Boo Boo the Bear Boosts Awareness

When children become ill or injured, one of the first things they reach for while they're on the mend is a favorite stuffed animal. Leaders at The Canadian Association for Wound Care (CAWC) decided to capitalize on patients' need for comfort toys, and together with their distributor partner, designed a custom teddy bear mascot named Boo Boo to raise awareness of the organization's mission and elements of the core brand: caregiving, comfort and security.

The main undertaking of CAWC, a nonprofit organization of health-care professionals, researchers, corporate supporters, patients and caregivers, is to advance wound care in Canada. "The teddy bears were created to aid in CAWC's efforts to improve the health of Canadians living with wounds or at high risk of preventable wounds," says a company spokesperson. The plush mascot featured a paw in a sling and a leg in a cast with a CAWC logo and a matching red ribbon.

The initial target audience was young children and the elderly, both prone to injury, and over 1,000 bears were given to patients and attendees at trade shows and conferences. Because of Boo Boo's popularity, he was eventually used to enhance professional education, support investments in wound management, inform and educate the public and empower patients to speak effectively about the importance of wound prevention and care. Plans are also in the works for distribution at the retail level, and they are currently for sale at CAWC gift shops.

According to a distributor spokesperson, it's important not to limit what one product can do to increase brand awareness for your company. "Boo Boo expanded from what he was made for originally, which was as a distribution item for wounded patients," she explains. "He became an ambassador for education and investment in CAWC."

Branding on a shoestring

 

Every business has a brand that it needs to promote and protect. But while big companies may spend a fortune on their name and image, small firms can create their own powerful brand on a very small budget, as David Gent reveals

Small firms have to give branding as much thought as big firms because SMEs are competing against other businesses that use branding effectively. What's more, the principles of branding are the same whether you are an SME or a large corporation. But getting the right branding needn't have to mean a huge outlay.

What makes a brand?

A brand is far more than just a name and an identity. It's about reputation and you must live up to the promise of your brand - your image has to be backed up by the actuality.
Choosing the right name and developing a good visual signature is vital, however. The brand should convey what is special about you. One way to do this is to have some kind of tagline. This should not be one of those bland mission statements that many companies adopted in the 1990s. It should be something that conveys your USP - whether that's your quality or simply the fact that you are handy, around the corner.
You can't keep chopping and changing your identity but if you're not happy with your brand, you should change it. It can be good to fine-tune your visual identity over the years. Take brands like Mars and Polo - they've been refined many times, but they are still familiar as they've never been radically altered. That said, sometimes it is good to significantly change your branding. It can provide good PR opportunities and help customers to see you in a new light.

Creating a brand identity

For small firms with limited budgets, the good news is that it has become easier and cheaper to create a brand identity than ever before. You used to have vast manuals to show how to use logos and so on but it's a simpler proposition these day. Now with jpegs and pdfs, you can create and send visuals electronically and it's easier to get consistency across everything from stationary to signage and vehicle livery.

Your brand asset

A good brand should be an asset and something that is hard to copy. Because of desktop publishing, a lot of small firms simply choose a typeface and put it in italics. But you don't have to spend a lot to get a tailor-made identity.
It's worth using a designer to create your identity. It doesn't have to cost a lot and you'll come away with an asset, something that is totally individual and hard to copy.
When you are choosing your name or logo, it can be unwise to consult too widely. You're never going to find something that everyone agrees on and the danger is that you pick the one that is least offensive. It's better if one person takes control.

Brand consistency

Managing your branding is vital and you have to make sure everything is consistent, from typography to colour. Even simple signs and price labels in a store must have a consistent style. I've seen retailers, for instance, who use their branding in lots of different ways, changing fonts and colours.
This is not a good idea. You have to think about and plan for every branding eventuality. You don't necessarily want your staff using dayglo paper and felt-tip pens to advertise special offers in your store, for example, or interior signing that departs from the brand style.
You also need to reproduce your company colours consistently wherever they appear, whether on paperwork, in your shop window or on your van. The more exotic the shade, the more difficult it can be to reproduce, so when it comes to colour it can be best to choose classic shades.
-From-Marketingdonut.co.uk

CLEAN SWEEP IN LITTLE LEAGUE WORLD SERIES

As the exclusive laundry products sponsor of Little League Baseball, Sun Products Corp.'s All and Snuggle brands sought to deliver the message, "Strike out Stains" at the 2013 Little League World Series, held in Williamsport, PA, in August. The series draws about 400,000 people each summer.
            
The two brands hosted a Fan Fun Zone, a booth where players and their families could play games, win prizes and help raise money for the Little League Challenger division, which enables boys and girls with physical and mental challenges to participate in the sport. Snuggle Bear, the Snuggle brand mascot, also made guest appearances in the booth.

Sun Product's distributor partner came up with creative promotional product ideas to help drive the brands' message home. They suggested branded laundry bags to promote the laundry products' sponsorship. This was the first year of a multi-year sponsorship for All and Snuggle for the series.
The idea proved to be a home run. The 1,000 branded bags were used to transport all the dirty uniforms of the players, coaches and referees in the World Series, which were laundered daily and returned to the players at their hotels in an eye-catching branded vehicle.

In addition to the bags that carried the teams' clothing, laundry bags were also awarded to winners of games in the Fan Fun Zone. In one game, participants tossed balls of socks into a Strike Out Stains washing machine and, depending how many socks hit the mark, they received either prizes or coupons.

In another version of the game, the makers of All and Snuggle donated $5 for each sock that landed in the washer, raising a total of $5,000 for the Little League Challenger Division. Another game included a ball toss into the laundry bags.

All and Snuggle posted images of the Fan Fun Zone and the Little League World Series on their Facebook pages and tweeted images using #SOSLaundry. In addition, Snuggle gave each of the players in the World Series mini stuffed Snuggle bears.

SERVICE STATION BOOSTS LOYALTY WITH PROMO COINS

        Purr-Fect Auto Services, a gas/service station, is based in an area of Massachusetts with lots of competition for both sides of the business. However, owner Richard Cardano has found that he can keep his customers coming back with great service by giving them a token of his appreciation.

For every $100 that a customer spends in the service bay, they receive a logoed coin worth a 50-cent-per-gallon discount on their next fill-up at the gas station. Roughly seven customers each week receive two to four coins. "It's not unusual for me to pass out 10 or more coins to a single customer," says Cardano.
Customers like the idea – and the savings – as they continue to return for their regular fill-ups. "It gives them a reason to come here rather than a station down the street where gas might be five cents a gallon cheaper," says Cardano. Customers using the coins often fill their tanks – roughly a $40 gas purchase – rather than merely topping off.

Cardano worked with his distributor partner for the best promo item. "After a few exchanges of design ideas, we found the coin design that would work best – and has worked best – for our business," says Cardano, who purchased 1,000 coins. "When we started the program, we got a couple hundred coins out of the box and started giving them to customers," he says. "Since then, the customers – and the coins – keep coming back, so we have not had to get any more from the box in the office."

Those in the auto-service industry, gas stations, quick lubes, car washes, convenience stores and other related venues would benefit by extending a "token of appreciation" to customers – and a reason for them to return in the future. Contact your distributor partner for great ideas and the perfect products to promote your business.

Promo Items Add Buzz to Conference

When Inner Circle Labs hired Kennedy Events Circle to manage its first social discovery conference, Glimpse 2012, the event management company faced the daunting task of taking a standard hotel conference room and infusing it with a vibrant spirit to match that of its entrepreneurial and forward-thinking audience.
                  
"The audience was a ‘who's who' of the media and technology communities," says Kennedy Events' partner Paige Buck. Companies and products in the social discovery space seek to connect people with new places, people and products based on their social interactions and interests. 
                 
"The Glimpse stage is meant to bring to life conversations that would happen over drinks – casual, unique, unrehearsed and valuable," according to the Glimpse conference website. Glimpse 2012 covered a wide array of subjects, including social discovery in lifestyle and entertainment, dating, and building of new social discovery products.

The conference brought together company founders, executives and industry experts at the forefront of creating new technologies for social networking and mobile apps. The speakers and panel discussions revolved around "anything and everything online," says Buck. "Speeches and panel discussions were insightful, making for an engaging conference."

The result was a one-day event that generated a huge social media buzz. "Glimpse trended nationally on Twitter, among top national headlines," says Buck.

Despite the digital focus, many of the companies that presented turned to promotional products to help convey or reinforce their brand message to the approximately 250 people who attended. Attendees received a conference cross-body bag which contained the Glimpse logo on one side, and the San Francisco cityscape silkscreened in red on the other. "The bag was just a simple, canvas tote, gender-neutral and useful," says Buck, adding, "I use it all the time." One conference attendee said people came up to him on the street to ask where he got the bag and what the event was, notes Buck.

Other top sponsors at the conference offered clever giveaways. "Sometimes it wasn't just the items themselves, but their placement," says Buck. MeetMe, a social platform, collaborated with the conference venue to have branded MeetMe coffee mugs stacked by the coffee machine all day, and to wash and return the clean mugs to attendees' place settings so they could reuse them and take them home. The stacks of mugs repeated the MeetMe logo over and over, reinforcing the brand name.

TripIt, a social and mobile app for keeping travel plans together and accessible, gave branded passport holders to conference guests who visited their booth. And Waze, a traffic and navigation app, gave attendees a branded iPhone stand that mounts to the car window a safe, visible distance from the driver, so the phone can function as a GPS device. Schemer, a Google spinoff that helps users share and discover things to do (like exploring a new city), offered cookies glazed with the Schemer logo at the dessert table.

Attendees were encouraged to pose in front of a "step and repeat" backdrop bearing the conference and sponsors' logos. "At the end of the day, after cocktails, people grouped together and took fun photos, which resulted in great images of people connected with the brand, and great publicity for the conference," says Buck.

As people posted their photos to their own networking sites, the images showed people who hadn't been there what they missed. "Also, creating inexpensive vinyl wall decals with the client's logo is a great way to make your mark on an event space without busting the budget," Buck adds.
Promotional products added to the buzz and energy of the conference, says Buck, adding, "The sponsors at this conference hit the nail on the head in their selection of promotional items."

Logoed Caps General Dollars & Support For Non Profits

KPMG, an audit, tax and advisory services firm, worked with their ad specialty distributor to develop a brand-boosting marketing campaign. Together, they created a tagline – “The Right Team” – and recognized that it was a natural segue to a sports marketing effort.

They decided to link it with golf to create impact and brand awareness through the game. Through the collaboration, they produced a navy blue imprinted cap and established a website at www.golf-kpmg.com. A charitable aspect with a link to their Family for Literacy program (KFFL) was also added. They connected the marketing effort with both KFFL and First Book, a nonprofit that supports childhood literacy through book donations, and named it Blue for Books.

As the program developed, pro golfer Phil Mickelson lent his support to the effort and began to wear the hat, which was dubbed "Phil's Blue Hat" at tournaments and media events. It quickly became a popular item among fans.

Now, for every piece sold, Blue for Books donates three brand-new books to kids in need. In the past two years, they've sold over 10,000 hats and donated 30,000 books. KPMG has also signed golfer Stacy Lewis, who wears her own cap style that's now for sale on the website.

Why Promotional Products Still Matter

From:  Huffington Post - Elle-Rose Williams

Marketing has become an incredibly clever form of publicity - after all, it seems that no matter where we turn, there is advertising of some sort or another. Whether it be television adverts, bus ads, magazine adverts, online banners, social media and sponsored ad, it seems to be never ending.
And yet more traditional forms of advertising, such as Promotional Products - are still going strong. Whilst many people may have assumed that this form of advertising and marketing was dead in the water - the opposite is, in fact, true as promotional products are still an incredibly powerful marketing tool.

What is the point of releasing Promotional Products?
Promotional products allow people to see your brand, associate your brand and recognise your brand. All these things are important as the more people who become aware of your brand - the better results you will see in business and sales.

What items should I use for Promotional Products?

Well, a lot of the time it depends what your business actually is and what your budget is too. Both these things are likely to influence the type of promotional product you opt for. In general though, most companies tend to opt for things such as:
- Stationary: notepads, pens, pencils, rulers, erasers
- Bags: could include purses
- Business items: business card holder, address book, laptop sleeve
- Desk Accessories: Mugs, Glass, Calendars
- Clothing: T-shirts, caps, hats, socks, gloves, sweat bands
Whilst these are the most common items - you really can be inventive with this. In fact, it is often the more inventive choices for promotional products that are the most successful.

Remember your niche

Keep in mind the niche you're hoping to target though too. For example; t-shirts, caps and sweatbands are often great if you're a fitness brand or a gym. Desk supplies and stationary usually work better if you're targeting businesses or corporate niches. Try not to make the item "over branded" too - a product that is subtle and will actively be used will be much more effective.

When can I distribute them?

This depends on you. Perhaps you're looking to catch the eye of a potential client or customer? In which case - sending them a free gift (in the form of a promotional product) is a great idea, as they're more likely to pay attention to your business and brand if you've made the effort to send them something. Another occasion you could distribute them is during a trade show, an open day, or just out in public? You'd be surprised at how much attention "free stuff" will earn you and how people's curiosity will be roused. Have people form a queue around your distributors and watch the curiosity build, and your brand's reputation too with these tradeshow giveaways.

Is it easy to implement?

There are many outlets out there that stock and personalise cheap products that you can then distribute as promotional products. A great idea for small businesses (with small budgets) is to trial a few items first - this way you see which are most successful and which get the best return on investment.

When executed properly a promotional product marketing strategy can be hugely successful and very rewarding, both for sales and revenue, and the brand's awareness and reputation. So don't rush into it, consider your option and find the perfect product.