The Pinnacle Blog

Photo and art project instructions from http://crafts.kaboose.com/

Did you know March is National Craft Month? Now before you scoff at the mention of arts and crafts, a term you may think you have long out-grown, reflect for a moment on the enjoyment you derived from art projects during your childhood. I’m not talking about the required assignments from art class that left you (well, maybe that was just me, because of my lack of artistic talent!) disappointed because of a poor grade. I’m talking about the popsicle stick log cabins and handprint turkeys that you worked on at home with friends and family. It would be impossible for me to ever relive the carefree hours I spent sitting at my kitchen table with watercolors and construction paper, but just writing this blog post is enough to make me add “coloring” to my list of things to do this weekend.

I think encouraging your business to participate in National Craft Month is a great way to help staff relieve stress and unleash their creativity. You could even combine arts and crafts with a favorite philanthropy, such as volunteering at the children’s ward of a local hospital. Whether you decide to drop off handmade cards or artwork to the kids or spend time creating masterpieces with them, the thoughtful sentiment and bright, happy colors of the pieces are sure to bring smiles. And although the driving force behind your volunteer work shouldn’t be the positive publicity, you could always leave the beneficiary’s of your kindness with art-related promotional products like markers so that whenever they spend time coloring and drawing, the imprinted messages will remind them of their special relationship with your organization and the fun times they have shared with representatives of your brand.

In college, one of the clubs I was a part of used to make tissue paper flowers that we hand-delivered to a local children’s hospital; keep reading for instructions on how to do this simple Spring project…

How do these images make you feel? from brandtags.net

WNYC’s Radiolab — a fantastic podcast — had a fascinating short this week called “Do I Know You?” about people with a delusional disorder called Capgras.

A woman suffering from Capgras comes home to find a man sitting in her living room, wearing her husband’s clothes and containing all his physical features, but who, to her, simply is not her husband. In actuality, he is. But she can’t shake the feeling he’s an impostor.

Click to find out about how our brains manage recognition, and how promotional products enter in…

There is only one circumstance in which we cannot offer our famous 24-hour Rocketship Service: when the item is out of stock. This is exactly why I am writing about Earth Day more than a month in advance; I do not want anyone to miss out on this great opportunity for functional and unique eco-friendly promotional EarthSmart products!

Photos of promotional EarthSmart products below the fold…

Tomorrow, March 9, marks Barbie’s 51st birthday (though she doesn’t look a day past 22). Yes it was 51 years ago that “Barbie” – named after her creator Ruth Handler’s daughter Barbara – was first presented at the American International Toy Fair in New York City. It is estimated that over a billion Barbie dolls have been sold worldwide in over 150 countries since its debut, despite plenty of controversy and lawsuits that have tried to deface this cultural icon. But, alas, Barbie has prevailed through the decades, enchanting the lives of little girls everywhere and helping to boost many other noted brands as a promotional toy.

From Oreo cookies to Christian Louboutin high heels, read on about some of Barbie’s most noted promotions:

Okay, so don’t get me wrong, the Slap-On Promotional Watch is still super hot. But I have a new favorite product obsession to tell you about this week. It’s the Kikkerland Grass Charging Station.

What could be better than a having a high-quality charging station to store your miscellaneous electronic devices in? Storing them in a charging station that looks like a little patch of grass!

I know what you’re thinking. A charging station covered in grass? I know it seems crazy, but how great is it to literally bring a little patch of (not quite alive) greenery indoors?

Continue reading…

Everybody has one. As kids, we count the days until they arrive. As we grow older, we begin to anticipate them less and less. You know what I’m talking about… BIRTHDAYS! Today happens to be mine (I’m the big 2-3!), and I am still young enough to actually enjoy the festivities that accompany this special day.

“Birthday marketing” is a clever marketing ploy adopted by many companies because – no surprise here- it works! According to a 2008 study, 75% of participants stated that receiving a special occasion card, like a business birthday card, with a discount would increase the likelihood that they would conduct business with the company. Everyone wants to feel special and loved on his or her birthday, and letting customers know that you value their loyalty is a great way to ensure their continued support. Gestures as small and simple as sending a direct mail piece with a coupon, brief note, and maybe even a compact promotional product will achieve the desired effect and encourage repeat business.

More promotional marketing ideas and chatter below the fold…

I’ve mentioned on here before that I’m a fiend for podcasts, and one of my regular shows is Slate’s Culture Gabfest. Each week at the end of the hour-long podcast the group goes around and endorses a film, book, article, other podcast, or anything else they have recently discovered and love. I started following Roger Ebert on Twitter, for example, due to one of these endorsements (Dana Stevens’, I think).

So in the tradition of endorsements, I’m going to recommend my latest favorite drinkware item, the X-One Promotional Mug.

My endorsement below the fold…

The Olympics ended Sunday, but for avid speed skating fans a few questions still remain to be answered. For one, why did Apolo Anton Ohno keep yawning before races? Was the most decorated American Winter Olympian in history tired? Bored?

No. After watching a post-race interview with Ohno, I can confidently say the American short track speed skater was neither tired nor bored. The yawns relax his facial muscles and help him prepare for competition, Ohno explained. Also helping him prepare for his outstanding performances were his music, headphones and signature bandanas, which he wore fervently for each event. As most sports fanatics know, Ohno is certainly not alone in his pre-game rituals. The question remains as to whether or not these superstitions actually influence an athlete’s performance.

“It’s very helpful for players to have consistent rituals, both for pregame preparation and during competition,” said Mary Fry, an associate professor at University of Kansas, Lawrence in the Department of Health, Sport, and Exercise Sciences. “Rituals help athletes maximize their performance under pressure. Without rituals many athletes have a tendency to speed up or slow down their regular play, making them more susceptible to making errors.”*

As Fry explains, rituals help athletes to get into their zone. And this theory doesn’t just apply to Olympic-level or professional athletes. Despite my lack of coordination, I have been playing in an adult dodgeball league for the past two months. Every Saturday at 1 o’clock, my teammates and I faithfully arrive at the local gym, ready to dodge, duck, dip, dive and…. Dodge. This weekend, we took third place in the championships and I think our success was due in part to the logo apparel we wore routinely for every game. Our pink shirts, imprinted with the league name and company sponsors, helped the team look unified, feel more confident and thus perform better.

We might not be ready for the Olympics, but we’ll take logo apparel and a bronze medal any day!

Sarah

Marketing Coordinator

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*as quoted in an article by Nicolas Roesler in the Daily Kansan

http://www.flickr.com/photos/twob/ / CC BY 2.0

For some strange reason, back during the summer Olympics hosted in Atlanta in 1996, an extraordinary collecting frenzy broke out, and people everywhere were buying promotional lapel pins like they were going out of style – not that they were ever actually in style. I too fell victim to this craze and now have a drawer full of Olympic pins that I am crossing my fingers will one day be worth more money than I paid for them. An estimated 63 million pins were sold in Atlanta during its games – yes, 63 million –  an insane number that even prompted the running joke that pin collecting should be included as a 29th event.

This year’s Olympic craze – besides those red mittens that Oprah featured on her show last week – is curling. It was first played in the Winter Olympic Games back in 1924, but for some reason the sport of curling has seemed to garner more public attention this year than any other. I, for one, just learned of its existence this year. And while Saturday Night Live did a skit describing curling as a sport for those who “like your winter sports slow and complicated,” it is somehow strangely compelling to watch, once you tune in.

Often described as shuffleboard on ice, Dummies.com gives a nice, brief explanation of the play of the game:

“In curling, teams slide a polished granite stone over a rectangular sheet of ice. The ice sheet has a pattern on it (called the house). The goal is to place your team’s stones closer to the target than your competitors. To assist the stone in reaching its mark, teammates sweep the ice with brooms to guide the stone. The friction from the sweeping creates thin water tracks that the stone can follow.”

The game is continuing to gain popularity and interest – though often with a satirical spin. Check out SNL’s recent spoof of the game below.

Jaime

Team Lead – Multimedia
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I’m sure it comes as no surprise to you that more and more people are watching television while simultaneously accessing the Internet via their computers and mobile devices. I’ve personally been using my tech tools concurrently ever since I got my first computer. I pretty much couldn’t do my college coursework without my Word doc open and my TV tuned in to my favorite show of the hour. I guess something about the organized chaos has always helped me focus. I guess that’s weird, but I digress…

With the continued growth and popularity of social media sites like Twitter and Facebook, users across the globe are connected to their social networks at nearly every moment of the day. Email, instant messaging, forums and profiles are now just a click away via your computer or smartphone.

While your security settings and preferences help to protect you, your content and your private data, it is no secret that every tweet, status update, comment, “like” and wall posting from each and every social media outlet is documented and logged. These stats are then being used to measure the engagement of users, and have even been used to gage the overall “attitude” of the nation.

With the emerging analytical power and massive amount of data collected by these frontrunners of the world wide social web, we are now able to see the real-time thoughts, feelings, reactions and emotions of the collective social media universe. While we know how this info can be used, it is another thing entirely to actually see these results and their relation to other media channels.

The analytics team at Twitter did just this to gage audience excitement and opinion during the Super Bowl earlier this month. The study showed just how connected and active the social media community is even while viewing a hugely popular, televised event. The Super Bowl is known to be the most viewed television event of the year. This month’s, Super Bowl XLIV, however, became the most watched television broadcast ever with over 106 million viewers.

Click to Enlarge. Image From http://blog.twitter.com/2010/02/super-data.html

(View @kevinweil’s blog post for all the details of this study.)

With this many people actively engaging with Twitter while watching TV programs, it will be interesting to see how this trend continues to develop. I personally predict that we will see this dependency grow exponentially over the coming years as more and more people trade up to smartphones and netbooks. Social media is already almost an addiction to some. I’d liken many diehard social media users to a caffeine addict… I mean, coffee enthusiast… and their favorite promotional mug. You don’t leave home without it, you keep in touch throughout the day and you can never really have too many or too much.

Will anyone really be able to simply watch traditional television with the draw of the Internet so readily in reach? Knowing now what kind of analytical information we can get from social media sites, I’d love to see what this study looks like for next year’s Super Bowl game. How will companies use this growing dependency to their advantage? With their widely popular advertisements during Super Bowl XLIV, Doritos definitely did. Google did too. And now they continue to reap the benefits of their multi-million dollar ads via chatter about their brands on the social media web. How will others capitalize on this research?

I’d love to hear your thoughts!

Kim
Marketing Coordinator
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