If your organization promotes to anyone that is likely to use prescription medication, this is a handy giveaway to consider. Great imprint area, and very, very handy!

And handy promotional products are very, very effective.

If you haven’t seen these handy Life in Motion TSA Bags, check them out in this video. Very thoughtful and useful design if you travel frequently (or are looking to reach those who do!).

Got a tweet from @hollyapeterson looking for ideas for a ‘tropical themed giveaway’ for a grand opening (150 people).  Decided to just throw that out to some of the team here with the instruction to  ’give me the first idea that comes to mind’ – even though we don’t (as yet) know the budget or what kind of grand opening this is.

So @hollyapeterson – here you go – lots of hyperlinks below to have fun with! And thanks for letting us have fun on a Friday afternoon! If you need more, just say the word…

Amber – “Luggage Tags”

Lindsey – “Little Drink Umbrellas”

Jennifer K – “Beach Towel” or “Full color lip balm with beach background art”

Missy M – “Tahitian Totes or tub cooler”

Erin – “Sand Toys, lip balm, deep sea aquarium…parrot towel, Cabana Cooler”

Susan – “Stress Item – palm tree, sun, tropical fish”

Jennifer S – “Lip Balm”

Richard – “Swanky Pen”

Kristi – “Beach towel, cooler, Koozie”

Kate – “Beverage Cooler”

Judy – “Cooler”

Missy E – “Sunscreen (I burn too easily)”

Melissa – “Beach Towel”

Kristen – “Hobo Tote”

Guenevere – “Palm tree shaped items: stress balls, key chains, chocolates”

Jen G – “Sunscreen Packets”

Melanie – “Plastic coconut cups”

Emily W – “Sunglasses, towels and sunscreen, oh my!”

Randi – “anything with a Caribbean full color image…”

Carolynn – “Cabana Cooler, Bean Bag Animals with Life Raft, beach chair, towel…”

Tricia – “Koozies, Life of the Party Tub Cooler, Sea Life Beanbag w/Inner Tube”

Joe – “Tahitian Tote”

Jessie – “Sea Life Beanbags”

Steve –“Palmtree and Sunblock”

Julie –“ Sunscreen”

Niki, April – “Flip flops”

Crystal – “Pineapple or Banana Pen or Photografix Tote”

Marge – “tropical cooler”

Lori- “Sunglasses”

Trish, Nancy, Carrie – “Palm Tree InkBend”

Melissa – “…Goofy Clipz Holder -snorkel guy, Paper Photo Frame Summer”

Shelley K – “Life of the Party Tub Cooler, Parrot Towel”

Kari – “Palm tree/cabana hut beach towels”

Shelley – “…beach safe caribineer, tropical shirt…”

Marsha – “Sun care kit”

Nila – “…Tropical Camp Shirt…”

Angie H – “Life of the Party Tub Cooler- Tropical”

If you’re looking for effective giveaways, the best advice is to offer something that’s going to get used – something that has real practical value.  If your target audience is involved in cooking at home (which in this economy is something that’s grown in popularity) these new palm peelers/graters are the perfect example of a promotional item that does exactly that.

I was in Indianapolis this weekend for the Aplastic Anemia & MDS International Foundation (AA&MDSIF) Patient & Family Conference. AA&MDSIF is a non-profit organization dedicated to fighting Bone Marrow Failure Diseases like Aplastic Anemia, MDS and PNH through patient support and research.

Given that this is a topic near and dear to my heart (full disclosure alert – I’m on the Board of Directors and our family has been personally touched by these diseases), I could go on and on about the event, the work the Foundation does, education on these little known diseases, etc.  However, given that I try to keep this blog broadly focused on marketing, promotional products and creative ideas I thought I’d share this photo:

The Foundation put together the first ever ‘Hope, Steps and a Cure’ walk as part of the event, to raise awareness and to show people how they can put a walk together in their hometown.  The team at the Foundation that put this whole event (and the walk specifically) together, did an oustanding job in every way and they paid attention to many, many details. One important detail was the use of color in the walk t-shirts and other promotional items/materials.

This photo doesn’t begin to do justice to how it really looked when a sea of 200 bright red t-shirts weaved their way around downtown Indy.  At times it literally looked like blood flowing through the veins of the city. It drew a ton of attention and the banner at the front of the walk (which I was helping to hold when I took this shot which explains why you can’t see it!) tied it all together.

When you’re tyring to get attention, don’t forget about color. Choosing a bright color and sticking to it consistently throughout an event makes a big impression.

If you’re looking for a way to make your logo really ‘pop’ on a custom cap, 3-D embroidery is the ticket. Really gives your logo some dimension and the cap has a ‘retail’ feel about it that the recipient will love.

Guenevere shows this technique on our logo in this video.

For some, giving a bottle of wine is an appropriate (and appreciated) business gift - especially if the recipient is a wine enthusiast.  By adding just a couple of small touches you can take that gift to the next level by adding fun packaging and items like imprinted wine openers, wine charms or logo’d wine stoppers (you can find lots of accessories here). The wine openers also make a nice giveaway at food and wine shows, weddings and other celebrations or if you’re just looking for a nice items to give to a wine drinker.

Kristin’s video below demos a value-priced opener (the Sonoma Wine Opener), and I’ve added a picture of one of the types of packaging that works well.  Cheers!

Bottle Boxes Make a Bottle of Wine a Logo'd Gift

If you’ve ever ordered embroidered products, you know it can be challenging and costly.

You need to approximate your stitch count and pay for the embroidery tape.  If you’re ordering 10 shirts, the $95 average charge for embroidery tape adds almost $10 to the price of each shirt.  Shirts in larger sizes often cost extra.  And, logo placement was often limited to one or two locations.

We’re changing all that.  Here’s how:

•    With our embroidery, the price you see is the price you pay!
•    There is no extra charge for extended sizes.
•    The tape charge is reduced to a flat $35 – or we’ll waive it if you order 24+ polos, dress shirts and jackets.
•    And, there is no stitch count.  If your logo fits in the described embroidery area, there are no additional fees.

Our goal is to make it easier to order embroidered items.

How simple is that?
–Suzanne

I’ve mentioned how popular reusable shopping totes are right now – you see them everywhere and they are super-harndy. We’ve put up a couple new videos to tell you about them. If you’re looking for a well-received, effective promotion, these promotional totes are a winner.

Looking for a popular trade show bag? Here’s a photo of our own John Lord holding our Hobo Tote. We’ve given away 800 of these about 7 hours at the SHRM show. Huge hit – maybe too huge…we ran out and are having reinforcements flown in for tomorrow!