Promotional Sausage Calendar?
 What do you do when typical promotional calendars just won't do? Apparently use lunch meat. I really don't even know where to begin with this ambient promotion. A German company that makes meat wanted to increase their sales during the winter, so special packaging was used. The regular packaging was replaced and the sausages then appeared to look like Advent calendars. Now this is unbelievably creative, but I don't know what I would do with a sausage calendar. As a kid I enjoyed the advent calendars that had candy, stickers, toys and chocolate in them. While I've certainly outgrown that phase, I don't know if I've grown into the phase where I want to celebrate advent via sausage. Bravo on the creative packaging though. If anything, this promotion will succeed based on word of mouth alone.
Motivators Plants Trees For Every Order Placed Now Through Arbor Day
Lego Brick Business Card
 Networking is one of the most critical aspects of business, but let's face it, not everyone is that memorable. And after a few years in the business world it's more than likely that you'll accrue a pile of business cards and only a few of them will be key contacts. Chances are after a few months, when the pile of business cards has doubled in size, you still won't be able to remember all of them. And thus the benefit of the business card has been laid to waste. Check out the solution that was created for one of the leading architecture firms in Belgium. Instead of having a plain business card that can get lost in a pile, the advertising agencies used Lego bricks and imprinted the sides of them. The Lego business cards stand out against the plain ones and the company is memorable. While legos aren't typical promotional products, in this case they still worked well.
Yoplait's Breast Cancer Awareness Lunch Bag
 After SES NY last week, I ran into my best friend in the city. I also ran into an all too familiar lunch bag. The promotional Piccolo Cooler Tote is one of the hottest promotional products we've got and for a while I thought it was so hot because every girl in this office has one. But, I was corrected. Yoplait chose the Piccolo Cooler Tote for their Breast Cancer Awareness promotion. It was given out to audience members at The View, which is where my best friend got it. Interesting. I hate Yoplait's TV spots, but I enjoy their promotional products. And I like their whipped yogurt, too. It's delish.
Promotional Bookmark Raises Awareness About Book Donations
 So I know I've blogged about promotional bookmarks before, but I think I've finally found the best one I have ever seen. This custom bookmark was created for the Aseema Charitable Trust in Mumbai, India. In order to encourage people to donate to their education center this bookmark was created and placed in several books at a leading bookstore. The simple tagline, "Kids at Aseema Love to Read, Too" coupled with a compelling design that makes it look like the child is reading the book as well works brilliantly.
SES NY: The Total Recall Recap!
My first Search Engine Strategies conference has come and gone, and all I can say is wow. There was so much to learn and the conference managed to have the maximum amount of information packed into 4 days. There were some extremely compelling presentations and sessions that I attended about the rise of social media networks. I even checked out the newest features that Microsoft had to offer with it's new 2007 version of excel. Unfortunately, I didn't win a free copy of it. I also didn't win a 2008 Scion, or any iPod or iPhones that people happened to be giving away at the expo. The expo was definitely one of the best parts of the entire conference, because I love to see how people use promotional products in their dealings at trade shows and expos. If used correctly, promotional products can really be ice breakers to start conversations with potential clients. The company that did this the best was PM Digital. One of their reps started a conversation with me the minute that I dropped my business card into the raffle for the iPod Touch, and after we talked for a while, suggested that I speak with their marketing person. The marketing person was otherwise engaged so I figured that I would wait. I didn't have to wait long, because the CEO himself started talking with me when he saw that I was standing by myself. We had a great conversation and it was definitely the best interaction that I had at the expo. I even got a free notebook out of the deal. There were several other promotional products available at the expo, and even though I garnered a bunch of them I wasn't really looking to collect schwag. I wanted to focus more on the experience and see how promotional giveaways factored into the equation. There were some people that really tried to use the promotional products as selling points, and not for nothing a stressball or a pen is not going to convince me to sign a contract with any company for thousands and thousands of dollars. However, the worst promotional product usage goes to a company that shall not be mentioned. In fact I didn't even take one of their giveaways because I thought the minimal experience that I had at that booth was that bad. They were giving out a promotional toy that we don't offer on our website but I have seen it before. Here's a snippet of how the interaction went. Me: Oh wow, I love that thing. Lady at booth: Yeah. Me: I actually work in the promotional products field and that one is one of my favorites. Lady at booth: Yeah. Me: Has it been getting a lot of attention? Do people want it? Lady at booth: (sigh) (grumble) (another sigh) I guess. Me: Well, have a nice day. Lady at booth: (no response) Just goes to show you, no matter what promotional products you choose, they'll only be helpful if you engage the potential client. Either way, here's the loot that I made out with.    
Google Decals: A Hit at SES NY
 Not suprisingly, Google had a booth at Search Engine Strategies NY. The conference and expo ran from Monday March 17-March 20 and there was a ton to be learned. There was also plenty to see. So I'll talk more on Monday about all the great schwag I recieved and my dealings with company employees at expo booths, but I simply had to take a pic of the Google promotion that the company was giving out at their booth. At first glance it looked like a huge temporary tatoo, but upon further inspection I realized it was a giant promotional decal. Here it is on my cube in my office  It's a smidgen blurry, but I think it gives the pic an artistic effect. That and I love that you can see my Rascal Flatts promotional calendar in the background. This pic is one big subliminal message!
SES NY...Day 1: Oh the Promos.
This week, yours truly has abandoned the Motivators office and is attending the Search Engine Strategies conference in NYC. My fellow nerds (aka Danny and Bill) and I will be back in the office on Friday once our brains have absorbed everything there is to know about marketing. I couldn't resist blogging, especially since when I walked into SES this morning Bill, Danny and I were greeted with some familiar things: promotional products. We had to check in and get our badges, which of course were attached to promotional lanyards. Then we each got promotional bags filled with goodies, including a book, magazines, promotional pens and promotional journals. I however drew the short end of the stick because whoever packed my bag neglected the journal. :( I'm sure I'll run into more promotional products during the next few days. Maybe I can even get a replacement journal.
Scuba Spidey?
 This promotion for Green Peace was done in Beijing and I've been debating whether or not its blog worthy content for a few days now. On the one hand it's taking a huge stationery object and turning it into an ad, but on the other hand it seems forced. While the Scuba Spiderman received media coverage, I'm still not sure that I'm entirely sold on the actual concept of the ad itself. I'm all for preventing global warming, but I'm pretty sure there are more effective ways to get the message across. Environmentally friendly promotional products work better in my opinion, because they're tangible objects that will stay with the user. Scuba spidey only works as long as people stop and stare.
ABSOLUTE-ly Committed to the Cause
 As I was continuing my search for things eco and green this morning, I came across a powerful ad campaign from one of the world's most popular advertisers: Absolute Vodka. Their entire website has been re-vamped to show that Absolute is dedicated to helping fix the Global Climate crisis. Even better than that, their philanthropic efforts are all over their site. Their new campaign states: Every time you register a unique code from your Absolute Vodka, Absolute Citron, or Absolute Mandarin bottle or cocktail, we will donate $1 -up to $500,000- to the global cooling charity of your choice. They are spliting the 500K equally among 3 charities: The Ocean Foundation, The Fruit Tree Planting Foundation, and the Environmental Media Association. Their Absolute Global logo is really creative and would look fantastic on some eco-friendly promotional products. I'm sure they're promoting at bars and clubs, but unfortunately none of the ones that I've been at.
Helping Cool the Globe...One Tree at a Time
Sometimes searching for blog posts in the morning is an extremely rewarding and educational experience. Many times it's not, for example when I run across ads featuring a chicken posed provocatively with the headline "The Temptation of Taste," but many times the ads that I find are educational in nature. Take for instance, this promotion for a tree planting organization in India.  The organization placed informational facts on tree stumps in and around cities to explain the fact that trees absorb gases that cause global warming. Every time a tree is cut down, it prevents the absorption of these dangerous gases, thus increasing global warming. Using biodegradable promotional products, especially ones made of bamboo are excellent ways to promote the eco-friendly movement. A regular tree can take several hundred years to reach maturity, whereas a bamboo tree is fully grown within 6 years of being planted. So planting trees is a great way to go green...interesting. Someone should do something about that. Oh and if anyone wants a really good laugh this Wednesday, check out the chicken ad that I was talking about earlier. It's wrong, but it's so funny.
Clorets Goes Green in China
 This promotion for Clorets gum in China is really taking the phrase "going green" to heart. The copy reads "Endless Freshness" which is represented by the long strip of shrubbery. Personally, I'd be confused at first and I'm not sure that I'd automatically want to put something which was represented with shubbery in my mouth, but really who can I say? I mean, I like broccoli and that totally looks like shubbery. Either way, the interesting take on this promotion is just showing the power of going green. Green is the new black and our eco-friendly promotional products have certainly been proving that.
St Patty's Day Promotions Go Green
 St. Patrick's Day came early in Huntington, NY yesterday as my favorite town hosted their annual St. Patrick's Day parade. And of course, my favorite thing was all the shwag. You would think that being immersed in promotional products day in and day out would make me less conducive to wanting them, but it doesn't. In fact, when Keri (our art department supervisor) and I first got into town, it was the first thing we looked for. Well, it was the second thing we looked for after breakfast. We checked out a local store that had plenty of St. Patrick's Day goodies, but we looked at each other and knew that there was no point in paying for stuff when we knew we'd be getting plenty of St. Patty's Day promotional products for free once we got to the bars. So we headed to our favorite local watering hole and grabbed as much stuff as we could. Since we were at a bar, everything was sponsored by beer and alcohol companies but we still sifted through the baskets and found the best garb possible. Of course there was some really cool stuff that we weren't able to get our hands on, like the green light-up Guiness necklace but for the most part it it was a shwag-tastic day all around. And if there's ever anything that makes you doubt the power of promotional products, just head to a bar that has a promotion going on. People clamour for t-shirts, bottle openers, hats, visors, necklaces, pins, sickers and anything else that's imprinted and free. It's quite fun to watch if you're not really interested, but why wouldn't you be? Everybody loves free stuff
Levi's Goes Green...
 I would say "straight off the heels of Honda's Eco-Friendly promotion" but in Levi's defense they did this first. Attached to their new Eco-Jeans, which are made from 100% organic cotton, is an eco-friendly tag. Similar to Honda's "seed paper" letter, the tag is made of seed paper and is completely biodegradable. Simply plant the tag in the ground and watch a tree sprout up, courtesy of Levi's environmentally friendly marketing department. Eco-friendly promotional products are everywhere right now, because green is the new black. And there seems to be a major push for planting trees...interesting.
Just Read the Book...
 I enjoy this promotion for a local bookstore in Brazil. They teamed with a video store to display copies of the Harry Potter books right next to the movies. The tagline read "If you think the movie is good, wait until you read the book." Really good way to get people to read, although I don't know if I would be willing to leave the video store and go to the book store. If I had nothing to do and was just killing time on a Saturday afternoon, maybe I might peruse the bookstore shelves, but in my opinion when the ad requires you to leave the establishment and go somewhere else, it takes too much work. My suggestion? When customers get to the counter, remind them of the ad by handing out promotional bookmarks as a small gift with purchase. Oh and here's an Eco-Fact for you: 4-6 million trees were destroyed to print the Harry Potter Series.
Honda Redeems Itself (and validates this blog!)
While I like to think that my blog is informative and entertaining, I would hardly call myself the Perez Hilton of the Promotional Products Industry. I'm certainly not breaking any news stories that haven't already been broken, but I do put my general opinion on things of the promotional nature. Case in point, yesterday I called Honda "environmentally irresponsible" for their motorcycle promotion. Not only were they promoting their vehicle which emits exhaust, which as we all know is bad for the environment, but the gratuitous waste of paper to do so? I didn't even explain the promotion fully. Post-its that had fake phone numbers scribbled on them were stuck all over the motorcycle to prove that the bike was a "chick magnet." I saw wasted Post-Its, I didn't think the nature of the promotion was really relevant. Apparently Honda's ears were burning because check out the first thing I saw when I logged onto Ads of the World this morning.  It's Honda's eco-friendly direct mailing that they did to promote the fact that their garden equipment is environmentally friendly. The letter was printed with recycled ink on 100% biodegradable seed paper. Simply plant the paper in the ground, watch it, and watch it turn into flowers. 100% environmentally sustainable. Touche Honda. Bravo for redeeming your company in my eyes and for validating my blog. I'm sure it was just a coincidence that this seed paper promotion popped up only one day after I questioned your eco-responsibility... Either way, bravo on a great use of an environmentally friendly promotional product.
Oh Honda...How Environmentally Unresponsible of You...
Fact: Carbon emissions are bad for the environment. Fact: Trees are destroyed to make paper.  I'm not really a fan of this in-store promotion for Honda. Now don't get me wrong, I enjoy Post-It notes. They're probably the best invention since the calculator. Sure maybe I'm exaggerating a little, but there really aren't that many inventions that rival the Post-It note in my immediate vicinity. However, because of the amount of trees that are destroyed to produce paper, I've decided to try and become more socially responsible by using less paper. I use my custom USB flash drive instead of printing out spreadsheets to work on at home, but I still miss my Post-Its. The mere fact that I could just stick them to my cabinets on top of my desk. Every morning I'd see that little yellow post-it reminding me to do something, like a happy little paper piece of sunshine. I've been distraught without my Post-Its. Well I had been until last week. I walked in and found a slew of Post-Its on my desk. I wanted to be upset, until I found out that they were recycled Post-Its. I haven't used any yet, because Post-Its are like Pringles. I can't just have one. But at least my Post-Its are recycled!
Using Trees to Save Trees
 I enjoy this new twist on a promotional piggy bank. This promotion was done in India and used spare logs that were then hollowed out and turned into money "trunks." All money raised went a foundation called Rupree, which plants trees. Raising money to plant trees... Interesting. Re-using trees as eco-friendly promotional products is definitely an excellent way to bring attention to a worthy cause. And like I said...replanting trees, definitely a worthy cause.
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