Article written by Joanna Wiseberg from Canada.

A couple of weeks ago I met a colleague at Starbucks on Richmond St in Toronto for a coffee to discuss the launch of his new company. The topic of style and branding was discussed in depth and how important it is to the lifeblood of a company. We came to the conclusion that without a strong brand or unique flair, business isn’t even in the race. The logo/brand is what identifies the company every waking and sleeping moment, big business included. If the logo isn’t interesting, go back to the drawing board.

The conversation then took an interesting twist as I recalled when I started Red Scarf Promotions and my trip to Milan and Germany in 1994. At the time I was attending the Macef Gift Show and then went to Germany for the Igedo Fashion Fair Expo. I remembered how the sense of fashion, luxury, and design experience inspired me created a turning point in my career.

Red Scarf Promotions was under a year old. On the way home I knew I couldn’t keep quiet about what I had experienced. I took a leap of faith and carefully crafted my first newsletter and filled it with my European discoveries. It was jammed packed with European trends, colour forecasts, the fabric used in promotional apparel, business gifts and what Europeans value in terms of how they brand their promotions.

Needless to say the newsletter created quite a buzz and the return on this “huge” investment was fantastic. My enthusiasim motivated me to call one of my dearest clients at Bell Canada and asked her to try some coloured denim for one of her campaigns. The colours were beautiful…strawberry, grape, indigo and mustard. The phone didn’t stop ringing and as I type this blog there is a huge smile on my face. Wendy and I still discuss this from time to time over a glass of wine. We had a blast. The momentum and success of the campaign for Smarttouch Services was astounding!

As my colleague and I continued to discuss how vital the role of branding and style is for a company, I realized that over the past 9 years how much flair can be lacking in the Canadian Corporate marketplace. The promotional products industry has changed significantly in that it has become a sophisticated industry.

In the promotional products industry the selection is vast and products are looking more like retail items instead of boring, run of the mill promos. That white mug has been elevated to a whole new level and I’m thrilled about this as it makes my job easier in some respects.

The biggest challenge is trying to persuade corporate Canada to take their promotional products and “kick their flair up a few notches”. I believe the recession has had a negative and diminishing effect on our feelings of excitement for both the client and the distributor. It has been a tough road and will continue to be a long journey back but we must start feeling passion for fashion and vibrant communication again.

Safe is great but sometimes you just have to “go for flair… even if a bit cautiously!” This is the Canadian way…eh?

Article written by Joanna Wiseberg from Canada
Do not hesitate to visti her blog : www.redluxury.ca

RemaDays Europe 2012 is a unique fair event for the advertising gifts sector. Our exhibitors are manufacturers and importers of advertising gifts, suppliers of machines and the sector media. Our visitors are mainly distributors specializing in the sector of advertising gadgets and gifts, all other companies offering advertising services and advertising agencies.

RemaDays Europe is a fair open to all professionals, not only to those experienced, but also to all the other who want to invest their funds in developing this sphere of their business. The facts that the market of distributors is very dynamic and the value of their sales is variable should be particularly taken into consideration. Easy access to suppliers’ offer is a core value for both parties.

GJC Inter Media Company has been specializing in providing professional business tools for promotional gifts market companies for 10 years. The basic value of our activity is communication – we carefully listen to and analyse our customers’ needs.

There are 7 editions of successful RemaDays Warsaw fairs behind us with the number of 550 exhibitors and 11 000 visitors, and the second edition of RemaDays Kiev with 100 exhibitors and 2000 visitors. During the first edition of RemaDays Europe 2012 in Nuremberg we expect about 300 exhibitors and 10 000 visitors.

We will be honoured if you join us.
We invite you to participate in the fairs of all professionals.

Contact:

GJC Inter Media GmbH
Charlottenstrasse 68
10117 Berlin / Germany
Tel. +49 (0) 30 20 188 389
Fax +49 (0) 30 20 188 575
e-mail: info@remadays-europe.com
www.remadays-europe.com

We have almost 500 articles on the Promotional Product International Blog, which makes it more difficult to find the articles who talk about the promotional Product Market, its actors, its problems and opportunities!

But we are here to help !!

Here below, you will find a list of all the articles about Our industry:

To read the continuation of this fascinating article, click here

Article from Michael Crooks from Crooks Advertisng Alliance in the USA

Effective Goody Bag Marketing
Goody Bags may be one of the most powerful promotional marketing opportunities available to you. It’s certainly one of the most overlooked and under-utilized. The « Goody Bag » is that bag-full of « goodys » that is handed out to participants at golf outings, conferences, seminars and events to add value to participation.

Most companies mistakenly donate some « cheap » do-dad such as a pen, pencil or refrigerator magnet imprinted with their corporate info. The practice is long on « feel good » for the donators. But, because little or no actual thought usually goes into the donation, the practice has little or no real promotional value. Key Point: More important than the item you donate, is the idea behind what you imprint on the donated item. That’s worth repeating, because it’s the cornerstone of my theory on promotional marketing, « More important than the item you donate is the idea behind what you imprint on the donated item. » Because with a little more thought you can turn a giveaway into a powerful promotion.

Here’s a couple of examples:
Two health-related companies. Both want to drive traffic to their website. Company 1 imprints their website address on an pen and donates it to the goody bag. Company 2 donates a pen. But their imprint says, « Visit www.fakewebsite.com for 10 secrets to keeping your family healthy. » Company 2 promises a benefit for visiting their website. The sad truth of the matter is, most companies do what company 1 did. Company 2 could have printed their message on a sponge a band-aid dispenser, or an antimicrobial light switch cover  it doesn’t really matter. What matters most is WHAT is imprinted on the product.

Remember, anytime you can tell people what’s in it for them — before they even ask — you’re a step a head of the game.

Main Benefits of Goody Bag Marketing It’s Free!
One of the biggest benefits of Goody Bag marketing is that most events allow you to donate items to the bag for free. Because most organizations view the Goody Bag as a benefit to the event participants, they will gladly accept just about any item you want to donate. That makes the Goody Bag a great free way to impact a target audience.

Extremely Targeted
The ability to specifically target your audience is another huge benefit of Goody Bag marketing. Whether your target is senior citizens, stock brokers, chamber of commerce members, business-owners or employees of a specific corporation, there is a golf outing, seminar, conference or other event that will give you access to your target.

The key to making Goody Bag marketing as effective as possible, is to think in terms of how the item you donate can generate phone calls, drive people to your website, your retail location or other wise secure actionable data that you can follow up on later.If you are a local retailer your goal may be to drive traffic to your store. If you are a B2B supplier or a non-profit, your goal may be to drive traffic to your website. Whatever your goal, it usually takes more than simply slapping your logo and contact information on a pencil, pen or note pad. It takes thought and planning.

Here are a few things to consider when planning a Goody Bag marketing strategy.

1) Determine Your Target: Make a physical list of targets either on a legal pad or in your computer. When creating your list, think in terms of industries, occupations as well as individual interest. For example, if you sell flooring, perhaps you’ll write down REALTORS, builders, interior designers and plumbers. If you sell computers, consider Chamber of Commerce, IT professionals and manufacturers, computer users. If you sell athletic shoes your list may include school athletic directors, gym teachers, fitness centers and marathon runners and podiatrists or chiropodists.

2) Research The Possibilities: Once you have a list of possible targets, research how to reach the target. Google « associations list » or « list of associations » and you’ll find resources for locating an association that represents exactly who you want to target. You can also do the same for « clubs », « service clubs » or whatever other type of group, club, association, individual or business group you are interested in targeting.

3) Contact: Contact them and find out what upcoming golf outings, seminars, conferences or other events they have planned. Once you learn of an event that interests you, find out if they plan to offer Goody Bags and if they are accepting donations.

4) Get Details: Get the details regarding event date, when items need to be delivered, if they have any rules regarding donations and if they have anything in particular they’re looking for. Note: be sure and find out specifically what’s NOT welcome for the goody bag. No sense investing in a promotional item you can’t use.

All of this information will impact the promotional marketing concept you’ll develop to effectively impact your target. Because the variables are simply too broad to address in a single article, specific tactics for using Goody Bag marketing and how to develop a meaningful promotion will be covered in future articles.

You can contact Michael Crooks visit www.CrooksAdvertising .com

When you join the promotional products industry, some of the first terms you hear are vector art and digitizing.
In the promotional products industry, prepress services like vector art and embroidery digitizing are as important (if not more) as promotional products, themselves.
After all, the reason companies choose to add promotional products to their marketing mix is to ensure that their brand names and logos are viewed repeatedly.

So what exactly is vector art?
Vector art is art that can be printed on physical products like mugs, pens and calendars.
Company logos from computer images must be converted into vector art in order to get clear, high quality art that can be printed on promotional products. Companies that use promotional products for the first time need to ensure that their logos are in vector format. Vector artwork is generally in the following industry standard formats: PDF, EPS, Corel Draw or Illustrator…
To read the continuation of this fascinating article, click here

Some news about the BPMA from Gordon Glenister

« The British Promotional Merchandise Association launched its new charters for both trade distributors and suppliers.
The organisation is set on driving up standards, professionalism and transparency within the industry.

At the heart of the charter is a sharp focus on customer service.
Members will be able to give greater confidence than ever to buyers in an increasingly competitive promotional marketplace.

To read the continuation of this fascinating article, click here

Article written By Maya Case for www.corporatesnobs.com

Marketing and selling your promotion can generate interest in your brand or product. Creating a marketing plan is especially important if the product is new and/or hasn’t had much time on the market to grab people’s attention. There are many different ideas you can use when selling your promo items, including giving away free samples, offering major discounts, and rewards and drawings, among others. One idea not used nearly enough when selling promotional products is taking advantage of scents, smells and people’s ability to remember one product over another.

To read the continuation of this fascinating article, click here

Andy from PromoDirect in Canada comes a tell us about the ways to say « Thank you » for Thanksgiving.

The event was celebrated to give thanks to God for helping the Pilgrims of Plymouth Colony survive their first brutal winter in New England. The first Thanksgiving feast lasted three days, providing enough food for 53 pilgrims and 90 Native Americans.

I have always been fascinated by the thanksgiving day despite that we don’t celebrate it in Europe, especially because of the turkey and the mashed potatoe that always made me salivate a lot !

The Thanksgiving day takes play every last thursday of November.

Let’s see what are Andy’s advises on how to say thank you for thanksgiving:

To read the continuation of this fascinating article, click here

Ad specialties are less expensive per impression than most other media

TREVOSE, PA – November 8, 2010– The Advertising Specialty Institute today released a landmark study that proves advertising specialties beat out prime-time TV, radio and print advertising as the most cost-effective advertising medium available.

The most significant findings of the 2010 Global Advertising Specialties Impressions Study show advertising specialties are less expensive per impression than most other media* and are very affordable and effective when compared to other forms of media.

To read the continuation of this fascinating article, click here

More than 500 exhibitors, nearly 14 000 sqm of exhibiting space and even 10 000 visitors! Just inside 100 days the International Days of Advertising RemaDays Warsaw 2011 will be officially opened for the seventh time. For three days, the Exhibition Centre Expo XXI in Warsaw will turn into in the capital of the promotional industry of Central and Eastern Europe.

RemaDays 2011 will be held on 2nd to 4th of February 2011. During the event over 500 companies not only from Poland but also from Czech Republic, Germany and Great Britain will present their portfolio and latest branch trends.

Why RemaDays is fair different ?

To read the continuation of this fascinating article, click here