The Redbows Promotional Gifts Blog

Promotional flashdrives are without question today’s ultimate promotional gift. Promotional flashdrives or USB flashdrives or USB memory sticks as they are sometimes called tick all the boxes when it comes to promotional gifts. They are one of the most sought after computer peripherals whether you work in an office or are a student studying at school or university. Nearly everyone has one or more flashdrives and the range available means that it is possible to choose a flashdrive to suit any budget or marketing program. ECO environmentally friendly flashdrives are also now available with casings made from recycled plastics or sustainably farmed materials like wood and bamboo. With many sizes available the most popular size of flashdrive is the 1GB but the physical forms available vary greatly. Wristband flashdrives with an embossed logo are very popular for schools and colleges, where as Twister flashdrives with a screen printed imprint are popular in office environments. At the higher end of the price spectrum, leather bound flashdrives have a unique appearance and whilst more expensive do have a certain appeal. The low cost of tooling now allows suppliers to manufacture bespoke flashdrive casings, even around a company logo and these can appeal for wider corporate marketing programs. Promotional flashdrives can also be supplied with pre-loaded data but this is rarity these days with most clients taking their branded usb flashdrives unpopulated. If you were to consider data upload there is a nominal charge and typical items uploaded to a flashdrive include presentations, data sheets, corporate brochures and conference programs. The best promotional gift available? You have to go a long way to beat promotional flashdrives.

Summer is almost over and in world of promotional gifts this means that what lies ahead is the busiest time for companies like Redbows. With VAT set to rise to 20% at the end of the year we anticipate many clients will look to bring their Q1 2011 promotional gift spends into 2010 – allowing them to save 2.5% in terms of cash at least. We are also always on the look out for the best possible pricing and supplies for our clients and this autumn will see us increase our stocks of express delivery gifts, allowing us to respond to even shorter lead times. With autumn approaching its always worth noting that those seasonable items that will see a flurry of activity – notably advent calendars. Pricing is now available for our 2010 advent calendars to allow us to meet the tight timescales of end of October production runs. Other developments this summer have included the launch of our new ECO Gifts Store and we anticipate that 2011 will be the year of the ECO promotional gifts company. So will our predictions and forecasts hold true? We’ll just have to see in 2011.

We were with a client this week who runs the marketing operation across several company divisions. They are looking at pooling all their corporate gifts purchases into one large buying lot to get the prices down, plan logistics better and improve the use of promotional merchandise throughout the group. This is a great idea as it also helps to simplify the logistics process for a promotional gifts company life Redbows. We use our warehouse facilities to stock and then distribute the branded gifts, to depots and sites around the UK. The whole ethos is one of delivering better customer service across the supply chain. It just takes a little planning in the set up stage but once complete can cover any type of corporate gift, from pens and mugs to clothing and document wallets – everything a business would need to market itself.

We’re working hard to launch our new ECO Gifts Store. Taking an eco environmentally friendly view to promotional gifts is like looking at your industry from another dimension. There is so much to consider and yet somehow it feels right to bring carbon footprints, CO2 emissions, sustainability, material recycling and reclaimation into our field of scope. We know that we are going to have a lot of fun with our new ECO gifts website and are looking forward to client feedback as we drive forward to populate it.

We’re always investing at Redbows in our IT and customer care systems. They’re what separate us from the rest of the crowd within the promotional gifts industry. This month we have just released our Free Artwork Redraw service. Most promotional gifts companies charge for this but we feel that our latest Mac systems make this task one of the simplest to perform for clients. Its great when you know that you are adding value for clients and constantly striving push the boundaries on customer care.

Everywhere you look people are jumping on the green bandwagon. Promotional Gifts suppliers are no exception but how green are the gifts they supply? The issue is not whether their gifts are made from recycled materials but the costs of doing this. Think of a pyramid with ECO gifts at the top. Supporting them are factories, suppliers, transportation systems, materials, processes and systems. There are now many products made from recycled and reclaimed materials available within the promotional gifts arena but how ECO friendly are the processes and organisations that deliver them? At the very least factories should have a environmental management system accredited to ISO14001. When you consider transportation, it is easy to find ECO stamped gifts made in China and India but then you have the costs of transportation which in themselves can have a significant impact on the carbon footprints of your promotional flashdrives, mugs and mousemats. The management team at Redbows has challenged itself to gain its ISO14001 certification over the next year. What’s as important is to ensure we work with suppliers who also share this ethos and think wider in terms of their Corporate Social Responsibility. For more information on our ECO gifts see our Environmentally Friendly Gifts collection.

With the World Cup just over a week away, the UK seems to have run out of promotional stress footballs. Lets hope the England team get to the final. I wonder what the next hot promotional gifts will be when they win?

The Promotional Pens you use say a lot about your company and also about the person or people involved in selecting them. Choosing the right promotional pens for any promotion involves a number of factors. Budget is obviously a key factor to consider and once a certain style of promotional pen is chosen, other factors come into play such as its colour and imprint area. These days our clients are also considering whether to opt for an ECO friendly pen i.e. one made from recycled materials. However the most important thing that needs to be considered is the end user. Will they want to use then pen? How does it feel to them? Some people prefer a chunky pen and some people prefer slim barrels. Some like black ink and some blue ink. Some ballpens and some rollerballs. When it comes to promotional gifts and especially promotional pens there are a few more factors to consider than just budget, colour and imprint area.  Alternative gift solutions are another area to consider. At Redbows we have also seen a rise in demand for promotional wooden pencils. These can be supplied with or without an eraser and the most popular are the matt black finished pencils. The best advice is to check out the types of promotional gifts and promotional pens found in your client’s offices. Conduct your a mini market survey to ensure you hit the mark when it comes to your own promotional pens.

Working on the house this weekend got me thinking about promo gifts opportunities outside of the normal day-to-day work. We’re renovating an old house and seeing my husband splattered in paint I wondered if there was any opportunity to provide him with some branded promotional clothing. I was working in the garden (enjoying the sunshine) and was really in need of some of the wonderful garden gifts we have on our gifts website. The plant markers and garden tool sets would have been ideal. I guess that when it comes to promotional gifts there really is no boundary. Promotional marketing opportunities exist everywhere and sometimes it just takes a bit of lateral thinking to select the right promo gifts for the campaign. For example promotional seed packets can be used for creative campaigns ‘sparking ideas, germinating ideas etc’ or simply to target socio-economic group in their leisure time. We have thousands of gifts on our promo gifts website, which can at times seem a little daunting. Sometimes though it just makes sense to plant an idea with one of our Promotional Gifts Consultants and let them guide you to a range of possible promo gifts for your campaign.

Watching the political debates last night I was pondering their use of promotional gifts throughout their campaigns. Off course they do not use many but wouldn’t it be fun if each of the political parties used something like promotional sweets? I was looking at their rosettes and wondering if they could make use of promotional lollies. You see promotional lollies come in a shapes and sizes, some as big as a politician’s rosette down to the traditional ball-shaped ones we used to have as kids – remember Kojak? What would really tie promotional lollies into their campaigns is that they could take an imprint of their party emblem and campaign message – either printed onto the lolly packaging or the lollies themselves as part of the design or embossing. Off course we do not expect any of the political parties to adopt this campaign idea but it does demonstrate how useful promotional lollies can actually be.