entice visitors to the booth with the promotional items being handed out, toys and games are items that tend to attract initial attention. Food giveaways can also increase traffic toward a booth. If you want to provide more of a lasting impact for a brand, stick with classic promo products such as pens and key chains. Though these items may not seem very exciting for recipients, items such as these that provide a distinct function for users are often kept longer by recipients, meaning longer exposure for your brand. Another strategy to implement is to have promotional items correlate with the company’s products or services to help recipients better remember the brand. For example, companies in the travel industry often give away custom luggage tags. The best promo products are those that can catch the eye of a passer-by and be useful enough for that person to hang on to the item for many years.
When getting ready for events like trade shows, representatives not only need to think about the promo products being given away to potential customers, but also those needed to outfit their booth and sometimes even the representative! Items such as table covers and background displays imprinted with the company’s name and logo can provide excellent additional advertising and further entice visitors to your booth with its professional appearance. Outfitting employees in custom embroidered polo shirts and ID badge holders so they look clean, neat, and also more approachable for potential consumers is another great trade show tip. In situations like trade shows where there are often hundreds of companies and booths vying for attendees’ attention, it is important to do everything possible to make sure the brand stands out from the competition.
Covering the Expense Spectrum
One of the greatest things about using business promotional products is that they can be helpful to nearly all companies, large and small. A budget of only a few hundred dollars can still have room for great promotional products, though the selection may be a bit limited. A larger budget of a few thousand dollars makes things a bit easier, as there are more options available as far as products, color availability and design. However, promo products really can cover the expense spectrum.
We may just think of promotional products as cheap trinkets that are used to help a brand get noticed, but there are often quite expensive business promo products out there that are out to achieve the same goal.
Take, for instance, the celebrity gift bags that big companies put together for awards shows like The Grammy Awards, The Oscars, or The Emmys. These bags filled with high-end promotional items, are valued at upwards of $100,000 per bag. Last year’s Oscars included a bag with an $85,000 African safari with a personal chef, a $14,500 stay in Monaco, and a $7,000 trip to Connecticut, all sponsored by fabulous companies looking to increase their visibility. There is also a load of limited addition jewelry from the most exclusive jewelers in the world and vouchers for personalized fitness classes at high end gyms. Not too shabby. There is a catch, however. Companies that provide expensive gifts for celebrity attendees often ask that the celebrities allow a photo to be taken of them with the gift item, which can then be used by the company for even more promotional purposes.
Promo Product Return on Investment
No matter if a budget allows for $100 or $100,000 of marketing collateral, the buying company is always looking for a great return on investment. Common promo products have an incredibly great ROI and make this a new advertising initiative that is worthwhile. Many studies have been conducted to prove the effectiveness of promotional product ROI and have revealed that they are, by far, one of the best things to include in your advertising and marketing campaigns.
Most companies value their products on a cost-per-impression basis, where they compare the overall cost of an item to the number of times its advertisement was viewed by potential customers. On average, the costs-per-impression of popular promotional items are as follows:
- Promotional baseball cap: $0.002
- Personalized calendar: $0.002
- Logo bags: $0.002
- $3 custom pens: $0.002
- Shirts: $0.005
Compare these rates to TV ads, which generally have a much higher cost-per-impression, ranging from $0.007 to $0.019, or newspaper and magazine ads which cost about $0.033 per impression, and you can see that promotional products really are an economically great strategy for advertising.
Promo Products Are Beneficial!
Promotional products have a wide range of benefits for businesses including increased sales and product referrals, improved image to customers, and best of all, they can serve as a continual advertisement for the company for as long as a person keeps the product. The use of promotional products can affect the success of a business, and because of recipients’ positive attitude towards promotional products, businesses have been proven to grow by retaining current customers and helping bring in new clients.
Bottom line: If your company is looking to expand its client base and have yet to try promotional products, put this at the top of your list. Create a unique product plan, use identifying colors and logos and distribute them to your target audience. Then, monitor your sales and brand awareness over the next few months to see if your promo products are making the impact they have proven they can. There are great seasonal items available or products that can be used year round, so there is no excuse for not finding the right fit. If you’re thinking about gifts for a corporate holiday party, branded items to hand out to your employees, a great giveaway for a local club or organization, promotional products are the way to go!
Why are promotional products a must for your company? Most businesses face the same problem when it comes to marketing: finding a tactic that will increase revenue, while not having to spend too much on it in the first place. The perfect solution is product branding by getting your logo seen by as many people as possible. You are much more likely to gain 
increased business from increased exposure. It’s not just how many people hear of your company/see your logo, but also how often. If you hear of a company once or twice, you forget about it; but once they begin to build familiarity, you become interested. We’ve all heard of the term “household name.” This is paramount for a successful business.
There are plenty of ways a company can reap the benefits of promotional products, with trade how giveaways being one of the most productive. Major trade shows can draw hundreds of thousands or even millions of people. Now that’s a lot of advertising! Also, once your promotional products are distributed, imagine how many other people are going to see your brand. The best part of what we have to offer is that there is literally a product for everyone and anything that can be used to market your business.
Our products are successful because they create a win-win situation: your company networks and gains clients, while the clients are receiving a useful product from a company they will hopefully do business with in the future.
One of 
our best and most popular trade show giveaways includes personalized pens, such as the Dart Pen, which comes in six different colors. Pens are always successful when promoting a business because virtually everyone uses them. For our more eco-friendly customers, we have the Recycled Clicker Pen. This is a great way to show potential clients your dedication to the environment, as well as their business.
Another popular trade show giveaway is our Non-woven Budget Buster Tote. It is environmentally friendly, spacious, durable, and is available in 13 colors. It’s a perfect 
event giveaway because not only will customers go home with a practical gift, but they will also be able to use it to carry papers, other products, etc. during the trade show. This bag does it all!
Promotional products can be great for other things as well. Employers are always trying to find new and creative ways to encourage and motivate their employees. This can be done effectively by providing gifts or incentives. Our 20oz Bike and Sports Bottle could be given as a way to promote physical activity and healthy lifestyles among 
your staff. We also have a Personalized Breakfast Bag containing a breakfast bar, hot oatmeal, and a pack of hot chocolate. The Breakfast Bag is a great incentive to hand out to employees before a meeting. Even small things, like Personalized Stress Balls, or ‘I’m Appreciated’ Awareness Bracelets, can provide words of encouragement that go a long way.
Products with company logos can be given as gifts for specific occasions as well. Our company has a great selection of gift sets including the Sausalito and Hudson Mug Gift Set, which comes with a 16oz Travel Mug and a 13oz 
Ironstone Ceramic Mug, and the Sizzler 5-Piece BBQ Set.
Whether you’re looking to gain potential clients and gain brand identity, or motivate and encourage your employees, our products are perfect because we take pride in the success they bring to companies. Utilizing the promotional products that our company has to offer has the potential to dramatically transform your business.
