The Redbows Promotional Gifts Blog

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!

We recently went on a quad-biking day with some corporate clients and this got me thinking about how to make the memories of the day last longer. It reminded me of a golf tournament I played in several years ago. Often both types of events are relatively middle-off-the road priced. So if you have 10 to 20 clients what could you stretch your budget to? Well a really great way is to get a photographer for the day to take pictures of the key moments – such as the drive-off or start of a course. Then take more photos during the event and finally at the close down. With a little digital mastery and small printer in a local office these can then be superimposed onto a relevant magazine cover – image me on the cover of Golf Weekly or Quad Biking News and presented at an awards dinner or dropped off later as a personal thank you for attending. Other ideas include the supply of golf towls and balls, baseball caps and fleeces and other such items that are available in small quantities and can be easily customised for the day.

There is a lot of research in the UK on tradeshows and how to get the most out of them. I came across a recent piece in The Marketer recently quoting Gordon Glenister, director general of the British Promotional Merchandise Association (BPMA) – of which Redbows is a full member – stating that the current band wagon was on gifts that contributed towards saving the planet. The main point is that if you use an environmentally friendly gift for a trade show, then make sure you (1) brand it correctly and (2) make sure people know its made from recycled materials. I guess that it is all about promotion. If you use ECO gifts and are interested in saving the planet, then shout about it.

This week saw the National Incentives Show whose markething theme centred around a carrot – or to be more precise ‘more than a carrot’. I liked this concept because it exemplifies the two ends of a continuum with corporate gifts and any type of marketing incentives, from defined goal-linked incentives to general giveaways with a wider marketing message - each with a different set of corporate objectives.

Some clients use gifts as incentives and rewards. A great example of this is a corporate reselller rewards programe. Here branded items are offered to resellers who hit certain turnover targets and product shipment volumes. These gifts are generally towards the higher value end of the market and include items from our promotional gadgets range. Such a programme generally includes some form of added financial incentive such as capital bonds. At other end of the spectrum, we have clients using gifts simply as general giveaways to help build brand name awareness and keep contact details within easy reach. Here the goal is less financial and it is harder to pin down a specific Return on Investment (ROI) for the marketing activity as it is more holistic.

What the spectrum reveals in relation to corporate gifts and incentives is the wide range of uses to which they can be used and the reason why it is so important to match the right gifts to the marketing campaign and its objectives, something our Promotional Gifts Consultants are experts in.

We like tools that help us get the job done. One of the best we have found for locating exhibitions is available on expoab.com – the website for the exhibition and events industry. They have a page set up to help you locate any type of exhibition anywhere in the world – the data is collated from a massive database.

Off course exhibitions and events are great platforms for the use of promotional gifts and we have written a special guide on what we believe exhibitors need to consider when planning such events – click here for our guide on Tradeshow Giveaways.