Finally, something that I think Motivators could actually use! While all of the promotional items that I post about here are sincerely awesome in nature, (some not so awesome), this is one that I truly feel the Motivators staff could benefit from having.
Kit Kat recently promoted its brand by creating human vending machines. Never again would you have to worry about having your desired snack get stuck! The Motivators break room could vastly benefit from having one of these, although I think maybe it might work better for us as a soda machine. While our vending machine does tend to get stuck occasionally, our soda machine is consistently cranky. It'd be wonderful to put in a dollar twenty five and have someone say, "You've selected Lemon Snapple, however, today we're offering Lime Green Tea. Would you like to re-evaluate your decision?" My answer would most definitely be yes.
The sheer attention grabbing power of this type of promo is perfect for trade shows as well. Imagine walking up to one of these booths and choosing the trade show giveaways of your choice. It would make those tables filled with pens seem so boring.
We often say that promotional flash drives are excellent ways of advertising your business, and it's very true. They can be used as trade show giveaways or they can be preloaded with presentations to be handed out at meetings. But what's the best way to advertise these great items? Easy, Just highlight their huge storage capacity.
To help celebrate Carnival (Carnaval in Portuguese) over in Brazil, MTV got into the spirit by providing custom made promotional masks. Keeping in line with their own target audience, the masks were designed to look like Gene Simmons from KISS. The imprint on the bag header read: "This Year There will be Plenty of Rock and Roll. Even during Carnaval."
It's a simple yet effective event giveaway that reached the segmented target audience and stayed in line with the message. Of course, it's easy to do that with an event like Carnival. Although, these Gene Simmons masks do work well for MTV promotions. They could even be fun trade show giveaways.
Here's a new one. The American Academy of Cosmetic Surgery wanted to convey that hair removal does not have to be such a painful and messy experience. And as anyone who has ever had anything waxed knows, it's not a fun process. Even threading, an ancient method that has seen a resurgence in popularity, isn't fun. It doesn't involve hot wax, but it's still not like petting a kitten.
They were stuck to a poster of a woman's back, and customers were encouraged to just peel them off easily.
The interesting thing? The back of the Post-Its were custom designed to look like they had hair on them. Gross? Yep. Effective? Yep.
It's a unique promotion and one that is sure to get the desired attention of the target audience. Just a note though, you can't actually wax with Post-Its. Even the Super Sticky ones. `
Check out this bright idea from an advertising firm in Hungary. For their annual holiday gift they sent out custom light-up exit signs. On the back was a "warning" decal which read:
"Warning: Over Stress Can Lead to Burnout. Stop Firefighting this Year. Turn on the Light and Devote Yourself to the Holidays."
It's a cute idea, and while it may not actually be one of the most useful promotional items that I've come across, it definitely sends its message in a fun way. And light up promotional products are always fun.
Ok, I definitely enjoy this promotion that Mate 1 did to advertise their dating service. These custom coasters were created in pairs, one pink and one blue. The pink coasters were given to women, and the blue ones were given to men. The participants at the event were then instructed to mingle to find their other half, aka the other promotional coaster that interlocked with theirs. Super cute and a great ice breaker!
What kid wants to get free toothpaste? The only time you ever get it anyway is at the dentist and even then it doesn't compare at all to the lollipop you get when you go to the doctor. Colgate knows this, and that's why during Dental Hygiene Month in October they chose to give out ice cream and cotton candy.
The sticks and cones that held the ice cream and cotton candy were a little bit different however. They were custom designed in the shape of tooth brushes. Imprinted on them were the words: Don't Forget.
Definitely a great way of getting attention and making kids happy.
There's no better way to show that your telling the truth than by showing that your not full of hot air. That's exactly what Tony Divino Toyota has done with their latest campaign. Yesterday's blog showed the honest truth about promotional products as the dealership's t-shirt read: "I'll be paying for this free t-shirt for the next five years."
Now they've got promotional balloons that read: Less Hot Air. Obviously the balloons have not been inflated with helium to show the point that they are in fact filled with less hot air. It's a unique selling proposition to say the least.
With the economy in dire straits right now, it's not surprising that car sales have decreased drastically. No one wants to make a major purchase right now, and a car definitely falls into that category. Fortunately, some car manufacturers have found the humor in offering a "gift with purchase."
I'm not disputing the power of promotional t-shirts by any means, but I could possibly see how offering inexpensive promotional products with the purchase of a car might not entice as many new buyers as you think.
These custom pencils were created to advertise a drum school. The pencils themselves look like drumsticks, and I couldn't help but think that these would be the perfect addition for a hardcore air-bander. These would especially work well for the student air drummmer, as they can just bust out into full blown air band mode in math class. Executive air drummers can bring these bad boys to a meting and secretly rock out while the CEO is talking about the bigger picture. Dual function drumsticks are quite awesome. Just look at the sushi drumsticks I blogged about last year. I find it fitting that I'm referencing those on sushi Friday. And since I referenced air bands, I have to reference the most awesome airband ever. Ladies and Gentlemen...I give you, The Cool Cats.
When the Civil War Museum needed funds to relocate their facility to its new home at the First Bank of the United States, they asked for donations in a common fashion. They humbly offered their hat, except in this case the hat was in the style of a civil war kepi. The custom hats were designed to collect contributions from sponsors, and choosing to go with an item that can be customized to fully reach their target audience was a smart idea.
There's something to be said about organizations and businesses that choose to raise awareness in unusual locations. Most of the time they will choose something that is completely unrelated to the cause and use it as a vehicle to promote their message. Such is the case with the Hospital de Clincas in Brazil. Using a ticket dispenser (the kind you see in grocery story deli departments) they created custom tickets like the one seen below.
The text translates to
61,702. This could be your number if you need an organ transplant
It's a powerful message that reminds people where they least expect it. Who knew that the deli department could be such a great location for a promotional awareness event?
According to the advertising agency behind the new Coraline movie, bloggers in the fim industry need a box of arms. 50 "mystery boxes" were designed, each unique in nature, and sent to 50 bloggers. (Alas, Motivators was just not cool enough to get one, but we're okay with it.) Each box contained a variety of beatifully packaged movie memorabilia from the set of Coraline. Clearly, these advertisers understand that sending people things gets them talking. And while sending people promotional products is a nice idea, if you really want to get people talking one thing stands true: the more custom the better. Check out the cool video of the "opening of the Coraline Mystery Box" below.
Over in Brazil, appliance manufacturer Brastemp touted its line of refrigerators and ovens by creating custom stickers of outlines of products and placed them on the walls of elevators. These outlines, coupled with the tag line "That's Real Stainless" successfully drive the point home. the only thing I could possibly suggest would be perhaps touting these purchases with custom stainless steel water bottles.
This blog may not apply to you if you don't sell wine, but if you do, then it works out perfectly. Foster's Wine Group needed a way of educating restaurant staff about their wines, so they turned to custom promotional products.
They had a Spinal Tap-esque band record a CD with tracks about wine, and added some interesting promotional items to sweeten the deal. In addition to the CD, Fosters threw in some custom pins, and promotional pens.
It's certainly an interesting way of branding. My only query lies with the "Unscrew Me" pin. Doesn't that go against the "cork" thing?
It's been said that the quickest way to a man's heart is through his stomach and apparently the same goes for man's best friend. These dog biscuits are actually imprinted with the name of a dog coach on them. It's a fun and unique way to advertise, but let's hope this guy thought of some pet promotional products that last a little longer than dog biscuits. In my house, this would be gobbled up before I could even see if it said anything!
Ok, don't get me wrong I love a good promotional product as much as the next guy. Probably more so since I actually work in the promotional products industry, but sometimes I see one and I just shake my head.
Car decals have been especially popular this year, what with the election and all. These ones were custom designed to look like damage done to your vehicle when applied. There's a giant scratch decal that makes it look like your car was keyed. There's a graffitti one that says "Fake." And finally there's one that looks like shattered glass so you think your windsheild has been smashed.
Seriously, if anyone puts anything on my car, I will be furious. You want to give me something how about some promotional key chains? They're still a car related accessories and you won't have to touch my car.
There are several ways to make people notice your brand. If you've got $3 million dollars you could buy a 30 second spot during the Superbowl. You could buy promotional products, put your logo on them and hand them out in highly trafficked areas.
Or you could go the route that 7-Eleven went and just build a life size replica of your product. That's exactly what they did in Australia to advertise the new size of their Slurpee cup. The new cup is the largest ever, holding 1.18 liters (40oz) of Slurpee goodness. So to advertise it, they constructed the "Big Slurpee."
Measuring over 36 feet high, the Big Slurpee is being touted as the ultimate tourist destination. (Personally, I'd prefer the Bahamas, but to each his own.) The Big Slurpee's website (www.thebigslurpee.com.au) boasts fun facts about the Big Slurpee It even answers questions that you know you are dying to ask including "Was the Big Slurpee constructed by aliens?" (No) and "Does the Big Slurpee have any religious significance?" (It does not.)
Bottom line, it's a fun thing to do for your branding if you've got the bucks for it. If not, you could always try promotional key chains. They are also not created by aliens and just like the Big Slurpee, they have no religious significance.
Just last week, I blogged about the awesome idea that Miller had to promote their High Life brand. The buzz was that there would be 30 1 second commercials during the Superbowl. The ads, which could be viewed online at 1secondad.com, were the talk of the media industry. Just type Miller 1 second Superbowl ads into google and check out the results. Industry publications like Ad Age are talking about it, bloggers are talking about it...it's big news.
And if you blinked, you missed it. That's exactly what happened to Keri and I as we watched the big game at our favorite bar. Everyone seemed to be paying attention to the commercials, but again if you blinked you missed this. Now Keri and I could have missed the commercial because we went to go get food, or were helping out with raffles at the bar. But it was only a second, so it's not surprising that we did. What was also confusing was that there was only 1 commercial, not 30.
So there we sat at our favorite bar with all our Superbowl promotional items. I had my Miller promotional bottle cooler, and my Miller promotional hat. And Keri had won a promotional cooler and a promotional clock. And the only thing we wanted to see was a 1 second commercial that we probably missed because we were too busy getting wings or something. Well for those of you that missed it, here it is:
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