Posted by: Colin Hageney

Everyone is always asking me – “What’s the newest and coolest promotional product? Or the latest greatest giveaway?  Or something awesome and techie?”  My new favorite old promotional product actually dates back to somewhere around the sixth century BC – a book!  What better gift to give an employee (to motivate, train, show appreciation, new hire gift), client (as a gift or to show appreciation)  or prospect than the gift of a book.  Books are great giveaways for events and parties as well – they reinforce an event’s meaning or location creating long lasting memories.  And not just any book.    

“The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go.”
Dr. Seuss

You can add your logo on the book cover of most books and really personalize it to your company by adding in the front page.  The right book reinforces your brand, values, mission and vision.  Books arry a high perceived value and are long lasting keepsakes – you may give away a book but you never throw away a book.  Books fit a wide range of price points – from $1 to $100.

Here are some examples showing just a few possibilities:

Call us today to brainstorm on using books as a promotional product.

Posted By: Sahar Arab

Have you ever walked into a restaurant and sat down only to find that there was no place to hang your purse?  Leaving it on the table cramps the already small dining space that’s given, and just the mere thought of placing it on the bacteria ridden floor send chills up my spine.  That’s why I was elated to see a clever little contraption that put’s and end to this problem.  Behold the purse hanger!

This small, yet chic, little device not only keeps purses off of dirty floors, but can hold up to 15 lbs easily!  And guys….this isn’t just for the ladies.  This hanger is the perfect thing to keep your briefcase and laptop cases off of the floor during business lunches and dinners….  It is so small that you can throw it in your purse or bag and keep it there at all times. This is a perfect appreciation gift for employees, loyal customer, volunteers or yourself …  Both chic and functional, this something that anyone would appreciate.

Posted by: Sousan Arab

While in Austin for the 4^th of July weekend, I visited the famous Oasis restaurant.

Because Austin is a city notorious for the thousands of college students, many of the bars and restaurants run drink specials and happy hours in order to bring in a crowd to enjoy their adult beverages. The Oasis is located on the coast of Lake Travis and has a menu in a moderate price range. In order to attract customers to their drink menu, many of the specialty drinks are served in Oasis logoed glasses that the customer can keep. With this marketing method both the customer and producer are satisfied; the restaurant is selling pricey drinks and the customer feels like they are getting a free souvenir.

Here are several examples of similar (and better) shot glasses that we can make for any company’s party promotion.  The first one is multi-colored, the second one actually lights up, and the third is a mini beer stein! 

Posted by: Colin Hageney

Everywhere you look these days, we’re being bombarded by words like:  green, eco or earth friendly, enviroconscious.  Is going green hype or here to stay?  Green is the new low-fat and this blogger thinks it’s here to stay. 

So what does green actually mean other than the obvious?  Okay yes, it’s a color or to be more precise, it’s an additive primary color.  My 4 year old would tell me it’s a mixture of yellow and blue.  Green is closely related to the Old English verb growan or “to grow”.  Back in the 80’s it was popular to call money “green”.  Green topics are on the covers of most magazines and newspapers around the country, yet everyone struggles with the definition.  The definition that I found and like the most is in Infoworld analyst Ted Sampson’s blog: 

A green product or service is one that delivers comparable or superior performance, utility, or other benefits to an alternative one while utilizing fewer resources, containing fewer toxic materials, and/or boasting a longer lifecycle.

To that end, I would like to introduce two green promotional products that I really like:

It’s an LED “never needs a battery” flashlight and it’s a cell phone recharger.  Simply wind it up for about a minute and the light lasts for roughly 30 minutes.  It easily fits in a glove compartment, purse or on your wrist – it’s readily accessible in an emergency.  Awesome safety award, employee recognition gift or trade show giveaway – add the logo (1-color) and you’re still under $10.

Posted by: Lauri Laufman, MAS

How exactly does promotional marketing work? How can one item handed out have a trickle down effect making that cost of impression worthwhile? Is viral marketing related?

Personally I prefer to think of promotional advertising more targeted in that we provide ways to keep your message in front of those that count to you most. It could be recognition to an employee for a job well done just as easily as providing clients with a useful item that creates visibility for you in the process. Take for example an item that stays around for about a year…

Imagine your company name or organization’s message on a nice wall calendar and 50 of the 100 recipients put them up in their office or reception area.  In addition to your recipient seeing your message repeatedly over the course of a year, all others who pass that wall will also see your message. In that it is being displayed by your recipient, it also can be interpreted as an endorsement of sorts.

Now, let’s go to the media… a little viral marketing and how differnt forms of advertising work together.

Which brings me to the fun of today’s blog… www.News3Online.com …and yes, we can provide you with banners and temporary tattoos (along with buttons, nail files and a myriad of other ideas) should you end up in the political arena yourself. After checking out the following, you too can enjoy seeing your name splashed around for “all” to see.

Humans have five senses… not including common sense.

In the promotional industry, we can keep your name and image in front of your target market using all of those senses. How many other means of advertising can stand on that statement?

For over 20 years I have heard a variety of other industry veterans tout this concept and today seemed as good as any to share it with you too; call it food for thought as the easiest example of sharing this with you is by having you envision your logo (or mascot) in chocolate.

I bet you have already decided if it is in white, milk or dark chocolate.  Hold it and feel it’s smoothness but don’t let it melt in your hands?  Smell the sweetness for a moment and imagine how it will taste.  Hear the chocolate as you tear off the wrapper and break off a bite size piece.  Pop it in your mouth and taste what you have been imagining since that chocolate was first visualized.

See it, feel it, touch it, hear it… taste it.  Makes sense to you too now doesn’t it?

Lauri Laufman, MAS

PS - Ever see someone receive a leather item and in the process of “checking it out” put it near their nose and sniff it?

Posted by: Tiffany Yates

Every now and then I stumble across something that really makes me shake my head in disbelief.  Are there really people in the world that overlook things like this???  And the answer is, YES. 

Yesterday I bought some envelopes at my local Kroger grocery store.  I try to buy “Made in the USA” whenever possible, and I saw a box with that little logo on the front.  Hurrah!  I had my envelopes!  Bought ‘em.  Marched out.

When I got home, I just happened to glance at the package.  “What the…?!”  It said “Made in the USA” on the front, and “Made in China” on the bottom.  Officeworks is an Australian company that sells through national U.S. retailers.  Perhaps their graphic designer was having a bad day…

…but alas, I can only sugarcoat stupidity for so long.  Unfortunately for them, I can even capture the egregious error in a single shot.  Somebody needs to administer the Federal Smack Down of the U.S. Government.  ::wink:: 

Lesson learned: a company’s marketing needs to be CONSISTENT, especially when we’re talking about the panels of the same darn box. 

Posted by: Sousan Aubon

 Every time I have gone on a trip, somehow something manages to break in my make-up bag. I recently went to New York and for the first time all of my belongings were in one piece! I packed smart using my cosmetic bag from Gemline…

It kept all my beauty necessities intact and organized. The bag made it easy to get ready for a night out on the town - a night where I later saw Vera Wang at Serafina’s and Cuba Gooding Jr. at Upstairs!

Posted by: Colin Hageney

This Mother’s Day was a special day for several reasons.  My 3-year-old son, Harry and I decided to walk with 2,500+ Houstonians along Buffalo Bayou in the Y-ME Walk to Empower, a 3-mile walk to raise money to fight breast cancer.  Having lost a mother and a mother-in-law to cancer (not to mention Harry losing two grandmothers), I couldn’t think of a better way to start this special Sunday. 

EMS Global’s marketing guru, Trevor Eade, invited us to join their walking team – “The Pipeline Posse”.  Even better, Trevor had Bullpen’s t-shirt experts produce the team shirt – a navy Hanes Beefy Short-Sleeve Contrast Stitch t-shirt with (count ‘em) ten screens total (1 on the front, 4 on the back, 1 on the right sleeve, 4 on the left sleeve).  The 3 shades of pink on the front and left sleeve created an amazing 3-D effect. 

The weather was absolutely perfect and shortly before the start of the race, the MC announced that EMS had won the best overall t-shirt of the 20+ teams!  It made the walk that much sweeter to wear the winning shirt that Bullpen produced up and down the bayou with pride.  The only thing that could have made the day better would have been if we could have joined the Pipeline Posse at their brunch at 1308 Cantina on Montrose, but alas… the 3-year old and his dad were spent.

Y-ME public service announcement

Colin

Here’s the screenprinting layout for the back:

Posted by: Lauri Laufman, MAS

As a solution provider, when recently requested to come up with a safety related idea to tie in with a client’s awareness project the subject of personal identification theft protection came to mind since it has been in the news so much of late.

We get so much mail these days with personal identifiers on them. Wouldn’t it be nice if we could recycle all that extra paper and just remove those identifiers?

The solution utilized based on a $5 budget per recipient was a pair of scissors… but not just your ordinary desk style pair. Nope, these 7-1/2″ shears feature 5 stainless steel blades which allow the recipient to safely and securely destroy confidential documents and materials that should not be otherwise innocently tossed. 

Client was not only thrilled to meet budget but the icing on the cake was their employees appreciation to the gift provided.

Lauri Laufman, MAS