2012 is going to bring a lot of new fun additions to the Pinnacle Promotions blog. The first of which is our Fan of the Month contest. Each month, we are going to be holding a contest for our fans. By leaving a comment on our blog or our Facebook wall, you will be able to win a prize pack full of promotional goodies. In addition, we will spotlight your company on our blog, providing a great opportunity to promote your brand to our readers.
And now, without further adieu, our January Fan of the Month: iprintfromhome.com!
Okay so I’m switching it up. Today the bonus comes FIRST!
You may have noticed there’s an election a brewin’. And as any good campaign would have it, (thanks to George Washington’s buttons) there are plenty of promo products to go around.
As an avid HGTV and promotional products lover, I’ve dedicated a series of blog posts to products inspired by HGTV’s Color of the Month. September’s color is indigo, which is a cooler tone that works well with the transitional weather and changing season. Indigo’s calming effect will keep recipients in check as schedules start to get busy again after a slower, more relaxing summer. Thus, it’s the perfect hue for planners, desk organizers, and computer accessories.
An article featured in the New York Times this week, “Do You Suffer From Decision Fatigue?,” discusses decision fatigue, which is an increasingly common phenomenon facing today’s society. Do you find yourself struggling to make decisions later in the day? Making rash decisions to avoid mulling over all possible consequences? Procrastinating making any decisions at all? New findings prove that you are not alone!
Recent experiments demonstrate that being forced to make a multitude of choices can lead to diminished willpower. Once decision fatigue rears its ugly head, study participants typically settle for recommendations from salespeople in a variety of situations. Additionally, when individuals are presented with more difficult decisions early on in the purchasing process, fatigue hits them early on, as well, and they claim to enjoy the shopping experience less.
From personal decisions to business decisions, practically every minute of our lives is jam-packed with choices. If you have purchased promotional products before, you are probably well-aware of the endless variety of products, styles, imprint methods, sizes, colors, etc. available. Rather than draining your entire daily quota of preliminary decisions on selecting items for your next campaign, let Pinnacle’s staff of promotional gurus guide your hand. Nobody should have to navigate the sea of decisions involved with promotional marketing alone!
As an avid HGTV and promotional products lover, I’ve dedicated a series to products inspired by HGTV’s Color of the Month. This month’s color, chrome yellow, is a great pick for August. With back to school season right around the corner, chrome yellow items are the perfect way to extend the happy feeling of summer, even as temperatures begin to drop. This sunny color lifts recipient’s spirits and works well for both practical products – such as school and office supplies – and tailgating necessities.
For example, every football fan knows that a trusty cooler is a tailgating must-have, so why not order one in an eye-catching yellow hue? I recommend the Ice® 6-Can Cooler with Coolflex®. It’s made from durable nylon with a tear-resistant, leak-proof lining and can easily hold six 12-ounce cans. My favorite feature, though, is that the cooler folds down flat, allowing recipients to easily carry it into the stadium after finishing the contents. And, even when collapsed, the cooler still prominently displays a company logo.
Another great way to ensure brand visibility at sporting events is to distribute a bold, chrome yellow t-shirt such as the 100% Cotton Tie-Dyed T-Shirt. The soft, seamless cotton makes the Tie-Dyed T-Shirt a hit at professional football games, high school games, and everywhere in between. Organizations in the education industry, in particular, can customize t-shirts with their team name and mascot to promote school spirit both on and off the field.
However, chrome yellow promotional products aren’t just for leisure time. A golden tone adds a cheerful element to classroom and office products that recipients traditionally associate with functionality and monotony. The Conyers USB Flash Drive is one of my top picks for making the classroom colorful!
Have you purchased any yellow products lately? How do you plan to distribute them? We’d love to hear from you!
From the personalized coffee mugs at your local Starbucks to the 10-year-old t-shirt emblazoned with a high school logo that your cube-mate insists on wearing every casual Friday, promotional products are all around you. But just how effective are these branded gifts and giveaways?
Incredibly powerful, according to MP Mueller, author of The New York Times’ small business blog, You’re the Boss. Mueller arrives at this answer by way of a letter opener. But this isn’t just any letter opener. “In the clear acrylic handle,” Mueller writes, “float[s] a mini uterus with two pills strategically placed where the ovaries normally reside, alongside the drug’s name…”
HGTV features an inspiring color on their blog every month, along with ideas and suggestions about how readers can incorporate the Color of the Month into their design and decor. Since I’m an avid HGTV fan (and promotional products lover of course), I thought it would be fun to apply their creativity to the world of advertising specialty items. In accordance with this month’s color, I’ve highlighted some of my favorite lime products and discussed why I think their greenish hue will make a great impression for your brand.
As the folks at HGTV mention, lime is the perfect color for summer. It’s bold, it’s refreshing, and it’s often associated with positive memories. As a result, lime provides an unexpected twist to a classic product, such as the Flexi Promotional Ruler.
With a new school year quickly approaching, now is the perfect time to distribute practical promotional products for the classroom. Priced at under $1 per item, the Flexi Promotional Ruler is an affordable giveaway that makes learning fun. Imprinting a white logo on the bright green hue will create an eye-catching item that really pops!
Welcome to this week’s edition of “Trending Topic Tuesday,” where we share our take on what’s going on in the world and what promotional products would appropriately (or inappropriately) market the subject matter.
The Internet is abuzz today with word that actress Mila Kunis has accepted an invitation to this year’s Marine Corps Ball that was delivered via YouTube. The video (shown above) features Sgt. Scott Moore of the 3rd Battalion 2nd Marines in Musa Qala, Afghanistan, and his polite request: “I just wanted to take a moment out of my day to invite you to the Marine Corps Ball on November 18th in Greenville, North Carolina, with yours truly. So take a second, think about it and get back to me.” With a little encouragement from her Friends With Benefits co-star, Justin Timberlake, Mila announced that she would indeed go to the Ball with Sgt. Moore.
A few weeks ago, the President & CEO of the Association of National Advertisers (ANA) put out the following video blog about the association’s new initiative to develop and implement a system of generally accepted brand valuation standards – a system that, he says, our economy currently lacks.
In the video, Bob Liodice discusses the relationship between marketing and brand value. He is a firm believer that investing in the former is essential for the growth of the latter “If we don’t invest in marketing activities,” he says, “we could be damaging our brand value.”
The video comes in the midst of efforts from the Obama administration and the Interagency Working Group on Food Marketed to Children to cut back on the amount of junk food marketing and advertising initiatives specifically geared toward kids. Strict new guidelines have been proposed that could potentially cut current food & beverage advertising expenditures by 20%, reducing total sales by businesses in this industry by $30 billion in as little as a year. Of course, there would be job losses to go along with that dollar amount – 378,000 jobs over a four-year period, according to the ANA.
However, these brands won’t only be losing money and manpower. As Liodice notes in his video, marketing efforts directly relate to brand power, so if marketing initiatives are cut, brand value will also take a hit. He says that “we know empirically that strong brands means strong operating results, which means higher shareholder equity…organizations that have strong brands have a higher stock market value than those that do not.” Putting restrictions on how and to whom members of the food & beverage industry can advertise might not just affect these companies’ employees and profits, but our economy as a whole.
Google launched a new service yesterday called, “What Do You Love?” located at both www.wdyl.com and google.com/whatdoyoulove, The site appears very similar to Google’s own homepage with a single search box, but instead of producing a list of web page results related to your query, it gives you results from over 20 of Google’s services including YouTube, Picasa, Trends and Earth. So, for example, if you were to type in that you love promotional products in the search box, you would be brought to a page that allows you to translate “promotional products” into 57 different languages with Google Translate, to start a promotional products discussion with Google Groups or find promotional products nearby with Google Maps, among other things.
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