Promotional Product International

Article from Michael Crooks from Crooks Advertising Alliance.

I’m sitting here staring in disbelief at an $83 UPS bill for 4 lightweight, plastic calculator samples that look like Lego® blocks. When I ordered the samples, I didn’t know that they were being shipped to me DIRECTLY FROM CHINA! Now I’ve got four, $5 samples that cost me north of $20 each. After a bitchy email back and fourth with my supplier, I find out that I can’t show them to anyone anyway.
Why? Because in addition to my hissy fit over the freight cost, I complained that the numbers on the calculator, that are the same color as the buttons, don’t show up as well as they did in the photo on which I based by decision to order the samples. I was informed that the product is being remanufactured to correct that problem. Great! I now have 4 calculators that do not accurately represent the final product. And I’m not likely to spend another $80+ to get the new ones...

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Within a few days the sporting event of 2010 begins, the World Cup in South Africa. The Orange madness is already completely broken out, a few of the World Cup gadgets: World Cup hands, dangling, Gogos, encourage horn, Beesies, orange plophat and ING Bank personal debit card.



The winners of the World Cup action, according to the survey, are the Bavaria-orange dress and the remote controlled cooling server of Grolsch.

The gadgets are getting crazier, more advanced and cooler ...
Let's hope the Dutch team will be World Champion.

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This year the Orange-Crazyness for the World Cup of Soccer began a lot more early than the past years. For the people who don't know what the Orange-Crazyness is; in Holland (The Netherlands) you have the best supporters of soccer. For every championship the supporters go crazy and dress themselves into orange as much as possible. Things like orange hair, orange faces, orange clothes. Actually every spot of the body is orange.

Most of the companies did not only begun earlier by ordering promotional supporter products, but most of the companies also made it bigger this year. The &Co Concepting and the Trendbox announced this last Thursday. The two agencies are initiators of the Orange Barometer which examines the different promotional actions.

See here below some examples of the Orange-Crazyness!!

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What's new in the world of marketing?

Let’s take up our arms and let’s join the cause of Guerrilla Marketing or radical marketing ...

For those who don’t know what the Guerrilla Marketing means; it’s an “aggressive and flashy” marketing technique. They reach and achieve goals through non-conventional ways not seen before, like using alternative strategies in order to capture niches with a small budget, but with a lot of creativity!!

See here some good examples of Guerilla Marketing!!


Guerilla Marketing for Playboy ...

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These days, well over half of the promotional products/advertising specialties/premiums used originate in Chinese factories. That’s the reality of it. And, there are reasons for it.
Quality has continued to improve, and there’s certainly a value and flexibility there that’s hard to achieve in the US for custom or labor-intensive projects. But there are many potential pitfalls which can cause take a toll on your time, your finances, and your sanity.

1. If you don’t have the lead time, don’t do it. You can think about it, but don’t do it. Even if your purchase order is very direct in indicating a bill of lading date by which you require shipment, most factories regard this as a strong suggestion, and don’t understand just how important it is for your client, especially when the goods are being used for something like a date-sensitive special event. An agreement for the specific stages of the production plan and the boat you’ll ship on helps. So does the ol’ ‘fake date,’ where you actually have an extra week to accommodate eventualities in case they occur. Of course, to employ this latter technique, you need the time.

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Mr. Mahesh Parab is an Indian dog trainer. He runs a personalized dog training service for high pedigree dogs in Mumbai.
He used a funny street marketing campaign to promote his services.

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Chinese new year 2010 celebrations will take place from the 11th to the 20th of February.
We will be entering the Year of the Tiger, year 4708 according to the Chinese Lunar Calendar.

These are the most important celebrations of the year.
Within this period, China presents the world's biggest human migration: millions of people travelling to their home place to celebrate the new year with their families.

For those who buy or import form China, be very carefull with the delivery dates you accorded with your clients as China will be completely paralyzed.

Many factories will be totally closed from 11th to 21st of February Anyway, we wish our Chinese friends a Happy new year and may them celebrate this event fittingly!

The temporary tattoo is a cheap promotional giveaway and very trendy, many big brands distribute temporary tattoos to apply in the skin, and mostly for children.

But few are those who really estimate the risk they are taking.
We must not forget that a temporary tattoos is applied directly on the children's skin and are made to stay from 5 to 7 days, leaving time to the components tu spread up in the tissues. Therefore, a temporary tattoo must not be considered as a simple sticker but as a product which has to respond to the requirements of the cosmetic industry's standards.

During the 20th world congress of dermatology that took place from the 1st to the 5th of July 2002 in Paris, Dr Martine Vigan, dermatologist at the CHU besançon, has sounded the alarm on this risk. In the composition of some temporary tattoos, we can find Paraphenylenediamine, which provoques late allergies. The result: the tattooed zone swells, turns red and itches. Even more serious, this allergy can lead to a long term hypersensitizing.

Some of the inks that are used to print some bad quality temporary tattoo, especially in Asia, contains CRM substances (carcinogenic).

How to be certain the temporary tattoos your company will distribute are 100% safe for children? That they won't contain toxic componenents which could provoque allergies, eczema or worst...Cancer?

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Wow this news comes from BPMA in England the photo looks like some kind of a MISS UK promotional product election, but that's not exactly what Gordon organised. :-)

Here is the very serious press release that explains more about the photo :

The bpma Academy Graduation – November 2009

The bpma held its second Academy Graduation Ceremony at the House of Commons on the 9th November, with 35 guests attending the special occasion. John Greenway MP has supported the bpma and particularly the bpma Academy, and proudly presented 20 students with their certificates alongside Adrian Ferrand bpma’s Director of Education and Gordon Glenister, Director General of the trade body.

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SOURCE: ODM GROUP

This week, the ODM Group brought clients to Hangzhou province in China for a pen factory audit. Located in the center of Hangzhou – Ningbo is a vibrant city famous for its active manufacturing industries and renowned port. Due its attractive location, for having raw materials readily accessible (plastics, acrylics and metals), it soon became the ideal location for many Stationery factories (a key supplier to the promotional products industry).

Over the years, there have been much competition between many Pen factories, in terms of design, quality and turn over rate. The Ningbo Pen factory that we visited was equipped with relative standard machinery for the region but has a great capacity for production with good raw material components and meticulous online QC..

First step: cutting steel bars for making different parts of a pen.


The ODM Group manufacture a few million pens each year for airlines, hotels and other key clients so we would like to share some of our expertise in manufacture processes...

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The boards of the British Promotional Merchandise Association and Promota have agreed that the two associations will come together in the spring of 2010 to form one association, subject to ratification by the memberships at the AGMs of both associations in October 2009. The new Association will have a base of c.1,250 members.

Over the next few months, a working party, made up of board members of both associations will be working on the structure and detail that will benefit members of both associations.

The prime objective will be to offer both trade supplier and distributor members a strong platform to drive business and a framework that builds confidence amongst customers to buy from members. The new association will enhance the trade channel – supplier to distributor and distributor to end user, making it stronger and giving more clarity in the marketplace.

Rod Duncan, chairman of Promota said “I believe that this is a positive move within the promotional industry and having one strong association will be of great benefit to all companies who are members of the regenerated organisation”.

Gill Thorpe, chairperson of the BPMA commented “Undoubtedly the new association will offer members greater strength in the marketplace as well as a range of benefits that will help them in their everyday business lives. We are all looking forward to the completion of the amalgamation so that we can truly be one association for one industry and offer members a ‘best-in-class’ service”.

To learn more about Promotional product associations, click here.

Did you ever hear about the APPA ? For sure distributors in Australia and NZ did, but I'm quit sure that Europeans and Americans never did. Here is a small list with the main organisations and associations dealing with promotional products.

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TREVOSE, PA – June 24, 2009 – The Advertising Specialty Institute®, the largest media and marketing organization serving the advertising specialty industry, announced today the launch of pay-for-placement advertising on its network of LogoMall websites.

Pay-for-placement advertising boosts sales and product exposure by placing relevant products, such as best-sellers and new and innovative items, at the top of product search results on LogoMall websites. The program helps buyers quickly narrow their search and place orders with distributors faster.

LogoMall websites are used by ASI distributors and suppliers to market over 300,000 promotional products to buyers online, and the network of sites received over 800,000 visitors last month. LogoMall also harnesses the shopping engine technology used by Borders, Home Depot and Wal-Mart.

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Every one knows the temporary tattoo. This funny product you can buy, or get in an in-pack promotion (magasines, packs of cereals...). Millions and millions of them are sold each year.
Everyone knows the product but do you know how they are produced?

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By Sergio Luna Vargas, marketing consultant and university doctor.
(Mexique)

The colours we see everyday in shops or in the streets have a strong influence on our psychology and purchase decision.
The majority of the products and advertisements have a strong colour strategy element,, designed by specialists in this field, according to the relation each colour have with each specific product.

The physical colours we see around us are colours approved by people. The consumer decides which colours he likes and rejects the one he doesn't like. Very often, the sale will depend on the colour (of the packaging, of the product itself, etc.) as the great majority of the promotional products and ads of the market appeal to people's unconscious.

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This year we will celebrate China National Holiday from September 29th to October 5th.

During this week, the all country is totally paralyzed.
They commemorate the Foundation of the Popular Republic of China in October,1 th,1949.

The 7 days festivities are made of Fireworks, concerts, Saké and much more...

These holidays are synonym of congestion in airports and ports, and delays.
So if you import good from China, take care...

Happy National Day to the Chinese people... ¡¡ NIHAO !!

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With 70-80% of the sales of promotional products being done in Moscow, is the Russian market unbalanced? Where are advertising products produced? What are the most popular advertising products in Russia...? If you want to know more about the Russian market, you should read the second part of the interview made with Leo Kostylev from IAPP Russia.

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As every year, the two biggest USA based associations of our industry have released their 2007 sales analysis.

These two associations are the famous ASI (Advertising Speciality Institute) and PPAI (Promotional Product Association International).

What's their role : these two US specialized organizations federate almost every actor of their national market.
They supervise and regulate their national market's organisation, encourage growth of their business sector by providing informations and researches to their members.

The RESULTS: 2007 industry Sales in the USA have increased a 5.4% compared with 2006 figures - A NEW RECORD!!

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Today, Singapore is simply booming !

Its cultural adaptability, trade-friendly policies and geographical location make it very attractive for all businesses and this is great for the promotional products industry!

Influenced by both British and Chinese culture, Singaporeans perfectly blend East and West.

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Helen Martindale from P&MM in the UK, an online and printed catalogue sourcing company, wrote to DocLogo+ to announce the results from their Spring 2008 survey entitled:'What's in your car'.

This is the third in a series of national surveys that have been carried out by the company to establish the relationship between branding on promotional merchandise and sales.
The previous two surveys, which took place in 2007 covered ‘What’s On Your Desk?’ and ‘What’s In Your Bag or Briefcase?’...

These are the main findings identified :

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It seems that the Russian advertising market is a “new market” currently in great expansion. What can you tell us about this situation and the evolution of the market over the last 15 years?

The Russian promotional market is as young as the commonly Russian market economyand currently the most dynamically developing market around Europe

Here are some interesting information if you want to expand on the russian market.

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In the Olympics, medals are awarded to the top three athletes: Gold, Silver and Bronze. In a horse race, prizes are also awarded to the top three performers: Win, Place and Show.

But in promotional products sales, there is no prize for second place. We either make the sale and create a new client for our business or we don't. Create a new client for your business, and in addition to the satisfaction of a job well done, you will also get the following benefits:

• The ongoing revenue that comes from reorders
• The ongoing revenue that comes from additional orders from that client
• The ongoing revenue that comes from referral business from that client
• The ongoing revenue from the business and referrals generated by those referrals

Do the math and see that each new client represents much more money than just the revenue from the initial sale. It represents ongoing revenue that can benefit you for the life of your business. But when you fail to create a client, you get none of that!

This quote was sent to me by David Blaise from the USA, visit his website it's worth a look : www.topsecretswebsite.com

What is "Guerilla Marketing" ?

According to Isaac Belmar, expert in Marketing and Communication, the Guerilla Marketing is a marketing philosophy which is defending a non-traditional use of the media... Actually, its technique is to add another element to the media: a different and innovator one, which have a strong impact on the target appeal.

The key of Guerilla Marketing is to catch the attention... Which is possible if you manage to differentiate yourself from the dozens of competitors who are struggling to fill their clients' mailbox with tasteless promotions...

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After the Street marketing era...comes the "Beach" marketing time!

The Australian communication agency Rapp Collins dealt with the promotion of the fantastic documentary series SHARK WEEK, exclusively broadcasted on AUSTAR’s Discovery Channel.

During a complete sunny week of January, the crew scattered numerous "damaged" surfboards on Sydney's prestigious beaches.

The sharks' teeth mark is doubtlessly what caught the attention of onlookers in swimsuits...

And it's another successful communication!

Source:Directdaily-blog

I remember having on my booth at the PSI show in Dûsseldorf a big screen with a video displaying our new product, Fixmax. It was an excellent attraction and we were proud of it. Now, at least ten years later, you can display a video with your promotional product right on the computer screen in your clients office; We already became used to it and even if in our industry video is not used that much yet, it will for sure become stronger year after year. here is a funny example of a promotional product presentation video, This guy really does his ut most best to convince you.

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