The Redbows Promotional Gifts Blog

Redbows has recently joined Promota – one of the promotional gifts industry trade associations. Already a member of the British Promotional Merchandise Association or the BPMA as it is known for short, this latest accolade for Redbows shows how the company is developing. We are very proud to be associated with both Promota and the BPMA and look forward to developing our relationship with these leading gifts industry bodies.

How do you save costs when it comes to promotional gifts? The easiest way without sacrificing quality is to examine your imprint closely. The higher the number of colours used, the higher the print costs. The lowest cost print method is screen printing and this is the norm used for the majority of printed promotional products. With screen printing, each colour is applied separately. The higher the number of colours, the higher the number of origination charges (and processes) required to apply the colours. So look closely at your logo and see if it can be reproduced as a single colour. Most Artwork Design Studios will be able to generate a positive or negative version of your logo (using a single colour) and this will give the most-economic print pricing for your promotional gifts.

I am not what you would call a politcal person but I do think that Gordon Brown may be one of the last gentleman politicians around. I read the other day that he and his wife took their children to China for the Olympic games but no where did you see the whole family photographed as a publicity stunt. Unlike the Blairs and Camerons who open up their lives as though we are all readers of ‘Hello’, the Browns have decided to keep their children out of the limelight to give them as normal a childhood as possible. What a gift and something that for me shows that Gordon Brown deserves more respect than he is actually getting at this moment. He may have inherited a financial bubble and his gamble not to go for an election last October was probably his biggest political mistake but he knows what to value and treasure. Well done.

Promotional pens are one of the most popular promotional gifts supplied in the UK. They hit all the boxes when it comes to promotions and getting known. Take the New Spring Pen which we supply by the thousand. Not only does it provide a great area for an imprint down the barrel (38×19mm) but it has a very unique and funky design. The top part of the pen is actual sprung out of the plastic itself and the design is available in a range of colour combinations. No matter where we send this pen it always goes down as a talking point and nearly all customers repeat purchase because once in an organisation the gift is seen as a must-have item. Pencils can also have this affect. For both pens and pencils there is a wide range of choice. For example pens on the Redbows Promotional Gifts Store are split into several sub-collections including plastic, frosted plastic, executive and environmentally friendly pens made from recycled materials.

You know the count down to Christmas is upon us when Google searches for Promotional Advent Calendars and Promotional Xmas Chocolates increase. Advents Calendars are a wonderful gift for the holiday festivities and can create a great deal of goodwill in the lead up to them. What most people do not realise is the print process itself. Most calendars are produced on large print runs using complex machinery that is capable of changing the imprint during the run. This maximises print volumes and gets clients the lowest possible unit costs. So, when thinking about whether to order your Advent Calendars remember to find out the last print run date. For most suppliers this can be very early in November. Remember to also think about whether you are going to hand-deliver them or send them out by post. Advent Calendars can be part or fully personalised, as can their packing and post cartons. Most suppliers have a range of standard designs you can call on and for a small sum a Design Studio or Creative Agency should be able to provide you with a fully customised design.

Would a ban on promotions limit alcohol sales? This is a hard one to answer. The Institute of Sales Promotions just reported a survey completed in Scotland by Asda. The result was that removing or limiting promotions would not lower alcohol consumption. With Christmas rapidly approaching we have added personalised wines, beers and spirits to the Promotional Gifts Store but as a holding page to say we offer them, ‘let us send you more information’.  I guess this is our responsive approach and one that is more appealing in many ways to limiting promotions. We offer them, can provide them but you have to ask. Perhaps if we made alcohol less readily available in this country, controlled its consumption better and made retails, waiters and bar tenders more responsible for their actions in the sales process we would start to change our culture. In Italy if you are caught driving whilst drunk your car is crushed and the proceeds go to the State. In the US a bar tender can be prosecuted for selling you your last drink and the age for alcohol consumption is higher. And off course in France, wine is something introduced to young adults as part of the social process at dinner tables. Somehow we have to move from a nation of warm beer drinkers and I do not think we will get there by simply removing ‘BOGOFs’- buy one get one free and other promotions from alcoholic drinks.

What happened to the great British Summer? As we head to the autumn and start the second selling season in promotional gifts I have been making a list of what I think will be the top sellers in the coming months. Yes you guessed it – Umbrellas is top of my list. Promotional Umbrellas are a great way to advertise your company and you can rest assured that they are going to get plenty of exposure over the next few months. Luckily, for the British weather we have some very rhobust designs and some which can withstand the type of storms and weather that we are starting to see all to often here. The great things about supplying personalised umbrellas is that they are easy to personalise with a large imprint area and come in all shapes, sizes and colours. Perhaps they are the perfect promotional gift – especially this autumn.

What a fabulous time we had this summer with the Olympics and results from the British Team. My hat goes off to them. Few people remember at times like these that it was the British Conversative Prime Minister John Major who started pumping lottery money into sports and the results were this summer evidently obvious. What a huge uplift Team GB provided. Whilst we did not get to see the British Team arrive at Heathrow we did come face to face with the French Team in Paris. I took my family over to Disney and at Charles De Gaulle airport we just got through customs and baggage claim ahead of them. Imagine our surprise on passing through the last door into the arrivals hall to be greated by an army of French fans, cameras and reporters – just for us!