The methods that you use to advertise can say a lot about your business to potential customers. For example, if you take out an ad in a newspaper then people will immediately make judgements about your company based upon which newspaper the ad is printed in. (more…)

Printed T-Shirts

Now many businesses attend trade shows, fairs and exhibitions on a regular basis. As you walk round one of these exhibitions you will notice that many of the businesses exhibiting will be giving away some sort of promotional gift, anywhere from a printed carrier bag for their brochures through to promotional pens, key rings, coasters and mugs. So if you are thinking of attending or exhibiting at a trade show or exhibition this year, promotional gifts, corporate gifts and business gifts will be a way to help get your business noticed and remembered.

Everybody appreciates a free gift that will actually be useful to them so why not look at taking along some promotional gifts to the exhibition. Some of the many options available to promote you business are USB memory sticks, desktop items, lanyards, pens, mugs and many other items too numerous to list here all of which can be branded with your company logo and even your business contact details.

Another advantage of free promotional gifts is that every time someone uses it they will be reminded of your business so the next time the product or service your business offers is needed the chances of them contact you is greatly enhanced. Whilst attending the exhibition or trade show, why not also have your staff members that are attending the event in promotional printed t-shirts printed with you company logos, or even embroidered fleeces, sweatshirts or baseball caps?

Promotional USB Drives

Promotional Gifts

Many businesses rely on the loyalty of their existing clients and a great way of rewarding that loyalty is with business gifts or corporate gifts. You may have had these clients for many years or just a few months or maybe it is approaching the time for yearly contract renewals, either way promotional gifts are an ideal way to thank them for their business so far, show them that their business is appreciated and to help that client loyalty to be maintained.

There are many options available to you to do this, you may want to send a branded diary every new year or maybe send a pair of engraved champagne flutes when it is getting close to the time when their contract is due for renewal. Another option is to send something that they will use and see every day such as a promotional flash drives stick with your company logo or one of several desktop items which are available.

Also as most people appreciate the gesture of a free promotional gift it can also help to promote your company as your client may well then be encouraged to tell others about your company and its excellent customer service.

Promotional Gifts

Despite all the incredible special effects and witty writers large companies can employ to produce a multi-million pound Super Bowl advertisement, or how many glamorous they can retain to where/use/plug their product in public, marketing your product or service head to head with a competitor generally comes down to volume, meaning getting your brand in as many places, in as many ways as possible.

It can also be surprising in which industries you will find this applies, with even blockbuster Hollywood films, propelled by months of journalistic hype, interviews with cast and crew and fantastically expensive trailers, also purchasing warehouses full of promotional pens, hats and printed t-shirts to give away to fans and competition winners.

Promotional Pens

Hollywood also takes the concept of luxury promotional gifts to a… well, a completely Hollywood level. With little over two weeks to go until the 2010 Academy Awards, marketing and PR departments will already be gadding about preparing the infamous “Oscar baskets”. These are essentially hampers stuffed full of top of the range luxury watches, cosmetics, clothing and even electronic goods that are given to presenters, hosts and nominees in the hope that they will receive some positive publicity from the association. In fact is it not unheard of for top billing celebrities to make more through these marketing kickbacks than their actual appearance fee, most likely because the taxman never gets a sniff of these corporate gifts!

Promotional Gifts

The Financial Services Authority (FSA) finally grew some teeth this week and threatened to suspend banking licenses for any firm not falling in line with its stringent new rules on employee bonuses. Banks and other financial institutions have come in for a rough ear bashing from the public, government and regulators alike over the last 18 months as everyone tried their hardest to deflect blame for the current economic crisis away from themselves. However, this is the first time they have actually been challenged to adopt reforms that they weren’t keen on themselves, and for once it appears the FSA isn’t likely to back down.

This will be causing some monumental headaches for human resources right across the City as they attempt to satisfy contractually certified bonuses for their staff without breaking the FSA’s new guidelines. Times like these are always trying for employee morale, and can leave many with a sour taste in their mouth over their perceived treatment by the company. So what better time than to try and butter everybody up with some promotional gifts? Sure, even the nicest looking promotional pens in the world aren’t going to cushion the disappointment of receiving 100% of your bonus in locked shares and bonds rather than cash, but for the poor souls having to write the letters and break the news a few corporate gifts here and there can make a world of difference.

Let’s face it, if you’ve just been let off the hook on having to honour millions of pounds worth of contractually required bonuses then you’re going to have a rouble or two spare to spend on the rest of your staff.

Promotional Bags

Christmas and the New Year are now far enough behind us to make this time of year about business. By now, it will have become apparent which resolutions have failed, and which will stay the course. So with a clearer picture of the year ahead, now is a good time to get around to the various business and trade fairs that take place in the early months of the year,and get the word out about what exciting opportunities your company has to offer over 2010.

Promotional Mugs

Of course, your business won’t be alone in doing this, so encourage good feeling from people who visit your stands and make sure they remember your company when they leave the fair—promotional gifts such as promotional t-shirts, promotional pens or promotional mugs, especially if parcelled out in handy promotional bags, can ensure that when potential customers leave a long trade fair, your brand is one that they take with them.

With the economy still suffering most businesses would be understandably reluctant to shoulder the expense of such advertising, but there are offers on ordering business gifts in bulk that will pay for themselves through the advertising and potential business they can generate. And confidence builds confidence; if potential customers or investors can take away corporate gifts from a careers fair, the confidence you show in your business by paying for these business gifts will foster confidence in your company among people you want to encourage to spend money with you.

Over the weekend the award season was kicked off in earnest with the 67th annual Golden Globe awards. Host Ricky Gervais managed to offend and entertain in equal measure but it was the night’s award winners who got everyone talking, with many predicted to go on and hoist the equivalent award at the Oscar’s in a few weeks time.

Corporate Gifts

Although the glitz and glamour of Hollywood is a world away from most people’s daily lives, every industry holds its own awards ceremonies to recognise the excellence and achievement of those within it. Whether you see them as a key motivational tool, a complete waste of your valuable time or an excellent excuse to get hammered for free, you can’t doubt their value as a promotional opportunity. Any awards received by your team or company make great slogans for promotional pens and other promotional gifts, even if they are handed out by a completely Mickey Mouse organisation.

Some larger firms elect to hold their own awards ceremonies, taking the opportunity to hand out anything from fancy corporate gifts to printed t-shirts to hard working employees and any clients they can rope in to the occasion. Even if the awards themselves mean nothing in the grand scheme of things, customers always remember the phrase “award winning”, and a bit of a knees up won’t do your employees any harm in dreary January either.

Promotional Pens

Marketing your company or service on a limited budget is something that every executive or business owner is familiar with. Different budget levels typically revolve around the same tiers of marketing streams, with the largest companies spending millions on tv advertisements during the Super Bowl, and the smallest handing out flyers on the street corner. Promotional gifts like promotional pens and printed t-shirts are somewhere in the middle, but to overlook the importance of these smaller business gifts would be foolhardy indeed. No matter how many people watch the Super Bowl every year on TV (80-90 million in the US alone), advertisement breaks are normally spent in the toilet or getting another beer and are missed by a large proportion of viewers.

However, with corporate gifts like promotional bottle openers or promotional mugs, you could make sure that your branding IS seen during the advertisement breaks, by placing it exactly where the viewer will be when they’re not in front of their TV.

The same applies for the workplace. No company would allow you to erect a massive banner in their offices, but mugs and pens are useful items and most employees will use whatever works and is close to hand, putting your brand on potentially every desk in the office.

Promotional Balls

A new year means new ideas and new enthusiasm, or at least it does once all the hangovers have worn off! Many people’s New Year resolutions will be currently on hold as they focus on simply battling to work through the snow, but all that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be putting off thinking about all the exciting ways you can use promotional gifts to push your brand in the coming months. With the first few green shoots of the 2010 spring should also arrive the first sure signs of an economic recovery in the UK, so what better time than to make sure you’re business is front and centre in everyone’s minds with a fresh set of branded corporate gifts?

Promotional Pedometers

The classic New Year’s resolution is to get more exercise, and you can help your clients, customers and staff towards this aim with a selection of branded exercise items. These can include promotional footballs, rugby balls and pedometers, which help people see just how much (or how little) exercise they get walking to the office water cooler. Providing branded uniforms for a company sports team is also a great way to get your staff out and about, and obviously turns a group of employees in to a gaggle of walking billboards.

Best of luck with your resolutions for 2010, whatever they may be.

The festive season is for the most part about eating, drinking and being merry with friends and family, but it is also a time for considering those less fortunate than ourselves. Despite all the human race’s technological and intellectual achievements, there are still wars, there is still famine, there is still oppression – and now we have a global economic downturn as the unwelcome cherry on the top. The world is a hard place, and the relative luxury of the West can insulate us from the realities of what we may have faced had the hands of fate not been so kind.

Thankfully, managers and enterprising employees all over the country are often galvanised by the season of goodwill to do their bit for causes supporting the less fortunate, often holding collections or simple fundraising games in the office such as tombolas, quizzes and raffles. Not only are events like this a bit of light hearted fun in the last few days before the Christmas break, but they are an easy way of getting even the most stingy employees to cough up a bit of loose change for charity.

Of course, competitions need prizes, and employers and managers are often looked to for the provision of such items, or at least a token contribution. The mistake that many managers make is to hand over a wad of notes from petit cash that go straight in to the tills at the local supermarket, when with a bit of planning you could end up with a much more cost effective solution that is beneficial to the business as a whole… like ordering a selection of branded corporate gifts to give away as prizes instead. There are literally dozens of options when it comes to finding quality gifts that can be branded with your company logo or seasonal message, from promotional pens to bottles of wine customised with your own branded label. These business gifts are often available at wholesale prices as well, reducing the overall financial cost of your charitable contribution compared to buying on the high street. Charity has never been such great value.