The Redbows Promotional Gifts Blog

Golf competitions and tournaments are great promotional events but how do you make sure it is an absolute all-around winner for your clients ? Do you choose gifts for immediate impact or longer term brand investment ? Well our advice is to choose both. OK this may seem a bit cheeky but think of it this way - when your clients arrive at the golf course it is always nice to give them a small box of goodies, say branded golf balls and tees in a golf gift set for the day. Then give them something to take away after the dinner and you get a double impact. Consider a Crystal Award for simply taking part - something that can be put on display in their office or a novelty item like a golf putting set. Above all make sure your day is fun, with competitions around the greens, and remember to pay that little extra for brand pin flags and signs around the course.

Congratulations to anyone taking part in Sports Relief this weekend. I take my hat off to them for finding the time not only for keep-fit but also to raise funds for this worthy cause. I introduced medical health insurance at Redbows recently and could not help feeling that it was very much a corrective rather than preventative action – as the ISO9001:2000 mantra goes. Now, what we really need is a private keep-fit instructor (that guy from the Aero adverts would do). For the moment our company mascot Coco, has this privileged role and perhaps that is just as well. Good luck anyone raising Sports Relief funds this weekend - go buy the socks.

Key Note, a market intelligence company is reporting that benefits from winning the 2012 Olympics are already being felt in the sports promotions industry. The organisers of the games are hoping to earn £625m from sponsors and it is expected that these will come from familiar industries such as banking, energy and sports goods. The promotional gifts industry is also starting to gear up for this event which will make up for the rather disappointing fact that we will not have any UK teams in the Euro 2008 football championships this summer. For sure, a number of traditional items will be used for Olympics-related promotions including sports bags for example and we are also expecting to see manufacturers launching a number of bespoke products. Sports marketing is an important below-the-line activity for a number of organisations and it is interesting to note that without major events like the Olympics, the sponsorship market grows by around 5% annually.

These logo kites are just wonderful for exhibitions and events. We worked with a company ‘that gives you wings’ last year and they used several thousand of them as part of a branding and awareness exercise. What seems to fascinate people the most is that these promotional kites really do fly - they are known as the World’s Smallest Kites and you can fly them within an office environment. OK, they may not knock the spots of the little helicopters going around our offices at the moment but at a fraction of the price they do allow you to spread your budget across a wider number of gifts.

A must for the new year is the National Trade Only Show at the Ricoh Arena in Coventry. Not only is it a great place for us to pick up new gift ideas, it also one where we can meet and talk with some of our suppliers, customers and colleagues from across the industry. For many this is the only time for a catch up.

Throughout the rest of the year we only really have time for phone calls or email. Oh how nice it would be to be able to say ‘I don’t do email’ as Ringo Starr did on the Jonathan Ross show last night. I recently read an article in Times Magazine on President Putin who also said that he did not do email but had a very good team of people around him who did.

Now, I am not one of these people who hates the stuff, but I kind of admire their approach because it means you have to pick up a phone or go and see someone - or at least be called for an audience. In the US, some of our colleagues have told us about the latest practice - no email Fridays - which forces everyone in the office to get face time with each other. Another practice I recently came across was to make oneself an ‘email bankrupt’. This is where you have so much email in your inbox unanswered that the only way to solve the problem is to close the email address and start with another one, which you only pass out to a select few. The internet is a fantastic vehicle for a company like Redbows but sometimes I do miss the early morning cuppa at a local cafe followed by a day actually visiting clients for a good natter, catch up and some quality time with them.

This is a great event for suppliers in the promotional gifts industry. Trade Only is a must visit exhibition held at the Richo Arena in Coventry.  As the name implies, it is only for trade suppliers and for Redbows it gives us the chance to meet up with friends and contacts within the industry, as well as discover new potential product sources. A must as well is to attend the Gala dinner which is a huge bash with plenty of entertainment. It is a great excuse for a night out and our only wish is that it could take place a little later in the year.

The final design for the 2012 Olympic Stadium was released this week. Five years seems an eternity but some marketing managers started working towards this event some time ago. I was wondering the other day just what we will see develop in terms of promotional gifts over the next few years. Certainly, this is going to be a ‘big-one’ in corporate land with many campaigns and incentives built around it. If you could predict what the hottest gadgets in 2012 are going to be and which promotional items will be ‘with it’, then you will be onto a real winner. Even with five years to go, I can say for sure that we will see customers ordering at the last minute or should I say last 1/1000th of a second to go! Well no matter, creativity, customer service and express delivery is what we excel in.

Marketing In A Competitive NHS takes place this November (13-14) at The Royal Horticultural Halls. I guess that the conference itself highlights the fact that marketing is a pervasive art and science that crosses all boundaries. We are all marketers in one way or another having to promote ourselves and get others to ‘buy-in’ to our message. The NHS faces stiff competition and serious strategic issues in terms of financial insecurities, organisational uncertainty and competition from local and foreign health service providers. I am sure that this area of the promotional gifts market will become an expanding one for companies like Redbows and we have already done work with several hospitals and health service organisations. The typical products supplied include mugs and pens off course and I just wonder, as NHS marketing managers become more creative, what other gifts will come into their horizons.

Preparing for a family fun-filled evening this week and having sorted out the kids Halloween costumes I was searching around the net for other party ideas. I came across the BigFatBalloons website which provides a great service - helium filled balloons for any occasion.

I think that balloons are one of the most under rated promotional gifts you can get. They are simply fantastic for a range of events from corporate launches to sales conferences - and off course childrens parties. You see they provide high impact. Tens or hundreds of balloons all with your gift marketing message and logo, concentrated into one area or around an event. They are very visible, like branded carrier bags at an exhibition. No wonder we have clients who come back just for these items alone.

Everyone knows that B2B (Business To Business) exhibitions and trade shows are seeing a continuing fall off in numbers. I have been to three very different shows this month covering industrial, innovation and the latest in marketing strategies and have seen a whole range of approaches to getting people onto stands. Some companies did really well, with attractive stands, well laid out with brochures, themed gifts and press packs within easy reach. Others where just down right awful. There can be little excuse these days for not making your stand attractive and the layout something to draw you in. The worst experience was walking past one stand where the American sales person shouted ‘hey I know you want an iPhone !*?* Well no actually I am really happy with my Sony Ericsson PDA which works really well and is not overpriced.

More to the point though when you see shows like this it is easy to spot the companies approaching a tick-list to exhibiting. I am not saying that following a generic Tradeshows and Giveaways Gifts Guide is wrong, just that you need to tailor your approach so that what you present is matched to draw in your prospective clients and is attractive to them. If you take promotional gifts, don’t just pile them on a table for people to take like free cheap giveaways. Work some magic, position them attractively, ask visitors if they would like this really great pen or gadget, make people feel valued. Don’t just pile em high!