Running out of mobile battery has climbed ahead of death and public speaking as our biggest fear! How life has changed!!! This is a bit of a joke, but there is a thing called “low battery anxiety’. An LG Survey revealed (sourced by Daily Mail Uk):
90% of us panic about losing power on our phones
32% of us will drop everything to head home and charge phones
With the current battery capacity compared to the power required to run more complex apps at faster speeds, our batteries are running out a lot sooner than they ever did.
Phone charging Technology continues to improve. With wireless charging becoming the latest must have.
What’s so good about the inductive wireless charger, is the charger transfers power from a charging device to a receiver without a cable. On top of that, you can brand your own wireless inductive charger, as a means of reducing ‘low battery anxiety’ for your customers or staff.
A book written more than 10 years ago and we are glued to our digital screens more than ever. However, we are seeing consumer trends move from material to experiences.
A ‘Smells and Emotions’ study of 1,000 people by psychologist Silvia Alava, found that people remember 35% of what they smell and only 5% of what they see. And that 85% of people said happy moments were recalled with certain smells.
So how does a brand tap into the senses? How can you taste or smell an App for example or an online brand, or a charity?
We find ourselves in an environment that has a lot of noise. Yes we might be able to reach our audience, but will they remember you/your brand? There are more brands, more products, more messages, more channels. A creative problem awaits us all, which means brands to survive need to think outside the status quo and become more adventurous and continue to test a variety of applications to connect with their customer.
We are seeing online stores, like Amazon create pop-up shops. Fashion stores creating café experiences, fragrant collaborations across all industries, non-food brands opening restaurants, car brands selling apparel….
Champagne is a classic 5 senses product – smell, touch, sound, sight, taste. A magical moment that brings all your past celebratory moments in one. A lot of Coke’s ads have been based on how Coke stimulates the senses. When this happens, I don’t know about you, but it takes me right back to childhood summers and no responsibility.
We are not all in the space of creating a restaurant dining experience for our brands, but if we were to think about the 5 senses, what would our brand sound like, taste like, smell like, sound like, look like?
A promotional product campaign can take this knowledge and apply it to create an experience, a strong alignment with your brand where there is not just reach, but also recall.
Australian marketers spend more than $1.34billion on promotional products each year …. despite the growth in digital marketing spend.
“69% of advertisers said promotional products increased brand interest and 84% it created more favourable impressions of the brand itself.” Australasian Promotional Products Association.
Why promotional products still work for the marketer?
A way to position your brand, more serious, more fun, adventurous, innovation, etc.
It helps to grow your brands perceived value, through association, partners, etc.
If delivered correctly, you have a captive audience.
It can be an inexpensive way of engaging and connecting
It demonstrates brand creativity and effort.
You go beyond tapping into one of the senses and therefore have a greater opportunity of engaging and creating memory.
A lot of promotional products a kept and used by the receiver for years – creating engagement and personal memories with your brand.
The creativity used to get a response is the key to increasing profits and promoting your brand.
Why promotional products work for the customer
It’s physical. It tactical. People like to hold onto something. Evidence of this is all around us – people with their phones!
They provide customers with an added benefit – not just you advertising your brand.
If the synergy between customer, brand and promotional product is right, the customer will enjoy the association.
Customers feel special when they receive a gift. The acknowledgement of being a valued customer feels good.
Their impression of a company is more positive after receiving a promotional product.
They are more likely to do business with a company after receiving a proposal product
Every man and his dog is doing or has done notepads. A long standing promotional product, that continues to grow. Year on year the notepad holds a top 10 position in the most popular promotional products. People still love stationery; despite being constantly tied to our phones. The great thing about the notepad is that you can make it work for your brand and your customer. It comes down to the type of notepad, the accessories you team it up with (e.g. pen or pencil), and the design. How and where you position your logo. What message do you want to convey to the audience? Is it a message that inspires and motivations? A message that people want to Instagram?The target market is wide, so it’s just about finding the right style.
A number of large companies love to celebrate back to school, so there is a lot of noise around this time, which makes it even more important to be creative and stand out from the crowd if you want to cut-through. Your products and services may not be specifically targeted to school age students, however, imagine the exposure of your logo to mums, dads, teachers and the future generation. Consider the following questions and perhaps you too could run your own back to school campaign.
Who is your customer – Mums, Dads, Children, Teachers, School Suppliers?
Why would they want to hear from you?
How can your product make their life better?
What is your message?
What channel would you use to get your message across?
How can you reach them?
Who would you close the loop, so they continue their engagement with you?
What will the customer feel about your brand after this experience?
A promotional product is a great way to get your message out there, especially if you do it in
a way that’s unique to your brand and is purposeful for the user.
Tote bags are a dime a dozen. If your brand doesn’t have a tote bag, there’s a good chance you have had discussions about it, or it’s on the to do list. And for good reason – it stops us using plastic bags. Good for the shopping, good for carrying your laptop in, good for the beach, good to take to events.
A good idea made better when the design or the intended usage matches up well with your brand positioning.
What we are liking are clear tote bags. A nice opportunity for brands that want to target people at events, as clear bags have become mandatory at a lot of big venues for security reasons.
So why not tap into this opportunity and leverage your brand engagement in a meaningful and useful way for your audience.
Tradeshows are a dime a dozen. If you have recently been to the ICC in Sydney, you will see that there can be up to five shows on any given day. This year alone, I have gone to over five tradeshows.
Tradeshows are a great way to engage with your current and potentially new customers in a way you cannot do online.
But it’s a show. It’s theatre.
The more theatre, the more engaging, the more customers to your stand, the better the opportunity for new business.
The same people are attending the same tradeshows year on year, it’s in everyone’s best interests for business and brands to continue to bring new life to their stand.
Here are our tips for putting on the show:
Each year start with a blank canvas – Open the door for some new thinking. How can we do it better than last year?
Communicating to your customers before the show telling them what they could expect when they visit.
Create space in your space. More room for customers. And the more customers on your stand, the more drawn to the stand will any passers-by.
Bring some fun. What are the fun spikes? This is good for both the staff on the stand and the customers.
Food is always a draw card. As long as it’s relevant. Having chocolates and snacks gets people, but it’s even better if the give-away has a direct association with what you do. Promotional products are a great take-home. If you take the time to create something that is too good to discard post the show, it’s a great opportunity for your brand awareness and consideration. Even better if you tie in a call to action.
Stand design… it’s worth the investment. It’s the difference between someone stopping or not. You want to stand out. What will it take for you to be up there with the best of the best.
Follow up! Get leads, add to your database. Then make sure you follow up and keep interacting after the show.
Energy is everything. Dynamic personalities that can speak to anyone and everyone and have fun at the same time. Find these people to work on your stand so you make it work hard, and get a great ROI.
Pens would have to be the most popular choice for a promotional item. So versatile, always needed and easy to brand. But there are lot’s of different pens, so how do you choose?
I think most of us have used promotional pen after promotional pen, finding that they don’t work to begin with or last for no time at all.
The Turnkey pens were more expensive, but they last. I have lost count of how many people have told me about how good the pens are, or how often I see people pull this pen out, or even ask for another one! They have proved to be a nice reminder of what we do and the quality we provide.
If you are going to the effort and expense of buying promotional pens, invest in one that works. Cheap pens speak volumes about your brand. So don’t be afraid to choose a pen for your next promotional campaign, just make sure it’s going to make a mark!
We spend a lot of our time in the digital world, seeing brands. An Apple study found that on average we unlock our phones 80 times day. The mobile has been referred to as an extension of your body. Are we saying that your phone is a new body part… well close enough!
Despite spending more time in the digital space, our appetite for ‘living experiences’ has grown. This may well be in direct relation to, the life we would like to portray, through the digital world, or that, we want more from life. The booming travel industry is proof of this.
How does this relate to your brands and business? What experiences are you creating or being apart of to connect with your customer in the real world? If you are creating experiences that are memorable and have high talk-ability and Instagram-ability then the life of the experience extends beyond the moment.
How can you do this and do it better? Some questions to ask:
Who are my customers?
What’s important to them?
What do they do?
Where do they go?
What do they do for fun?
How can my brand play a role?
We are seeing brands become savvier in how they are connecting. Nike Running Groups, Google Digital Garage, Restaurants offering Cooking Classes, Starbucks Country Origin Merchandise. These experiences are seen to be designed for the user, with the brand being a complimentary partner in how they live their life.
Adding value to customers in the space that they are already in or through creating new spaces, whilst still maintaining brand positioning, is the win-win for everyone.
Tradeshows are a dime a dozen. If you have recently been to the ICC in Sydney, you will see that there can be up to five shows on any given day. This year alone, I have gone to over five tradeshows.
Pens would have to be the most popular choice for a promotional item. So versatile, always needed and easy to brand. But there are lot’s of different pens, so how do you choose?
