The Redbows Promotional Gifts Blog

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.

How relevant are promotional calendars in today’s modern electronic environment? Well this is one of the busiest times of year for calendar and diary orders because they are still considered to be one of the most impactful promotional gifts you can give to a client. At Redbows we have a range of calendars to suit all including artistic scenes, UK, basic, cars and transportation, fun, photographic, glamour, sports, wildlife and world places.

What makes the promotional calendar so unique? Well the key is that you off course get 12 months worth of advertising your company and marketing message to a client. Promotional calendars are generally placed in an easy to view location, sometimes with plenty of foot traffic and what’s more there is no boredom factor - the pages can change every 6 or 12 months dependent upon whether the calendar has one or two months to a page. A great alternative to calendars are  pocket or desk diaries.

Ok, so as we approach the Christmas Party season one of the most popular promotional gifts (that we can talk about without blushing) is the disposable camera. Even with most people having their own mobile phone cameras these days we find that our disposable cameras are a big hit around the Christmas period.

So what makes these gifts so popular. Well most people love to have a camera for the office party and few want to risk taking along their own digital cameras for obvious reasons. They primary reason for the buyer though is that these gifts have an outer card sleave that can be fully customised with a big ‘thank you, have fun’ type message or something more corporate. Being pocket sized the cameras can be supplied in a personalised party bag along with other appropriate gifts. We can also arrange for printing afterwards. A neat idea for anyone looking for something different for their Christmas Dinner Parties.

I just love fruit cake and the richer the better. Well these individual cakes make ideal presents for Christmas and go down extremely well at office parties and corporate events in general. They are one of those gifts with what I like to think of as ‘recall value’ - people remember getting them. What’s more we tend to think of fruit cake in particular as a high value, rich ingredients item, for special occasions, with a high value and worth. In terms of personalisation these mini fruit cakes can be supplied finished with icing or screen printed message and they come in a clear acetate box - well who want to cover up such a delicious promotional item. And in terms of price they are very reasonable due to our large production runs.

Everyone knows, I am sure, that the football season kicked off (pardon the pun!) last weekend, so what better time to have some fun with your next promotion? We have an extensive range of football-related items, from car aerial toppers and dog leads to cameras and rattles. Or perhaps a game of table-top football sounds more adventurous? Our table-top goal posts are perfect for a bit of lunchtime competition. All of these products can be branded with your company name, so make sure that when the season really starts to get going, your brand is part of the excitement.

Well, Rihanna got to number 1 with her hit ‘Umbrella’ for several weeks, so we thought we should pay tribute to her with an entry all about the one thing that you can never find when it’s absolutely pouring down…umbrellas.

Don’t you find it really is always the case? You look outside, it’s chucking it down, you’re rushing out to work and you don’t want to get your suit wet/your hair to go frizzy/just be soaked and downright uncomfortable (delete where applicable), and you can’t find the umbrella that you know you had stashed away under the stairs in the cupboard? Therefore, what better gift to give to your client or customer than an umbrella, something they will thank you for during all those bleak showery months? Not only is an umbrella a gift with a function, it provides large print areas for maximum exposure of your company logo. Unlike, say, a mousemat or coaster, an umbrella is used in the outdoor world where hundreds, if not thousands, of members of the general public will notice your branding and subconsciously remember or recognise your company logo.

So as you can see there are many great reasons as to why an umbrella is a great choice for a promotional gift, which is why here at Redbows we have over forty styles to choose from. Ranging from cost effective options such as the Budget Golf umbrella, to the more executive Supervent, our collection of golf umbrellas is extensive, with numerous colour, handle and panel options. If a golf umbrella isn’t what you’re looking for, perhaps a Supermini would be more suitable?

For more information on our standard range of umbrellas, please visit our ‘Guide to Promotional Umbrellas’. If you can’t see the style you require, give our Promotional Gifts Consultants a call on 0845 8386 368, or email sales@redbows.co.uk to discuss your requirements.

When choosing promotional items we sometimes forget how the seasons can play a big influence. We have just added these delicious promotional sweets to our range of products. They will be ideal for summer corporate events and hospitality. 

These gourmet chocolates contain real fruit pieces, encased in rich chocolate and packed into pocked sized pillow packs. Weighing 50g these promotional items are conveniently sized and the packaging can have an imprint (your logo and message) of up to four colours. Flavours include blueberry, strawberries, raspberries and even real coffee - available in white or dark chocolate - yummy!