Guerilla paper rims

You feel good when you where a new outfit, right? So why wouldn’t your car feel good with a new set of rims? The global rim producer “Keskin Tuning” wants to represent his products in an impressive and realistic way to show what cars really want in a very humorous manner: stylish rims from Keskin.The paper rims where provided with discount coupons. 

Promotion’s kick-off was the grand opening of Loop5 shopping centre. As a Keskin store is right next to the shopping centre, customers could cash in the discount immediately. Furthermore the flyers are deployed at tuning fairs in 2010. During the campaign period Keskin stores in the promotion areas recognized a significant increase in new customers.

Agency: Saatchi & Saatchi X Frankfurt, Germany.

An apple a day Calendar

Promotional products  are rarely thought to be used for anything more than give aways. Promotional products are used to support a brand image, inspire a moment or feeling,  create a reminder, reward employees, and create incentives.  These are just a few examples of what promotional products can do. This apple a day calender is a far cry from the typical promotional calendar but it conveys a strong brand message and will be sure to catch a lot of attention.

Create a calendar that will make a long-lasting impression of the AOK as not just any health insurance provider, but as a “healthy” health insurance provider. This is because the AOK’s main goal is keeping customers healthy. “An apple a day keeps the doctor away.” They brought this saying to life in a very attractive and tangible way: The month begins with 31 apples in a specialised tube made of UVA- and UVB-resistant Plexiglas. Every day you remove one apple from the tube and eat it, thus giving a boost to your health. The rest of the apples in the tube will move up and reveal today’s date on a calendar fastened behind the apples. At the end of the month the tube is refilled with 31, 30 or 28 apples, and the monthly calendar behind the tube is simply replaced. The calendars hung in AOK branch offices, attracting a lot of attention and getting extremely positive reactions

Hook, Line & Sinker

To encourage lovers of fresh seafood to visit Fish Parade, the new restaurant that opened on Rolla Street in Dubai. This was a low cost promotion that targeted lovers of fresh seafood at the very source – the fish market. This unique “Fish Hook Toothpick” symbolized both a bait and the culmination of an enjoyable meal. To target lovers of fresh seafood, they tied-up with shops selling fresh seafood in the fish market. Whenever customers made a purchase in these shops, along with the catch, they got a unique sachet. On the sachet was printed the message “Good to the last bite” and the Fish Parade logo. On opening the sachet, they discovered a “Fish Hook Toothpick”. On the reverse of the sachet was a telephone number to make reservations at the Fish Parade Restaurant. This promotion resulted in an increase in table booking over the next month by 13% Takeaways also increased by 21%.

Agency: The Classic Partnership Advertising Dubai, United Arab Emirates

Nike (red) laces, Fighting AIDS

Simple promotional products can be used to promote a big cause. In this case its red shoe laces by Nike that have been launched in 13 countries around the world, a campaign timed to coincide with World AIDS Day. The Nike (Product) RED laces are designed to fight AIDS in Africa, with 100% of the profits going to the Global Fund and to Nike football-based programs.

More unique business cards

The business card was stamped using lemon juice as ink, however the only visible copy on the card is “grill me”. After grilling the card against fire, the scientific effect between heat and lemon juice will cause the stamped message to appear. The message is the name and contact detail of a steak restaurant called BKK Grill.

Agency: Kit Pben Lert, Bangkok, Thailand

 

How an Umbrella Bag Can Make a Difference

 

Drinking water in the dry region of Northwest China omes predominantly from the small amount of rainwater. Their aim was to raise awareness to colect donations. People use umbrella bags during rainy days. Therefore, they used this unique media to deliver their message that a few drops of rainwater makes a thirstquenching drink in Northwest China. When used, it looked like the rainwater was filling up the bucket, cup or bowl on the bottom. Thanks to the kind donations, people in Northwest China can now access cleaner water on a more regular basis.

Agency: Grey Hong Kong, China.

Guinness Halloween Shadows

In Romania, Guinness is a niche brand, because of its special taste. The client wanted something to drive sales in pubs for the Halloween night. The challenge was to do something special with a very low budget. The idea was simple and low cost. Due to its colors – black and white – the Guinness beer has all the qualities to pass as a creature of the night. They illustrated this new identity very easy, by using the shadow of the Guinness glasses. In fact, they produced coasters, representing the shadows of the Guinness glasses. The coasters were offered for every Guinness beer bought on Halloween night. People were curious to know what was all about with the Guinness promotion, they found the idea nice and they wanted the coasters. So the sales boomed for the night and -as a side effect- everybody took home their scary-shadows coasters.

Agency: Tempo Advertising Bucharest, Romania.

Creating Quality eMail lists

I hate when I see something like:

“Get the top 100 tips for business success, Sign up below”

At this point you are prompted to provide your contact information in exchange for a white paper of some sort. Rarely is it the information I wanted and now my inbox has more SPAM coming into it.

 With the amount of free information on the internet I think this method of list building drives away more potential customers than it brings in. At this point, if I have to sign up for information then I will find it elsewhere. It just isn’t worth the hassle to opt-out.

 I opt-in when I find someone who has proven to me they provide valuable content. Share a portion of your knowledge publicly and let the reader choose if they want to learn more. This also provides a better list of subscribers as they will be more likely to open what you are sending instead of regarding it as SPAM.

Sweater Sleeves

For years we have used sweater vests when our torso is cold and our arms are too hot. There was always the problem of our arms being cold while our torso is hot. I have scoured the internet for a solution to this dilemma. Are there no sweater sleeves?  A visit from my 14 year old niece gave me the answer to the questions that have plagued me for years; can I buy sleeves and who else would buy sleeves? Sleeves are a big deal for young adults her age. Sleeves just aren’t fashion accessories they can be used in athletics as well. Would you wear sleeves?

Fully customizable sleeves, add your companies logo. No screen or set-up charge.

Free T-shirts aren’t enough

Traditional Give Away Vs Trendy Style

I want to let every business owner know on behalf of generation Y; if you give me a good looking promotional t-shirt I will wear it proudly, I will tell people where I got it, and if you take time to socialize with me; I will recommend you to my friends. Free isn’t good enough though, I do not want a one size fits all t-shirt; I want something I would buy for myself.

I have seen thousands of shirts printed in my short time here at Branded Solutions and out of all the shirts I have seen; only one has caught my attention. Even before it was printed, I wanted one. It was a simple grey shirt, cut a little differently, and softer than the other shirts we print on. I didn’t care what they printed on that shirt, I wanted one.

All of us no matter what generation have been given a t-shirt and rarely do we wear it longer than we need to. Promotional shirts quickly become work shirts or cut up into shop rags.  The solution to this is to produce shirts that look good and are current with fashion trends. Why not give promotional shirts the chance to become a favortie shirt instead of a rag?

The lesson is: If a business owner wants to promote to generation Y with promotional apparel they need to pay attention to what we are wearing because free isn’t enough. This goes for business owners making uniforms as well. Why not make a shirt that an employee will be proud to wear long after their employment has ended? Promotional tees work as long as they are fashionable.

Unicef Toy Soldiers

The African continent has the world’s highest number of child soldiers, fighting in wars they don’t believe in, for causes they don’t understand. Unicef extract many of these children from combat and reintegrate them into society. Their aim was to rally support for this programme. Sending out a direct mailer that garners support for Unicef’s child soldier programme. Initially, the mailer appears to be a typical packet of toy soldiers, but once opened, the recipient finds that the figurines are in fact children – reading books, playing soccer, riding bikes and doing other childhood activities. Results: The package went to Unicef supporter mailing lists as well as potential corporate sponsors. Awareness is up, and beyond the desired reaction from the recipients, many compliments are being received about the unique way in which it was put forward. More than a simple message, it’s an ongoing reminder of the realities these children face every day.

Agency: Y&R Johannesburg, South Africa.

Farmer Hao’s Amazing Pears

In Hebei, China, farmer Hao Xianzhang has successfully created and sold buddha-shaped pears. Inspired by the book Journey to the West, in which eating baby-shaped fruit leads to immortality. Hao attached a mold to the fruit for six months to give the fruit its unique shape.

Hao is eager to appeal to western tastes and would like to produce pears in the shape of celebrities. I would like to see a major fruit grower like Del Monte pick us this technique to brand their fruit without the use of stickers or laser tattooing. What a great way to promote and brand a fruit company.

 

 

Promotional Product Headache

Putting a company logo on a product can be a big waste of money unless it drives home a message. Agudol is a non prescription painkiller specially formulated for headache. So teaming their company name and logo with a paddle ball is a perfect fit.

Unique Business Card

Small details in a business make a big difference. Things like creating a business card that drives home your brand image. These business cards from mixedtape generation cannot be ignored. They really play on the theme by placing them inside a cassette case.

A Successful Direct Mail Campaign

I was talking to a member of a forum and he was very upset that his direct mail campaign didn’t produce the results he wanted. He came to me with one question, “why?” He had spent a few thousand dollars to have a direct mail campaign put together. He felt it was a real winner; it had enticing packaging, compelling copy, and a great theme to tie it all together. He sent it to hundreds of businesses and only a handful of them responded. So why did he not see the results he was promised as he shelled out thousands of dollars on a direct mail campaign? He blamed the agency that put it together. I told him he only had himself to blame. 

The agency had done its job; it had produced a noteworthy campaign. But the disgruntled gentleman I am talking about forgot the most important step of a direct mail campaign; the follow up. Follow up accounts for 80% of the success in implementing a direct mail campaign. Expecting a business to respond to a direct mail campaign on their own is expecting way too much of them. I told my angry friend, if you want more customers, you need to go to them. Luckily it had only been a few weeks since he sent out his direct mail campaign and I advised him that the entire plan could still be salvaged if he was willing to pick up a phone and call every business he had sent a direct mail piece to. 

The lesson learned here is that a direct mail campaign cannot open and close a deal on its own. A direct mail piece should be used to open the table for discussion; to give a potential client something to look at when you make that call. Think of it as a friendly introduction and not a mini-salesperson.
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Now this post is geared towards a business-to-business direct mail piece and while many things in it are universal like; designing enticing packaging, writing compelling copy and utilizing a clever theme, it may not be possible to follow up with the people you are sending it to.

If you are using a direct mail campaign to send out post cards with coupons here is the trick to running a successful direct mail campaign for retail.

Send out a post card to your list of people informing them of your products/store/service/benefits… whatever. Offer them a small discount on what you do let’s say 5% off when they bring the post card in to your store. When they bring it in don’t throw it away keep it and start a database of all the customers that responded to this, their names and addresses are on the post card already so creating the database is almost done for you. This is your gold list of customers; they are the ones willing to spend as close to retail as possible.

Remove the names of the people that already redeemed their coupons from the original list and send out a second mailer offering a larger discount. Repeat the same database process as above.

Do this over and over again, each time offering more of a discount, eventually you will find out which discount generates the most response and that list should be guarded with your life. When this all over you should have two very strong databases the first is your gold list, a list of clients willing to pay retail and the other is a list that will generate a large amount of traffic to your store. Of coarse you will have a database of who responded to what and you can use those lists as you like.

Kill the Caterpillars!

The point fo promotional products isn’t to put your name on stuff  but to use a product to deliver a message. On the clock featured here you don’t even have to know that Nomolt sells stuff to kill caterpillars. The message is something like: “The end of caterpillars is near – NOMOLT insecticide BASF.”

Obama Merchandise

The Obama brand gets my vote for the most use of promotional products in 2009. Love him or hate him you can find his face and message on everything from underwear to commemorative plates.  There are over 16 million results for “Obama Merchadise” on google. Here is a list of the weirdest merchandise that can be found with the Obama brand.  My favorite is the Obama chia pet.  I am sure there is a collector out there who has all of this stuff.

Lava Soap Promotional Mailer

The Grimey hand Society is a fictional group of people who love dirty hands so much, they actually want to keep Lava Soap from being distributed. The mailer is complete with pictures, notes and letters that demostrate this group’s distain for Lava Soap and its hand cleaning effectiveness.

Promotional Products Are Everywhere

Promotional products can be used for almost anything and if you can’t find a product that works for you, you can have one made!

The guinness pool cue reminds pub goers to grab a pint.

WWF AD

This ad, created on spec by a Brazilian ad agency and rejected by WWF, is captioned: 'The tsunami killed 100 times more people than 9/11. The planet is brutally powerful. Respect it. Preserve it.'

Some things are just too astounding not to talk about.  I personally think this is all very suspect. The ad itself doesn’t make sense. What tsunami? What do tsumais have to do with anything the WWF stands for?

 The World Wildlife Fund is speaking out after bloggers and twitterers condemned the environmental group over a tasteless and unapproved ad exploiting the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on New York’s World Trade Center.

The online ad shows a swarm of airplanes about to attack New York with a caption reading: “The tsunami killed 100 times more people than 9/11. The planet is brutally powerful. Respect it. Preserve it.”

The ad bears the WWF’s trademark panda logo.

It began drawing attention Tuesday when it won a best of 2009 award from The One Club, a non-profit group that promotes excellence in advertising, says the New York Daily News.

But the WWF says the image was created on specifications by a Brazilian ad agency and was rejected.

“WWF strongly condemns this offensive and tasteless ad, and did not authorize its production or publication,” the group said in a news release issued late Tuesday.

“It is an unauthorized use of our logo and we are aggressively pursuing action to have it removed from websites where it is being currently featured.”

-CBC News