The Redbows Promotional Gifts Blog

Well with our summer holidays not far away and the BBQ being cleaned up ready for action I thought it might be about time to explore some of the summer gifts on the Redbows Promotional Gifts Store. Deck and Beach Chairs might just be ideal at this time of year. Imagine them branded with your company logo and being used at outside events, company BBQs or even provided to employees for use during their breaks. Off course with the fuel strike this weekend it may also be handy to carry one in your car on a long journey…

I came across some research the other day about the most favourite promotional gifts found within company cars. ????????Promotional pens are off course the leading item followed by ice scrapers and umbrellas. Now I have to say that a promotional umbrella is a firm favourite for me. I often carry at least one umbrella in the boot of my car at all times. It is simply one of those long-lasting items that I never want to be without. Though I may only use it a couple of times a year, when ferrying visitors around, going to meetings or even just trekking to the shops with the family, I know that my personalised umbrella is there for me - come summer shower or winter storm. This type of gift really does bring home the true essence of promotional marketing. Umbrellas are useful and practical, and can be used within both a business, social and personal environment - making sure your marketing brand is always in mind.

We live in a fascinating world. I just wanted to remind everyone that Easter is early this year (Mar 23rd - see our 2008 Events Calendar) and so if you want to give your clients or colleagues personalised Easter Eggs, then you have got to get your skates on.I searched the internet for some information on Easter and in particular the Easter Bunny. Wikipedia was brilliant - again. I had no idea that the bunny is considered a supernatural-like creature who brings gifts (normally chocolate eggs) at Easter to good boys and girls, and is linked through the festival of Easter itself to the pagan fertility goddess Eostre. So, there you have it. As with most of our modern day festivals and celebrations there is much history and sometimes a little magic to uncover.

Ok so this week we close down the print runs for advent calendars. So what else is hot for Christmas that we can still get onto Santa’s sleigh ? Well all your the normal gifts are still available but we also have some specialist gear for anyone looking for a Christmas theme. A particular favourite this year is tree decorations and these come in a variety of shapes and designs including ceramic Santa shapes. My two favourites are branded Christmas Tree Baubles and Chocolate decorations. Go on get festive - we only have 7 weeks to go!

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.

Halloween is upon us this month and what better time to think about client promotions. According to Wikepedia, Halloween is a Pagan festival. The word actually means All-Hallow-Even, as in the evening before ‘All Hallows’ or ‘All Saints Day’. Halloween is considered by some to be one of the most potent times for magic, when spirits can make contact with the physical world. I am not suggesting that you even attempt this or prepare the way with some delightful Halloween promotional chocolates. However, you may like to consider using this annual event as an opportunity for a themed promotion for clients, resellers or employees. Given the ‘trick or treating’ tradition of Halloween promotional confectionary is very appropriate and at Redbows we can basically taken any of  our confectionary items and turn them into something rather ‘naughty but nice’. Particular favourites are foil-wrapped chocolates either as individual chocolates, balls in a net or lollipops. Another is ginger bread men or should I be saying ‘Wizards and Witches’ ?

It is not just our famous chocolate brownies that are flying out of the ovens. This is one of the biggest supply seasons for promotional gifts companies. When you stand back and reflect it is easy to see why - the Christmas Party season and the start of a new year. During the next few months the range of items supplied can be quite staggering. Sure there are some firm favourites such as calendars and diaries which are traditionally given around this time of year but other gifts can also be tailored for the season. A popular one is isotonic energy drinks. The catalyst for which promotional gifts to use simply comes down to the theme of the promotion, timing and above all the creative work done. For example, an energy drink can be turned into a promotion to get a sales force on the move again following a Christmas party or for resellers looking to restart their sales campaign in the near year. The range of options is quite staggering and is another reason why our Promotional Gifts Consultants are innundated for ideas around this time of year. We even have to let them take some of the energy drinks home for their own consumption!

Redbows has just launched its 2007-2008 Christmas hampers and gifts basket catalogue packed with over 28 pages of information. We reckon we have Xmas hampers and gifts baskets to suit any budget and client from high-flying CEOs to receptionists.

What makes our hampers really unique is that we can cater them in terms of precisely targetting the contents for the recipients - even down to the use of organic and nut-free items, gift tokens etc. For more information see the page we recently added to our website on why hampers make such great business gifts.

Christmas is a fantastic time of year for promotional gifts companies like Redbows. One of our favourite products is the promotional gifts calendar. There are a variety of customisation options when it comes to this type of gift. All our calendars can cater for either a part or full customisation ranging from a completely bespoke design to an off-the-shelf one with an area to imprint your marketing message. We can even print on the reverse of the windows and mould the chocolates to incorporate your company logo. Everything is possible with this type of gift provided that there is a sufficient lead time.

The problem here is that to get the price down these promotional gifts are produced in massive print runs and we collate several orders together on the printing presses. In addition most customers like to have distributed their advent calendars before December 1st. So our order cut-off points run between October 22nd and November 12th. If you then take off these dates say a week or more for artwork approval, you can see why we ask customers to think about promotional advent calendars as early as August!

Hampers and Gift Baskets are very popular gifts for Christmas and a fantastic way to reward clients and colleagues. They can range from full-blown family type baskets to smaller, easier to handle baskets with a quality bottle of wine, chocolates and biscuits. At Redbows we have also found that it can be useful to ‘theme’ your promotional hampers and gift baskets. For example we can do this by country, region and sometimes industry. Also several of the items within the basket can be personalised from one of our other food ranges such as the cakes, wines and spirits.