ANYTHING'S IMPRINTABLE ... And 16 Other Reasons You Should Be Using
Promotional Products
by Connie O'Kane |
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Do you really believe in promotional products? Sure, you
use them to promote your company, but would you really like to be somewhere else in
marketing? Do you dream of 60-second spots during the Super Bowl as you sign off on a
promotional products order?
Shame on you. Promotional products are the most cost-effective – make that most
effective, period –ad vehicle around. If you’ve been ignoring your counselor’s
advice to harness their power even further, here are 17 reasons why you should wake up and
smell the coffee (in a logoed mug, of course).
1. They’re cool – no, really
Many of the hottest trend-setters and savviest spin doctors use promotional products these
days. That’s because once consumers (read: your customers) are onto something
special – they want to let everyone know how hip they are. And those behind the trend
or fad are happy to oblige.
Consider this: The Blair Witch Project, the most profitable film in the history of the
world (on a costs vs. revenues scale) used logoed merchandise early and often.
Made for $30,000, Blair Witch’s worldwide grosses topped $200million. As soon as it
was obvious the young filmmakers had captured something special, film distributor Artisan
Entertainment sent 100college interns to local bookstores, hot clothing stores and coffee
shops wearing Blair Witch T-shirts and passing out Blair Witch comic books.
Once things ignited at the box office, promoters kept the Blair Witch Web site humming.
And the film’s signature shot of actress Heather Donahue in extreme closeup is
available on buttons, magnets and keytags. Elsewhere on the site are T-shirts, lighters,
shot glasses and pins. “I’ve never seen a film marketed so well in my entire
life,” one film executive told USA Today.
2. Everybody’s Doing It
There seem to be few entities that don’t use logoed goods in some way. The Dismal
Scientist’s site of economic wonkery offers coffee mugs. The foul-mouthed kids on
South Park have their own line of merchandise. Even Spam (the food, not the e-mail) has a
28-page catalog of promotional products.
For many firms in the arts and entertainment industry, these items can be a new, steady
stream of revenue. NBC sells logoed merch-andise for Saturday Night Live. Disney-owned ABC
recently mailed catalogs of merchandise tied to its shows. Outside the Brooklyn Museum of
Art’s controversial “Sensation” exhibit, the gift shop sold shark staplers
and pillows, a reference to sculptor Damien Hirst.
Nor is the trend limited to big-bucks guys. Small towns – even neighborhoods –
have their names on sweatshirts. Elementary schools have entire lines of logoed stuff.
It doesn’t take much critical mass before almost any company, organ-ization or
group can support a full slate of promotional products.
3. They’re Inexpensive
One of the greatest things about promotional products is that they’re so incredibly
affordable.
Counselor Greg Emmer uses the example of choosing between a local television commercial
and a promotional products campaign. You might pay $3,000 for a package of six or seven
30-second commercials (including production costs), and you’ll be lucky if more than
one runs during a popular viewing slot. And while the TV station might say there’ll
be 5,000 viewers, how many of them will be visiting the facilities, grabbing a snack or
channel surfing when your spot runs?
Now imagine you had a budget for 600 promotional products at $5 each. Think of the items
you can get; specialties that would not only guarantee recipients won’t be flushing a
toilet when it makes its initial impression, but that those impressions will keep on
coming as well.
Another thing: Promotional products are one of the few ad vehicles that can stand alone.
Most advertising needs to be supported with more advertising. Have a Web site? You need to
advertise to get people to click on. How about television? Networks use millions of
dollars of precious airtime to direct viewers to programs shown at other times. But a
promotional product usually has the target audience coming to it – and vice-versa.
4. Anything’s Imprintable
Now that the remote control has a permanent place on America’s coffee table, the logo
has become more important than ever. Commercials regularly feature an advertiser’s
logo. Networks put their logos in the corner of the screen. So anxious are advertisers to
capture a few seconds of a channel-surfer’s time that they’ll sponsor
scoreboards, race cars and and stadium signs.
Technology makes this trend stranger. There are now virtual ads – placements of logos
on a TV screen that don’t appear at the actual location. The center of a soccer
field, for example, might be just grass in the stadium, but can sport a logo digitally
placed on the screen. This allows different firms to have their logos on screen during
different parts of the broadcast. East Coast viewers may see a different logo than West
Coasters.
But perhaps the most remarkable placement of a logo occurred this past July. Pizza Hut put
its logo on a 200-foot Russian Proton Rocket that delivered part of the International
Space Station. Pizza Hut was banking that the exposure during launch time would justify
its fee, said to be around $1 million. The logo helped roll out a campaign that included
in-store promotions and other tie-ins.
5. It’s The Medium That “Remains To be Seen”
Advertising types often measure the effectiveness of media in terms of number of
impressions and cost-per-impression. Promotional products are one of the few media that
defy these measurements. “Specialties are repeated impressions without repeated
costs,” Emmer says.
Bill Peck, a counselor, uses the example of a $6,000 order of 700 sound cards used by a
major publisher. “Over $8.57 per exposure?” says Peck. “No. Recipients are
still calling the publisher placing ads, as they continue to play with the cards.
6. People Take Them Personally
Promotional products used to be bought only by companies that wanted to spread their
message. But now just about anyone can use them as a way to express a point
of view.
Ohio State University superfan T. Michael McGuire printed up and sold some shirts that
said “Beat Michigan.” And remember; in such cases it’s not only ordinary
folks using logoed products as a mouthpiece. At the height of the Clinton impeachment
proceedings, when NBC reporter Lisa Myers was perceived to be sitting on a big story of an
alleged sexual misdeed by the president, a member of Congress started wearing a button
reading “Free Lisa Myers.” Broker Morgan Stanley holds strategy sessions with
clients present and gives out T-shirts as prizes to forecasters making bad calls.
7. They Can Help You Hedge Your Bets
Almost every advertising trend that hits the market puts a side bet on promotional
products. Think about it. When database marketing was new, didn’t the most successful
advertisers include a promotional product in their mailings? Or if they jumped on the
demo/psychographics bandwagon, they did it with promotional products. When marketers tried
things like stunt marketing – singing-dog contests at malls – you can bet they
had a nearby booth stocked
with logoed goods. Nostalgia marketing?
Give away a classic image on a specialty and people clamor for them. Even arguably the
most important trend in ’90s advertising, the Internet, makes extraordinary use of
gifts.
8. The Rise Of Affordable Four-Color Processing
It’s like the day your family got its first color TV. Promotional products look
better than ever, and one of the main reasons is that logos can now be rendered in four
colors at prices previously only available on one- or two-color jobs. One of the big
stories of the last decade has been the ability to reproduce PMS colors with clarity and
sophisticated registration on a silkscreened imprint.
There’s more. Holograms and other 3-D effects continue to get play. And
personal-ization is showing up more and more, as technology makes it more affordable.
9. They Constantly Re-Invent Themselves
There are well over 250,000 different promotional products currently available. Add to
that the creavity your counselor brings, and you can make use of a new product, idea,
twist to an old product, application, etc., nearly as often as you like.
10. The Web Loves Promotional Products
When chess master Garry Kasparov faced off against the world in a cyber-chess match
sponsored by Microsoft, Visa was there giving out “World Team” T-shirts if you
signed up for a game. This is typical on the Net. Content providers have only a few
seconds to get peoples’ attention, and promotional products are often the bait to get
them to linger a bit longer.
Net-surfers love promotional products too. A survey by the nonprofit think tank Privacy
& American Business found that nearly nine out of 10 online respondents felt it was
fair to give personal information to companies that gave them a “valuable benefit,”
which involved things like free e-mail and product discounts, but also a fair share of
promotional products. And 59% said they wouldn’t mind if their e-mail addresses were
passed on to other reputable companies.
11. They’re The Ultimate Traffic-Builder
Many firms not only give logoed stuff away once you’re at their Web site, they also
do it to get you there in the first place. In fact, is there any new development better
suited for promotional products than a Web address? You have a short series of letters and
symbols that opens up a whole world for the recipient. Less is more on a promotional
product. If the address is simple enough, logoed products can really be walking
hyperlinks. Passers-by can scribble down the Web site and then rush to their computers.
12. They Don’t Cause Cancer
Don’t laugh. Now that tobacco companies have agreed not to use promotional products
to sell cigarettes, we can take to heart what the government said in the first place. In
proposing a ban of cigarette brand names on promotional products, the FDA laid out quite a
case for their effectiveness.
From the Federal Register: “This form of advertising is particularly effective with
young people. Young people have relatively little disposable income, so promotions are
appealing because they represent a means of getting something for nothing.”
A federal court chimed in: “Printed advertising is customarily quickly read and
discarded by typical customers. ‘Utilitarian objects,’ on the other hand, are
retained precisely because they continue to have utility. They may be around for years.
And each use of them brings a new reminder of the sponsor and his product.” Now
there’s a testimonial.
13. Corporations Are Wising Up
Maybe they expect to make it up in volume, but the big trend in the computer
world these days is to give things away. You see $30 software packages with a $30 rebate.
Your 50-cent newspaper is free if you log on. Dozens of places offer free e-mail and fax
service. You can get free electronic greeting cards.
The biggest computer promotion of last year involved a free machine if you signed up for
one of several ISPs and mailed in a bunch of rebate slips. That’s for those who didn’t
get a free computer and Net service in return for looking at a lot of on-screen ads.
All these businesspeople have figured out that by giving something away, they can get
something in return that will pay off in the long run. That’s the message promotional
products have been sending for the last 125 years or so.
14. They’re Now Available Yesterday
We admit it; it once seemed promotional products took their sweet time from the order pad
to your desk. There was some rush service here and there, but for most products you simply
had to wait. Not anymore. Almost a quarter of orders placed by companies like yours are
completed in five days or less. In many cases, 48- or even 24-hour turnaround is possible.
15. It’s The Only Form Of Advertising People Don’t Mind
Not everybody hates all advertising. But let’s face it; most of it is a drag to
consumers. No one wants commercials interrupting their TV viewing (unless it’s a
really funny commercial or really bad show). No one likes icons blinking on the side of a
Web site, even if the information center screen is free and valuable. “Advertising’s
designed to be intrusive,” Emmer says.
In all cases but promotional products, that is. People want premiums and ad specialties.
They pick them up in show booths, take them away from conferences, mail away coupons to
get them and even make their workplace safer to earn them.
16. People Like To Get Free Stuff
A few years ago, the Philadelphia Inquirer asked readers for a list of things they always
managed to get free. It found that while a pen aficionado might be willing to shell out
big bucks for the latest turbo-charged ballpoint, he wouldn’t think of paying for an
office coffee mug. Many of us will go to our graves without ever buying another keytag or
mousepad.
That means your firm has the chance to become that keytag, mug or mousepad. “Without
promotional products, what would we put in our pockets?” asks promotional consultant
Glen Holt. Wouldn’t you love to have that kind of exposure?
17. They’re The #1 Ad Medium In The Deepest Amazon Jungles
At least according to Holt. He found this out a bit unscientifically by watching
a National Geographic special. The documentary crew was accompanying explorers looking for
one of those forgotten tribes that’s never been in contact with modern man. “They
go through streams full of crocodiles, and cut through reeds with machetes,” Holt
says. “When the explorers finally meet someone from this lost tribe – surprise!
He has a T-shirt that says, ‘Pepsi Cola.’”
Let’s see TV match that kind of penetration!
Connie O’Kane is senior writer of Imprint. |
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