Promotional Clothing

You don’t need to tell me about the importance of branding, but it is amazing how there are certain types and methods of branding we are now so used to seeing that removing them would make something appear seriously amiss. A perfect example of this is the practise of having official shirt sponsors for professional football teams. Many people choose to sponsor a player or certain element of his kit as a way of further supporting their favourite team, the details of which can be found in every match day program, but for the last 25 years or so there has also been an official corporate shirt sponsor, who pays a certain amount of money each season for the advertising space on the chest of each player.

Despite many sponsors changing every 3 or 4 years, these sponsors logos become every bit as much of the shirt design as the club’s own logo, and many fans long carry an affinity for brands that have sponsored their club during successful periods. Our sub-conscious acceptance of this kind of promotional clothing is made obvious by how “empty” football shirts from before this period looked, and how strange some team kits have looked in the rare event that sponsorship is not fully agreed before the start of the season.

Of course, football kits make the best kind of promotional gifts to fans of the club or sport, although you will need a fair few million to sponsor a Premier League side. The practise is just as popular at amateur league level though, with many workplaces either sponsoring their own teams or teams of their employees for sometimes little more than the cost of the printed t-shirts themselves. This more local form of shirt sponsorship is fantastic value marketing for local businesses, and can be seen as a philanthropic act as well.

Eco FriendlyPromotional Gifts

Consumer fads come and go, but one noble cause which continues to grow is the concept of Fairtrade shopping. Fairtrade is an organisation that gives their logo to products and brands who are able to offer certain guarantees on the sourcing of ingredients and labour, and the environmental impact of their manufacturing processes. These guarantees normally revolve around things you would hope western companies would be committed to anyway, such as not using slave labour or the exploitation of children, but they also involve the somewhat controversial fixing of commodity prices to ensure small producers are not priced out of the market by larger competitors.

Currently, Fairtrade sales are up 12% on 2008, with Sainsbury’s the UK’s number one retailer of Fairtrade certified products, a market worth around £800m a year. This enduring trend of ethical shopping has admittedly come on the back of the longest run of economic prosperity in the post-war period, but it does point to a more considerate consumer conscience that you could do well to tap in to with your choice of promotional gifts.

Recycled Promotional Pens

For example, there are a wide range of eco-friendly promotional pens available, made from recycled plastics. There are also all kinds of promotional clothing items available made from 100% organically grown cotton, and even printed t-shirts made of bamboo that are fully bio-degradable. Even if you didn’t hear the last ten years of rallying calls for more ethical and sustainable business practises you can be sure that some of your customers did, and by utilising these kind of promotional items you will be showing that you are a company that is not only considerate to the planet, but is forward thinking in its approaches. Not a bad impression to make.

Promotional T-Shirts

In previous blogs we have touched on the ability of cheap promotional gifts to underpin a lucrative fundraising campaign, but the scale of giving witnessed in the wake of the Haiti disaster has been almost unprecedented. One month on from the earthquake which killed over 200,000 people and destroyed the vast majority of the country’s fragile infrastructure, total donations to private organisations helping with the relief effort are standing at nearly $650 million. Much of this has been raised via celebrity telethons or other large scale celebrity endorsed activities, but a significant proportion has been raised through the work of individuals and community groups doing their bit here and there.

Printed T-Shirts

An example of this which proved to be a resounding success following its international media coverage is 7 year old Charlie Simpson, who has raised, to date, over £170,000 from a 5 mile sponsored bike ride around his local park. He was riding on behalf of the Unicef Haiti earthquake children’s appeal, and as pictures of this inspiring effort were circulated around the globe, the Unicef logo was front and centre due to Charlie and co. wearing their promotional clothing. Now not every campaign is going to be as successful as young Charlie’s, but it is easy to secure media coverage for any and all fundraising events on a local level, giving you an opportunity to work towards both making a meaningful contribution to society and increasing your brand exposure at the same time. Low-cost promotional gifts like promotional pens also make fantastic things to “sell” at collection points either on the street or inside cooperating shops.

Go on, hand out some promotional t-shirts and make a difference.