Absolute Promotions Ecofriendly Promotional Products, Corporate Gifts, Printed Logo Items

Earth, Promos, Stuff

Happy New Year Everybody.

2007 has been a fantastic new year with our new website, new clients, new vendors, etc...  I'm dedicating 2008 to finding more cool products that we can customize. I want to strengthen our focus on environmentally smart products.  If you see any new items that you think may work, please pass it along. I found this video today.  It runs 20 minutes...but it is really worth watching.  I know it changed the way I'll be making decisions about purchases in the future. The Story of Stuff

Thank you for a great year, cheers to much success and happiness in 2008.

Peace

Green power and growing

Hi , isn't this cool? It's the holiday gift that one of our favorite clients had produced this year.  Informz is an email marketing, text messaging and online survey company.  We work with Tanya.  She is a visionary when it comes to customized products.  She knows the message she wants to get out, loves only the best and is open to new ideas. For their holiday gift this year, Tanya wanted to give their clients something that was fun.  She wanted to express the message that Informz uses green power and the company is growing.    So here you go, an unusual customized desk planter. View this photo  Inside a small clear cylinder, is a bit of soil that holds a little logo bean.  The bean is customized with the Informz logo. Give it a bit of water and in a week or so ~ up pops a little sprout with the Informz logo. Tanya had the logo imprinted on the clear container too, so the brand will be viewed during the germination period. To enhance the brand and the opening experience she even wrapped the gift in logo ribbon and set it in their signature orange tissue.  Nice touch!

When thinking about giveaways, even though you're a technology company...there are plenty of items that may not be techie, but still gets your message out there.  Your brand will stay prominent with a feel good smile at the same time.

Custom Trade Show Bags

You know when it hits the front page of the New York Times, you've got an official trend.  Retail stores are investing millions of dollars in research, design, and materials for their logo shopping bags.  In the past, shopping bags were just a means of carrying your purchases home.  Now logo shopping bags and promotional trade show bags are a statement of the businesses taste and quality.  "Fantastic products and it shows in the high quality bag we give you to carry your purchases home.  We are grateful for your business and we want to thank you with this cool bag."   And the thing is; it's working!  The bags are so nice, people are using them over and over and over again.  Customers are re-using the bags to carry their lunch, their gym clothes, return things they borrowed, carry their shoes to work, bring the kids extra toys to the sitters. The bags have become "Walking billboards" as stated in the article.  It goes along with what we said a few posts ago, premiumization of the brand. Invest a little more and raise the brands perceived value.  Here is an example with it being as little as budgeting a few more cents into your hand out trade show bag.  Have fun with the bag design, match it up with some special logo tissue, or a free custom non-stick decal.  Smile and give the final experience at your store or on the trade show floor, as your client departs, a strong spin.  Nothing beats a positive experience to bring people back.

People and families are working really hard.  We all are.  When we spend our money we want to know we're getting the best, a little spoilage for ourselves.  Be it a vitamin enhanced water, a vodka with gold flecks or a beer brewed with spring water from the Dalai Lamas personal stash. There are so many simple methods to take the customer experience up a few notches. With some thought, it can be easy to take your great business up to a great upscale business.

There are so many new styles offered in custom trade show bags.   Materials, handles, Eco bags, funky imprinting methods, it can be fun to figure out which style bag best fits with your company's message.  What can you do to make the bag become your corporate advocate?

Made to Stick Ideas

Last night I was able to hear Chip HeathView this photo speak in the GE iwerks Theater at Proctors in Schenectady, New York.  He is the co-author of the book Made to Stick ~ Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die.  I loved the book and jumped at the chance for my company to sponsor his book signing, thank you CEG.  I wasn't disappointed.  His talk hit home at an important time in my company's evolution.  As I move forward with the new website, working hard to discover our target audience and grow the company, I learned a lot. It's all about ideas. He got me thinking about my approach to get noticed in this busy world.  I wanted to give Chip something to remember my company by, but what do you give the author of a NYT's bestselling book about sticky ideas?  I thought okay, I want to do something that will make him smile.  That celebrates his success.  I built this,View this photo The Sticky Award.  A GE Smart light bulb covered in duct tape, screwed into a socket and then bolted into an unside down octagon shaped electrical box.  Around the box in orange circles is the phrase "SUCCESsful Ideas Stick", which uses the key acronym of his book.  Came out pretty cool and he really seemed to like it.  I didn't want to let him down, a Simple Unexpected idea for him, to thank him for helping me begin to get my company to Stick.  Thanks Chip.

Great Corporate Gift Idea

I'm loving this idea for personalized corporate gifts.  Customized gift Made in the USA and created with one of the most popular brand representations ~ your business card!  We take your cards and fold them into the shape of your choice.  Your business card sculpture is then placed under a dome or placed within a glass bottle. Check out the golfer?  Wouldn't this would be fantastic to receive at a golf tournament?  View this photo  Here are a few of the over 20 standard shapes available: Airplanes, cars, nurses, skiers, telephones, satellites, laptops, etc..  We can also customized the shape into whatever design will best suit your brand or your message.   Here is what Federal Express did for their logo, looks nice doesn't it?  View this photo  Another idea for Fed Ex would've been to do a delivery van like the one pictured below.  These cool promo gifts only take about 15 days to produce from  art approval. I think they would make great speaker gifts, travel awards, employee recognition awards, custom travel programs, Board of Directors gifts...  So many different ideas. Reminds me of Brand Origami. 

Technology giveaways

One of my favorite trade shows to go to for new ideas is CES in Vegas. It's the world's largest consumer electronics trade show.  To give you an idea of the size ~ it covers over 35 football fields. It's hard to describe what it feels like to walk the floor and see all the newest trends in electronics. Music is playing, lights are flashing, you're surrounded by accents from around the world, it's really amazing. You also get a great feel for the newest trends in trade show exhibiting. I think last year was my best year. I hung out with one of my favorite clients, Melanie from Skype.  It was great to spend some time and get to know her better, especially in Vegas. One of my favorite places at the show was the Intel gaming tent. I was able to test a new race game while sitting in a full sized BMW Formula One race car and drive down a simulated track. It was so worth the wait!

This is a good time to talk about some trade show giveaway items for our digerati trade show attendees. Remember when the USB stick was the hottest giveaway?  They're still good to giveaway, just don't expect people to be that excited anymore.  The newest trend with USB now is the ability to have them created in a custom shape or to premiumize them by offering them with  an added fingerprint security option or lighting capability etc...  I'm not so sure there is the "the hottest promo idea" out there right now but we can highlight some new cool trade show ideas. If your budget permits, there is a custom webcam that has four different functions.  It is a digital camera, a movie clip recorder, a web camera, and a USB flash drive.  Other nice features are the USB rechargeable battery and the possibility to go from 256MB up to 1G.

Most people have bluetooth built into their laptops but many desktops will require an external Bluetooth adapter.  How do you like our customized Bluetooth dongle? It plugs into any USB port and easily adds Bluetooth capability to multiple devices up to 30 feet. 

The projection clock  is fun. It has an alarm clock with temperature, calendar and a snooze.  The customized clock will project the time and the temperature on the ceiling or a wall.  It arrives gift boxed with batteries.

What's the best trade show giveaway you ever received at a trade show?  Why?  It's great to share some experiences.  Hey best story we get, we'll share one of our custom screaming monkeys with you!  Thanks 

Promotional Pen Giveaways

You're set.  You have to giveaway a pen at the upcoming show.  The lighted pens have been done again and again and again...almost as much as the globe stress reliever.  How about a custom combo pen?  On one end is the pen and on the other is a breath spray?  or breath mints? or hand sanitizer? There is also a style that offers eye drops. All useful to have in our briefcases or carry-ons!   Sure we can do a pen, but it's what we can do with the pen that will make the giveaway and your logo stand out.

Trade show giveaways

I was talking yesterday about "Premiumization" and wanted to show a few more cool ideas for trade show giveaways, that will step up your brand. What do you think of this water bottle? You may think another water bottle?  It is a popular item. There are over 22 million sold a year but wait...  It is the very first of its kind! Which right there "had me at hello". I love it for a few more reasons though.  One, we should reuse water bottles and environment is top of mind this year no matter where you are.  Two, check out the imprint...four color process.  Normally you see a hit of one color or two.  Now you're able to capture a photo quality image.  It holds up to 36 ounces, it is dishwasher safe, and  (ta da) Made in the USA. It is the polycarbonate style bottle, no smelly plastic. No set-up fees, quick turn around and high resolution quality.  Guaranteed wow factor as a CES Giveaway idea this year.  For fun, to meet the smile factor ~ how about the custom sling shot monkey ? It loosens up the mood around the office and will for sure get people flocking to your booth to get one. He cracks me up.  If you're going environmental, I love the eco desk planter. Looks so natural, speaks volumes about the warmth of your company, keeping you top of mind front and center on the desk.  Don't forget the comment bonus ~everyone who passes by your desk will say "that is so cute".  Looking at your logo smiling, reinforcing the positive message.  I also think it's great because when you re-pot the plant, as it grows larger, you crack the egg into the soil.  The egg itself then becomes fertilizer.  As my friends in the UK say: "Brilliant".  There are giveaways and there are giveaways. I'll be back tomorrow with some more thoughts. If you want to talk about some ideas, give me a call or if you want to just bounce some ideas off me, feel free to email. I'm right here.

Promotional trends

Hey, did you get your 2008 Trend report from our friends at Trendwatching?  I look forward to mine every year.  I'm always curious to see how I can apply the information to promotional products for my clients in the upcoming year.  One of the trends is titled Premiumization ~ How can we take a giveaway up a few notches?  These trends apply to regular folks, the people attending the trade show, the people opening the mail, their expectations have risen. If you're doing a giveaway, make it worthy of their expectations. Let's look at a nice promo gift, a Custom Post-it note cube.  Everyone can use them, we all love getting them and they have great staying power for your message.  Well check out this promotional premiumization for the custom note cube. Nice right?  Funky.  Attention getting.  Has the Wow status.  You can change the shape during the life of the pad, which is a long time.  Your logo will appear on each page.  I also love the fact that you can stripe it according the the colors of your logo.  Niiiiiiice.  Not only a note cube since you can manipulate the shape over and over ~ it can become the new desk stress toy too.      

Logo Outerwear and Global Warming

Times are changing, weather is changing.  Here in New York fall starts a little later and we seem to be able to enjoy "jeans and sweater" weather straight through November.  I read an article today in the New York Times how retailers have hired "climatologists" to better predict weather for designers to know when to ship winter gear.  When thinking about it, yesterday was the first time I broke out my winter jacket. Hmmm  good thought to keep in mind when buying Logo outerwear for our employees and clients.  No need to get those bulky jackets or wool sweaters for logo winter giveaways.  We can go with a lightweight sweater or nice styled microfiber jacket.  You know what is really hip now too ~  is the puffer vests logoed.  They have a men's style and a women's style. Cute little pair of custom fingerless gloves or Custom knit beanie cap, and Wa La!  Our friends are happy.  They'll get a lot more wear out of them, which keeps our logo front and center.  Ho Ho Ho