Promo Products as a complement to your digital strategy

We all want more clicks, likes and traffic.  Companies have invested heavily in to the digital marketplace to build brand ambassadors and drive revenue to the extent that traditional Ad spending - T.V., print, etc - has been pushed aside for digital content and social media responses.

I would contest that digital-centric marketing can be pushed to higher levels by mixing in message builders such as promotional products to help drive business.  Look to bloggers as a perfect example of how brands have leveraged branded items to push recognition through blog programs.  My wife is the epitome of this, her website www.missinformationblog.com was built as a recipe/DIY site that made recommendations and reviews of certain things.

Brands would send branded merchandise to her as a thank you gift or an invitation to check out their products - and drive viewers back to their sites.  Recommendation selling in the consumer products industry has increased due to mixing promo with digital to increase sales.

Want to blow up a hashtag - try a T-Shirt, you get a walking billboard for your brand and it's message.  Better yet, post to Instagram someone wearing your hashtag shirt in public, then you have something cool.

Don't forget branded items folks - remember that you can't keep a banner advertisement on someone's desk every day to remind them of your awesomeness!  For more info, check out this article in Forbes on Promo Items:

Old Spice bringing the Swagger to Sports!

My boys give me a hard time about using Old Spice, with the emphasis being on the "old" portion!  But, let's face it, the brand our Fathers used has upped its game.

The ad campaigns and collateral that their creative agency Wieden + Kennedy have brought to the table has driven awareness and buzz to Old Spice.  Moreover, the brand has been able to reach a younger audience, thereby increasing the marketplace. How's that for Po Po Po Power! (insert Terry Crews commercial and whistle here)

Nowadays, you'll see that Old Spice has brought it's brand flavor to the hardwood courts of NCAA basketball with it's Sweat Mop Boys play on the 80's pop band name Sweatshop Boys.

Sweat Mop Boys

Utilizing custom branded t-shirts, oversized deodorant stick replicas, and custom displays, Old Spice has been taking sports integration to a new level of engagement.  I do have a personal affinity with the brand as it's my own cousin who is one of the creative wizards behind it - Matt Sorrell, proud of ya! 

Watch the Sweat Mop Boys in action here!

It's 2018... Now What?

Last year's gone, now we have literally a blank slate for 2018 to be creative, extend our Brand's reach, and grow.  So, what's next?  If you are anything like me, you started this process during the past couple of weeks when the world kind of slowed down a bit.  Now, it's time to get it all together.

For me, it all begins with doing a Brandscape - where are you positioned in the industry?  Be it a small business, mid-level or High Flying Corporation, your Brand is always the starting point for drilling down in to what you want to accomplish for the year.  Did you gain or lose market share, improve or lose your social relevance, expand or shrink your target audience?  How did your marketing fare in relation to your Brand messaging?  Was your digital content a positive or negative asset to your year?

Once you look at these factors along with the ugly mathematical truths,  I typically look to how best to make simple, attainable changes that will have a quick impact to the bottom line.  I then establish goals - both reasonable and stretch - that will motivate me to improve.  Then, I write down a formal plan of attack including the dreaded SWOT analysis - Strenghs, Weaknesses, Opportunities & Threats - which will define where I go this year.

Y'all, it's a blank slate, set a plan and attack the new year!  Best of luck!

Bags as a Brand booster!

Let's face it, we all love a good bag!  Be it a grocery tote, backpack, laptop case, or good ole fashioned duffle, we have a bag for every event in our day.

So, do you have a favorite bag, I am 100% sure that you do.  And, according to a recent survey, 31% of you have one with a logo on it.  Be it your favorite team, grocery store, or a recent outing at a trade show, the chances are high you got a bag with a Brand on it! 

You marketers out there, note that a promotional bag generates 5983 impressions, much more than any other promo item out there - so get your Brand on a bag y'all!  And for you California folks - paper or plastic ain't gonna cut it in the supermarkets, so look at Non-woven totes as your new favorite brand vehicle.

Surprise! Your Brand is a Media Company now!

What?  Not a funny April Fools joke Chris, we most certainly are NOT a media company.  We make fantastic widgets for crying out loud...

Not so fast my friend.  Look at your brand platform these days - website, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn, Google+, YouTube - all sponges requiring brand content and engagement with your core audience.  You are making videos folks, face the facts... YOU are a media company.

In the past, brands such as Tide, Coca-Cola, etc created aspirations for their core audience - i.e. the Brand trended the expectation to the masses - Good mothers use Tide, etc.  The Brand centralized the message back to its product/service. 

 

Nowadays, the customer is making that aspiration due to the immediacy of today's technological innovations.  Our focus as marketers is consumer driven based upon instant feedback received from - you guessed it - our Media Channels!  We are able to interact with our core audience in such a proactive way these days, that what is driving revenues - and Brand loyalty - is the content we create!

Read this article on how Red Bull has lead the way with this view of Brands as Media companies.

Millenials: Can they be loyal to your Brand?

Crazy thing I learned the other day:  A member of the Millennial generation is someone born in the 1980's and turns 21 in the new Millennium.  Makes sense, but from there, defining this new Generation becomes an anomaly to most.

The Millennials grew up with the Internet, cell phones, Apps, Multi-channel TV, and all the instant gratification that this new Age society can create.  But, can they be loyal to anything other than themselves?  If you look at it from an employment perspective - the answer is clearly no.  The long-term "stay until I retire" concept is dead, nowadays its "how quickly can I get promoted, or I'm outta here."

However, when it comes to Brands, 64% of Millennials say they feel the same loyalty to a Brand as their parents do! 




Great news for marketers, but it also comes with a caveat - you are going to have to work harder to keep them.  Social marketing, transparency, and yes, deals all motivate the Millennials.

For more, Read this great Article

Case Studies: Have they become obsolete in the Social age?

In the promotional products industry, case studies are a vital bullet in a salesperson's arsenal.  A strong case study can show a company's creativity, it's project management capabilities, and most importantly it's solution-based initiative.  Case studies also show how important promotional products can be in an overall marketing strategy, and by clearly defining the ROI, gives the salesperson a competitive advantage against the typical "mom and pop" shop.

However, in today's socially-generated ratings world, the case study may be losing it's lustre.  The key knocks are that a case study has a limited shelf life, especially in the Millenial "what have you done for me in the last minute" mindset.  More importantly, a case study is primarily company-driven - i.e. it is designed to show the company in the best light possible. That's all well and good - but can sometimes come off as disingenuous, not a good look for most salespeople...

With the trend towards buying online in the promo products industry, the testimonial has the preferred vehicle of establishing brand trust - look at my website and you'll see the same!  I am as guilty as the next guy when it comes to not showing Case studies, I'd rather have a client speak to our reliability than it come from my mouth.

With Yelp and other review-based methods of 3rd party recommendations, the problem becomes that of control - you piss one person off and it can ruin a good Yelp day...  So, what to do as a promotional marketer?

The answer may be a solid blend of both, I know for me I will be including case studies going forward as a means of differentiation and control of my own brand.

Please read more on this trend Here

Ron Burgundy - Master content Marketer?

We all saw the Dodge Durango commercials, the incessant teasers of the Anchorman 2 movie, the guest Anchor spots on ABC and a North Dakota news program - Ron Burgundy was all over the place.  The movie was a success, generating over $100 Million in domestic ticket sales, and inevitably creating new movie quotations for years to come.  Over the top - yes.  Borderline obnoxious, some would say yes as well.  But... a marketing genius?   I would absolutely say yes!

By blurring the lines between comedy and advertising, the content strategy used worked across several media platforms generating enormous buzz for the movie - AND created key advertising and product opportunities for brands like Dodge, Jockey, and Ben & Jerry's (who doesn't like Scotchy Scotch Scotch ice cream?)  Ron Burgundy, the Movie character, became a brand ambassador for several key retail brands!

So, do you have what it takes to create a viral buzz across multiple media platforms a la Ron Burgundy?  Will Ferrell and Adam McKay have created a "sucker punch" advertising platform, can you?  Read More

Here's one of Will Ferrell's original commercials for Old Milwaukee: