Keepin' It Simple

There's an old acronym that I first heard back in 7th grade science class. KISS: Keep It Simple, Stupid. It's true in so many instances, especially in advertising. National Encyclopedia recently decided to promote themselves by adding definitions to common, well-known items. For example, they sent out a stationery kit. The definition of stationery appeared on the paper, the definition of envelope appeared on the envelope and the definition of business card appeared on the business card. Cute, right? Yes. And in that case it was effective because people had the time to read the inforation included on these promotional products. However, adding the definition of a bus to the side of a bus doesn't work so well. People can only read it when the bus is stopped. Keep it simple...

Direct Mail Vs. Promotional Products

This recent German advertisement was featured on Ads of the World. Recipients open what looks like a speeding ticket and find out that they're accused of not going fast enough! The ad was designed to promote the new German high speed trains that travel at speeds of 300km per hour (124 miles per hour), and while it is clever I wonder if it can beat out a direct mailing of promotional products. The ad is extremely creative and it did increase rail ticket sales by 30%. Still, it doesn't give recipients something tangible to hold on to, except that panicky feeling that everyone gets when they think they're getting a speeding ticket.

Promotional Recycling Bins Please?

Last week I wrote about how McDonald's did a really interesting campaign to promote drunk driving awareness in France. After their latest stunt, they should start a recycling awareness campaign in Italy. To advertise the Big N' Juicy, the latest addition to their menu, they created unusually sized promotional napkins. These promotional napkins have been placed in newspapers, as well as giant napkin dispensers. Perhaps they should purchase some environmentally friendly products to appease the environmentalists who will probably have a problem with this campaign.

Celebrity Promotions

Having a celebrity endorse or use your product is probably one of the most successful and expensive types of PR that businesses can get. Of course, if the purpose of your promotional product is centered around a celebrity, you may have a better shot of exposure. Take for instance, this promotional underwear that was purchased by a radio station in Sweden. The underwear was branded with the station's logo and then handed out in packs of two at a Robbie Williams concert. One pair of underwear was to keep and the other pair was to throw on stage during the show. Clearly, at least one recipient followed the instructions within the package because one pair made it on stage. Result? Robbie Williams actually picked it up and incorporated it into his show. Papers covered the story and mentioned the radio station's name several times. Just another case in point of how having the right promotional products (no matter how risky) can result in the publicity you really want.

Happy Holidays From Motivators

It's hard to believe it, but it is Christmas Eve. We hope that all of our wonderful customers are enjoying the holidays with family and friends. We've been very busy celebrating the holidays all month long! Here's a fun look at what your promotional consultants have been up to this month.

In the beginning of December, Jen, our Director of Operations, put up our Christmas tree. Note the the various promotional products that have been turned into ornaments. We have stress relievers hanging up and even a little computer brush buddy is sitting on the branches. We also pulled names for our annual Secret Santa and kicked off our first annual toy drive to benefit the Child Life Program at Winthrop Hospital.



On December 5th, our CEO Ken Laffer treated us all to a festive Hanukkah luncheon. Potato latkes with sour cream and apple sauce were served, as well as the traditional Hannukah dessert: jelly donuts! The season of eating had begun and we all knew it. Many thanks to Jen and Ken for putting everything together!



December 17th was our annual Holiday Party and Secret Santa Gift exchange. Our Secret Santa gift exchange had been prefaced with office chatter trying to figure out who everyone else had. There were some stealth IMs sent and lots of investigative work was done on behalf of some Santas. Of course, there were some who simply made it easy on everyone else by sending out mass emails saying "Who has me? I want a Dunkin Donuts Gift Card." As follow up, that same person hung a Dunkin Donuts ornament on the tree. In the end, everyone was happy with their presents.


The holiday party was that evening and again, we all had a great time. It was nice to just sit back and relax and not have to worry about promotional products for a change, although that topic of conversation did happen to come up, once or twice. Many thanks to Jen for planning the whole evening.


This past week we finished collecting the toys for children at Winthrop Hospital. Friday afternoon, Keri, our Art Department Supervisor, Danielle, one of our graphic designers, Tony, our Sales Manager and myself all piled into my car and headed over to Winthrop to distribute the presents. We were met there by Josh Arkin, marketing director of Funco Promotions, who had generously donated several gifts, including two huge cases of play-dough. Tony dressed up as Santa and we made our way around the ward distributing gifts to all the children. We didn't get to visit the children in the ICU, but as you can see from the pictures we certainly had enough presents for all of them!


Happy Holidays from all of us here at Motivators.com!

McDonalds Bathroom Advertising

This blurry image of the golden arches has been placed in bathrooms, as well as bars and restaurants this holiday season to encourage people who have been drinking to get home safely by calling the volunteer taxi service Nez Rouge. Nez Rouge provides free taxi service to people who have been drinking and want to get home without getting behind the wheel. While these ads aren't exactly promotional products, I just can't resist some good bathroom advertising.

Burger King Giveth and Burger King Taketh Away

While I do mainly focus on promotional products and the various ways they're used in the world, today I had to take a little bit of time out to pay tribute to one awesome ad campaign. In fact, the very idea of this is so against the nature of promotional products that I do feel slightly bad, but I'll get past it. There are some promotions that we just can't ignore for the good of all mankind and this one appears to be one of them. What exactly am I getting at? 3 simple words:

The Whopper Freakout.

As part of promotional campaign, Burger did it's own little spin on "Where's the beef?" by placing hidden cameras in their restaurants and telling people that the Whopper is no longer available. There are some who can't believe it. "No man, you've got to be kidding me?!" There are some who are upset. "But why would they take away the Whopper?!" And then there are some who just plain freak out. Take for instance the man who was given a Wendy's burger in replacement of his Whopper. He definitely defines the word "freakout" and it was a little disturbing to see his devastation and need for anger management classes come to the forefront when I was attempting to enjoy Kitchen Nightmares last night. Regardless, the Whopper is not gone and is now probably as strong as it ever was. Bravo, BK, bravo.

If you can spare a minute from the last minute holiday shopping and the end of the year workload, check out some great videos on Whopperfreakout.com

Lucy, You Got Some 'Splainin' to do....

I'm all for promotional giveaways. I guess you could said I'm pro promos. Cheesy quips aside, there's a general standard that you should always follow when choosing to do promotional giveaways. It's to let receipients know the reason you are giving something away. Case in point: these piggy banks were left all over a city in Sweden. According to the advertising agency, the promotion was created to let shoppers know that Willie's has the lowest prices. Fair enough, but am I to draw that conclusion on my own? The promotional piggy banks were only imprinted with the name of the store. There was no message about low prices and no coupons included inside them. The ad agency stated that 1,000 piggy banks are looking for a new home. They may find them but it doesn't mean that their loving new owners are going to shop at Willie's.

Promotional Death Trap

I hate this promotion and I think that if a company ever sponsored a promotion like this here, there's a good chance they would be sued. Huge promotional stickers were laid flat on a busy road. The stickers were designed like giant potholes. After the stickers, the road was painted with the message "Feels like Pioneer Suspension." Yeah, that's a good idea. Let's promote our brand by causing people to swerve their cars in a dangerous fashion to avoid something that's not actually there in the first place. Firstly, if I ever saw a pothole that large, I would most definitely swerve. If I couldn't, I (and I'm sure several others) would probably freak out. The bottom line is, no one would willingly drive on the stickers because they would have to be an idiot to drive through a pothole that big. I'm sure there are several other promotional products available that would not result in lawsuits, car accidents or calls to the Geico gecko.

There's rumors circulating online that Ford did something similar to this a few years ago. And that, my friends, is why I drive a VW. They show you how well your car will perform in an accident. They don't unwillingly attempt to cause them with pothole shaped stickers.

Riddle me this...

What's a good promotion? The trend seems to be leaning towards puzzles and games. I came across a great promotional puzzle this morning. It was done for Save the Children and it consisted of several brainteasers that appeared in the daily crossword puzzle of a newspaper. The puzzles were difficult questions, but the fact that they used subjects of malnutrition, smuggling children and landmines brought the readers attention to the real subject at hand.


Online promotional games are also very trendy. The hit NBC show Chuck hosts several online games customized to the show. My personal favorite is Eye Spy, which shows you the same picture twice, but with teeny differences. Figure out all the differences and you move on to the next level. Miss one? Game over.

This game, also known as Photo Hunt, is now appearing in People Magazine. So if you're looking to really make your mark with the next promotion, think about promotional games.

Husky Loves Nougat, Reeses Gets Risky

Few things can be more powerful than great ad copy. Ad copy that really sends a message to the audience can result in higher sales figures, product awareness and more. I happen to adore great ad copy, so I thought I'd highlight two great taglines that I've seen that really made an impact.

1. The Reeses Peanut Butter Cup ad campaign that was in magazines earlier this year.
They had a few different ads, but I personally loved this one. The classic pairing peanut butter and jelly takes a hit with the implication that peanut butter has dumped jelly for chocolate. Scandalous.




Honorable mention goes to the Reeses ad that I couldn't find a picture of, but still had risky copy. "Some people say sex is better than chocolate. But is sex better than chocolate and peanute butter?" That's some risky copy, but it got the job done. People are talking about it, aren't they?

2. Husky Gas Stations and Restaurants' creative ad copy to recruit new employees.
I saw this ad this morning and burst out laughing. I had to go to the website to find out exactly what Husky was (a gas station chain in Canada), but it drew people in. And it made me laugh.



Either of these tagline would work great on promotional products. they're quick and witty.

Desperate Housewives Promotion Cleans Up

The minute I saw this promotion on adrants.com, I knew I had to write about it today. There have been a few times when creative packaging has really made me want to buy something. For example, I have never once in my life seen Northern Exposure. I have had no interest in the show when flipping channels late at night. Yet while walking through Best Buy, I saw that the DVDs were wrapped up in parkas. "I want DVDs in parkas," I thought. And since that day, every time I see the Northern Exposure DVDs, I'm tempted.

So when Desperate Housewives wanted a custom promotion, their advertisers didn't look to typical promotional products. Instead they teamed up with a laundry company and played off the angle of one of the show's most famous ads. "Everyone has a little dirty laundry."



How can I not love this? I watched Season 1 and 2, and I don't own either but now I feel like I should at least rent season 3. Brilliant.

Promotional Game Sends Chilling Message

It's pretty easy to ignore things like radio and TV commercials concerning anything to do with mental illness, even though there are several variations on the subject. There's the commercials for depression drugs which list a long list of side-effects. There are the ones which have the depressed little cartoon bubble. There are the ones with mediocre actors who just make you want to either change the channel or laugh at their acting ability. It's difficult to send a message about such a serious cause that affects millions of people around the world. Luckily, Canada found a good way to do it.

The Canadian Mental Health Association left scratch-off tickets in popular places like airports and malls. The design of the game looked like a typical lotto scratch-off ticket. When scratched off, the box revealed a powerful and simple statement: Mental illness can affect anyone. In addition to that, calling the game "1 in 5" was another subtle message. 1 in 5 people will be afflicted with some form of mental illness. This brilliant promotion just proves that, with a little thought, promotional games and other promotional products can send truly important messages.

Alvin and the Chipmunks Promotion

So first it was the Simpsons, with Simpsonize Yourself. On Black Friday, I was introduced to Elf Yourself. And now, according to AdRants: it's time to get Munk'd. Chipmunked, that is.

Since online promotions are so popular and I'm a huge Alvin and the Chipmunks fan, I simply had to try it. It's much easier than Simpsonize yourself. I vented about that process when I first tried it. I haven't yet gone to Elf myself, but I'm sure I will in the near future. So far this one has won me over. I don't know what type of promotional products are out ther promoting this new fresh brand of Chipmunk, but I'd like to think that they've got some fun ones. Especially since my Chipmunk just slid onto a stage wearing a fedora hat, sunglasses and yelling "Come on baby, come to papa!"

Click here to see how I munk'd my chipmunk.

Time to change the roll.

A couple months ago I did a blog about an imprinted bathroom roll promotion for a delivery service. Well Velobitz Delivery Service, i'm terribly sorry but the award for the most intriguing toilet paper roll promotion has been passed on. The winner: Dulcolax who created this ginormous toilet paper roll in the middle of a German city. Yeah, the immediate reaction was humor at first. Maybe that's what they were going for. But trust me there is nothing scarier than thinking that the giants who secretly live among you have been taking a laxative and are now out of toilet paper.

Hand sanitizer anyone?

Wrap It Up! Paris Promotes World AIDS Day

What is December 1st?

The first day of the month? Yes. Cold? In many parts of the world, sure. A busy shopping day? Absolutely. The 335th day of the year? Indeed it is. The 25th anniversary of the album that truly defined pop music (Michael Jackson's Thriller)? Well, now I've just gone ahead and depressed myself.

All my random factoids aside (bless you Wikipedia!), December 1st is World AIDS Day. It's a time to remember those lost to this disease and focus on finding a cure.

Promotional awareness items are available on almost every promotional website. From awareness wristbands to awareness ribbon magnets, the choices are limitless. But when the organization Act Up Paris wanted to create a promotion to really target the younger population to remind them about the risk of AIDS, they didn't go buy bracelets or hand out pens.

They targeted the people of the city right where it mattered. They went after bicycles. Knowing that bicycles are the most popular form of transportation with the younger crowd in Paris, the organization took to the streets. A seat cover was placed on each bike, and on it hung a tag with a message:

"Et vous, vous faites quoi por vous proteger?"

"And how do you stay safe?"

That was the only message, along with Act Up's web address.

Creative? Bien sur!

Where's Waldo? More like where's my stuff

I'm a fan of immediate reactions. You've only got a few seconds to make a first impression. So just a few minutes ago, when our sales manager Tony stepped into our office, I judged his immediate reaction when he saw my blog post. At first I was going to talk about what a really inventive idea this was and the great response rate it returned. After the conversation I just had, I had to talk about that.



The above picture was open on my screen. The conversation that followed was this.

Tony: Is that a dirty towel?

Me: No, it's a towel imprinted like sand.

Tony: Why would anyone want a towel that looks like sand? You'll never be able to find it. "Hey man, where's your towel?" "Oh it's the one that looks like sand." "We're on a beach! Everything looks like sand!" You'll never be able to find your stuff. That's one of the dumbest things I've ever seen. *Exit Tony*

Of course Tony's conversation with himself reflects his first impression of the towel. The towel is a promotion that was done by the travel insurance company FBTO. They created a towel with a sand design and gave them out to any new customer who purchased travel insurance. The idea was that you could wrap your valuables up in it and they would stay safely hidden by the camouflaged sand towel. But as we can see from Tony's very valid point the towel is probably too well camouflaged! And if it's not then, it's not going to stop people from grabbing your stuff while your in the ocean.

So impressive or not, it's your call. As much as it doesn't seem to work for Tony, the fact of the matter is that a good promotional item will get you talking. And this did just that.

Bathroom Accusations

Apparently in some Latin cultures "to have horns" means that your spouse or significant other has been unfaithful to you. So what better for private detectives to recruit some business by putting the thought of infidelity in peoples minds. These horn shaped promotional decals were placed on bathroom mirrors next to stickers that simply read "Suspicious?" That's exactly what I want to see when I go to the bathroom. I think handing out a promotional magnifying glass would have worked much better. "Let us be your eyes" or "We can see what you can't" would have been a more successful tag line.

So that's what that was!

While in NYC this past weekend, I did the holiday thing. I caught up with some friends from college and we did our annual Secret Santa party. I walked around Bryant Park and had some hot apple cider. I almost paid an exorbitant amount of money for a hat. It was the typical NYC visit, until I saw this bus. My first spotting of the Grayline Tour Bus was in Times Square, while waiting to meet a friend to walk to Grand Central. I was more concerned with people watching, but being in the promotions business the design on the side of the bus intrigued me. It was just pulling away from the curb when the ad caught my eye. I couldn't figure out what it was. A few hours later, after an interesting lunch at an organic health food restaurant in the village, the bus flew down the street again. I actually said, "Apparently Grayline is a sponsor of people with cups." My friends chuckled at what they knew to be my sarcastic wit and we continued on our way back uptown. I saw the bus 3 more times that Saturday and it was starting to seriously perplex me as to what that ad actually was.

Well thankfully Ads of the World answered my question. Asics is the sponsor of the NYC marathon, and that ribbon banner doesn't announce that at all. The real message printed in white towards the front door really does get lost on the bus. It's not nearly as large as it should be, and as anyone can tell you, people go for visual images first. None of my friends looked up and neither did I. The bus was passing by, and you don't have time for more than a quick glance. And what does a quick glance result in? Grayline (not Asics) is a fan of people with cups.

Why not put the message on the back of the bus? That way when people are staring in confusion as to why people on a tour bus seem so darn thirsty, the answer will be right in front of them.

Hopefully they decided to promote at the marathon with other promotional products. Maybe some promotional drinkware or imprinted apparel? If their only form of promotion was this bus...yikes.