Many companies who buy promotional products or giveaways, place their order at the last minute with some times days or a week before an important event.
Why is this? Is it because a significant part of the marketing budget is spent on the exhibition stand – and Oh, we need to have some freebies to give away on the stand.
Fact, the two most effective methods to engage a visitor at a show is to create a STOP mechanic, whatever that might be and to have an engaged and professional team managing your stand.
I am not saying that promotional items are effective in isolation, what I am saying is that they are most powerful when they are relevant to a theme and message you are trying to create.
Research by the bpma suggests over 94% of recipients of promotional items do not forget the brand giving them and nearly 67% keep them. Over 50% of respondents also were motivated to TAKE ACTION as a result of receiving – this compares favourably with other advertising mediums – 19% was the nearest and this was for TV. So you can see when setting a marketing budget for a year, really think about the impact you want to create with your customers and how promotional merchandise can help deliver this.
For example, T shirts are like walking billboards – why else do you think Asda have adopted the lime green colour branded fleeces as has Sainsbury’s with the orange ones. What happens when the staff clock off and go home. Is it not a great branding opportunity. How about the 10p off a litre of fuel Tesco did on the limited run T shirts.
There are many many examples of where promotional products can play an effective part in delivering a cause message for a charity or a trade union. These are picked up by the media which have the power to influence your brand considerably further.