The Redbows Promotional Gifts Blog

It is really nice to see that Fairtrade has extended its reach into the realm of promotional gifts. This is a result of suppliers now actively looking for materials and sources of Fairtrade produce. The first such gifts ranges coming through are chocolate and confectionery items. As we try to take a very ethical stance in all our lives, this now gives marketing people the chance to support this worthwhile initiative. We will keep you up to date with developments in this area and our environmentally friendly gifts over the next few months as we bring more products to market.

In our bid to deliver the best possible customer service within the promotional gifts industry we publish articles and guides. This latest one on Solving Artwork Problems is probably one of the simplest we have ever produced. We basically went back to the drawing board with our Promotional Gifts Consultants team and brainstormed the major problems that client have with artwork. The resulting list covers 8 different areas. If you get a chance to review it please feel free to send me an email and let me know if you were left in any doubt as to how to produce the best possible artwork from which to create your branded gifts.

The Institute of Sales Promotions recently published a newsletter article on how the government is planning to restrict the use of the word ‘free’ in promotional activities as part of the Unfair Commercial Activities Directive which is due for implementation around May 26th. The directive brings the UK into line with the rest of Europe and means that promotional companies can no longer describe a product or gift as free if it requires the enquirer to part with money for them. The word can be used where samples are free and which do not require any more investment other than the cost of a postage stamp or telephone call. All good stuff and designed to protect the less sophisticated in the market place perhaps. One of my husband’s favourite marketing books discusses advertising in the US from the 1930s onwards and I just wonder what the likes of the some of the early pioneers of direct marketing would make of this.

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.

They say that if you are not in Google, you do not exist. I reckon Wikipedia is approaching a similar stage when it comes to describing, well almost anything - take the current hot topic ‘Credit Crunch‘. This phrase needs to come with a health warning. If you lend money to people with a limited ability to pay it back, gamble on interest rates and disposable incomes, and make it your main revenue earner then you are sure to have created a business that is too sensitive to economic swings. The world is changing fast and the internet and our demand for data is driving it. Economic growth in the UK for 2008 may only be forecast at 1% by Ernst & Young, but this is an average with both lows and highs at opposite ends of a Bell Curve distribution. The UK promotions industry continues to expand - rapidly. A slower economic growth rate is actually useful. It forces organisations to step back and realign their strategies to the environment they find themselves in - or should do. At Redbows we are seeing clients focusing their spends on more measurable promotional activities - they are increasing their direct mail and sales promotions budgets. Promotional gifts are also being used as part of wider PR and advertising campaigns to help improve call-to-action response rates and drive prospects towards tailored-landing pages - all easily measurable activities. So, we need to appraise what is happening in our industries, keep scanning the horizon for changes but perhaps relax a little and question whether we really do always need to catch a cold if America sneezes.

Yesterday was off course Valentines Day and what a diversified bunch we have at Redbows. I just wonder how much our team reflects our client base. We had flowers and chocolates turn up at the office from partners and loved ones, and even the threat of a dancing monkey - now this never turned up but we were all in anticipation. Off course Valentines Day is more of a personal gift day and so we do not see that many enquiries for volume chocolates. However, we always keep some Chocolate Hearts around for any Romeo needing to order anything from 500 upwards. He’ll need some extras just to give him energy.

My IT guys started to install a Dell PowerEdge 1900 server on our network today. This latest piece of hardware is part of an on going strategy designed to take us towards single-source data storage. Redbows now has over 5,000 products on its Promotional Gifts Store, with access to several thousand more. The new server will be used to store images and price data, pdfs and specifications, providing our Gifts Consultants with the ability to generate Virtual Visuals and self-serve data to clients. There have been some interesting aspects to this project. Aside from the construction of a new server room, I was intrigued by the artistry of the packing materials used to protect the server in transit, and Dell’s ordering and tracking process.

Now I am not going to put a racy calendar photo here but had to chuckle at a conversation I had with someone about promotional calendars. The fluff ‘n’ stuff variety is one of the biggest sellers in the country, probably more popular by a ratio of 5:1 compared to other wall calendars. So I thought to myself that here we have a definite competitor to Microsoft Outlook in the form of a very simple, analogue device that one puts on the wall. I am all for liberation and am wondering if I can get one with that guy on from the latest Aero or diet-coke adverts? Joking aside we supply an awful lot of calendars which even in this digitised age are still a very popular promotional item. Probably one of the best formats we supply is the desk top calendar verison.

There are a number of online photo and image websites but the best in my opinion is iStock Photos. If you are ever stuck for an image to use in a promotional campaign, on literature or to apply to a promotional product then this is the website for you. What these guys have done it make it easy for you to buy and download images. Sure there are terms and conditions to comply with but the whole feel and functionality of the website is to be admired. This last week one of our clients looked into using an image from this website on a promotional mug. Just sign up, buy some credits, download and away you go. A great example of how a website should make your life easier.

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.