If you live in Atlanta, like I do, you’re probably pretty aware of what’s going on this weekend. The NCAA Final Four Basketball Semi-Finals and Championship games are going down at the Georgia Dome. Louisville will be playing Witchita State and Michigan will be playing Syracuse on Saturday night. The winner of each game will play each other in the championship on Monday night.
In addition to the games themselves, there’s a ton of stuff going on around town. If you read our weekend guide, you know that all weekend long will feature free concerts from bands like Dave Matthews and Sting. Bracket Town, a 4-day family-friendly event inside the Georgia World Congress Center, will be your chance to meet coaches and former college basketball players, get autographs and participate in other sports activities.
While the official NCAA products are sold online at the NCAA Shop, I have a feeling that if you’re downtown this weekend, you’ll still see a lot of promotional products for sale, being given away or on people themselves. Here’s what I predict we’ll see:
Obviously fans are going to wear t-shirts showing off the team they want to win. That also goes for the concerts; fans will show off their favorite bands by donning their t-shirts. There is also a 5K in the morning on Saturday and I’m sure they’ll give out t-shirts too.
Sounds weird for a basketball tournament, but hear me out. At Bracket Town, kids (and adults for that matter) will have the opportunity to get autographs signed. Props to the company that thought to get their logo imprinted on the pens that the athletes will be using to sign them.
At a huge event like this, handing out promotional sunglasses is a great way to get your brand logo out there and I predict that lots of companies will do just that. With so many people outside listening to music and just hanging out, I bet custom sunglasses are going to be super popular.
If you’re going to any of the Final Four events (or any other festival-type thing), I’d love to hear what sort of promotional products you saw!
I see hundreds of pens a year. Some of them great, some not so great. I have become a little numb to the writing instrument category of promotional products. As a pen aficionado- I have my favorites and my go-to models when suggesting writing tools for various projects.
When the USA Snifty Pen came across my desk, I was brought back to my childhood! My favorite markers were scented, I used them all the time! Do you remeber those? My favorite was the mint scented ones. The Snifty pen has ten different scents to choose from! Each scent is actually infused into the rubber grip of the pen! Each of the pens scent color coordinates with the color accent grip and designer border wrap artwork. So fancy! And each pen is made in the USA! I am digging the Strawberry and Vanilla Cupcake models. Which one will be your favorite?
Check out the snifty pen and other out of the ordinary writing solutions here.
In 1888, John Loud, an American leather tanner, filed a patent for a roller-ball-tip marking pen. However, his pen was never manufactured, and neither were any of the other 350 ball-type pens patented by others over the next thirty years. It wasn’t until 1935 that Hungarian brothers Ladislas and Georg Biro introduced an improved version of the ballpoint pen to the world. They first patented the pen in 1938 and applied for a new patent in Argentina on June 10, 1943, hence the celebration of Ballpoint Pen Day every year on this date!
This month’s Counselor Magazine happens to be the 6th Annual Writing Instruments Issue. Nobody can deny the popularity of promotional pens within the advertising specialties industry, but the publication pinpoints some new studies that illustrate just how effective these marketing tools actually are at disseminating your brand’s message.
While health care legislation has been all over the news for months, this innovative video is the first to focus on the use of the president’s pens rather than the bill and its contents. The behind the scenes glimpse allows viewers to see the bill signing process from a unique prospective; dig a little deeper and the video also provides valuable insight into the promotional products market. Read more market insight from All the President’s Pens…
In yesterday’s blog post, Jaime broke down the average cost per impression of a 30 second Super Bowl commercial versus that of a promotional product giveaway. This analysis contains undeniably valuable information regarding return on investment, yet some companies might not have to choose between promotional products and television advertising after all, thanks to increasingly popular product placements in film.
Product placement is nothing new. In the 1950s, prominent soap manufacturers such as Proctor & Gamble and Unilever sponsored the dramatic television shows that we now refer to as soap operas. However, as traditional television advertising has lost effectiveness over the past decade, more and more companies are utilizing “branded entertainment” by placing their name in both television shows and movies.
In Cast Away, Tom Hanks plays a FedEx manager who utilizes the contents of his packages to survive after becoming stranded on a deserted island. During an episode of FRIENDS, two of the main characters spend an entire day trying to recreate the beloved Nestle Tollhouse cookie recipe. And, most loyal viewers of The Office know that Staples is Dunder Mifflin’s biggest competitor. The point is that product placement is often hard to miss.
Promotional product placement, on the other hand, has a much less intrusive nature. I was watching the 2009 blockbuster He’s Just Not that Into You for the umpteenth time last week when my industry-trained eye noticed something new. As an attempt to run into a boy she likes, the main character Gigi cites the need to return the boy’s pen. She shows up at his friend’s bar and pulls out- not just any old pen- but a promotional pen… and so a new love story begins.
I won’t give away the rest of the story, but let’s just say that things turn out well for “the girl with the dentist pen,” as Gigi refers to herself later in the film. Due to the movie’s success, I’m guessing it was a happy ending for the showcased brands as well.
