Black Friday

Posted on November 23, 2011 by Steve the Blogger

The closer we get to Thanksgiving, the more I start thinking of the Friday that follows.  Black Friday is the day following Thanksgiving Day in the United States.  This traditionally begins the start of the Christmas Buying Season.   Black Friday is not a holiday but you may as well consider it as such.   Many tend to take Friday as a vacation day and make it a 4 day Long Weekend.

Retailers commonly open up very early in the morning and offer extreme deals on many of their hottest items. To be successful at marketing a Black Friday Event, there needs to be some great specials to draw the deal seekers.     There are several instances where retailers need to go above the price slashing to draw in the buyers.  A popular clothing outlet that is at every shopping mall, custom designed a Black Tshirt with a simple phrase, “I Survived Black Friday” and had their logo in dark grey underneath.     From the feedback we’ve heard, by mid day, over 800 shirts were handed out and proudly displaying the retailers image.

The news media have described this day as the busiest shopping day of the year.  If you can handle the crowds, you will get a good deal.  One of the best Black Friday pieces of advise is simply to “Have Patience.”  The deals will await thee!

— Steve the Blogger

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A Return on Imagination

Posted on November 23, 2011 by Steve the Blogger

Happy Thanksging!  November is considered Trade Show month and it’s during this time of year that an abundance of Industry Trade Events and Conferences will be hitting the circuit.   Some of the larger events attract 100,000+ attendees and have over 2000 exhibitors in Las Vegas Style Show rooms displaying all of their latest wares and services.  Slick demonstrations, sharp shooting marketing reps and cool logo’ed promos are seen in every corner of these facilities.

To stand out and attract as many potential clients as possible, the most successful exhibitors need to be creative when it comes down to their marketing campaign.    At SEMA 2011,  I noticed a creative idea that brought then attention of almost all patrons.   This particular marketing team had rented 7 Foot high Bigfoot costume and used this attention grabber to draw traffic into the booth.   This was such a popular attention seeker, that it was also the center of many photographs during the event!  I had to even get a photo for my blog as it was such a cool idea!

Some organizations choose to dress their trade show staff in very bright colors to attract the eyes of the wandering attendee.   From logo’ed apparel to high tech booths, to stand these days, you have to be unique and being unique can sometimes mean just putting on a fancy costume.

– Steve the Blogger

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Shine When It’s Raining

Posted on November 9, 2011 by Steve the Blogger

On those gloomy days when the rain is falling from the grey clouds, many forms of advertising take a back seat to this advertising beauty.  The trusty Umbrella or Parasol, dates back to Ancient Rome and has been one of man’s best friends during those soggy, wet days.   They come in a wide variety of styles from Automatic Units to the modern PGA Golf designs.

The moment a Logo is screen printed on the panels of the umbrella, a magical event occurs.  Powerful advertising that is like a walking billboard.  The best part is that the umbrellas rarely get discarded in the trash.  They generally stay with their original owner for many years.    Whether at the beach or walking around an outdoor amusement park, a Logo’ed Umbrella is one of the best forms of promotional advertising an organization can do.

A typical logo’ed umbrella will stand out in a crowd of “black” umbrellas and will getnoticed far more than a typical logo’ed hat or jacket.  The positive benefits of this quality item, amke it one of the more popular Promotional items in today’s market.

With such great power, comes a few drawbacks.  Given the size of a useful umbrella, the shipping rates are generally higher than a typical promo item.    Depending on the quantity required, proper receiving facilities may be needed due to the skids they are packaged on.

With a logo’ed umbrella, a company is guaranteed to get great exposure with a positive return on investment.  These make for amazing Holiday Gifts and are a very practical accessory that every recipient will use.   The feedback we get from our clients is always very positive when Umbrellas are used as promo tools.

I generally suggest to our clients that Golf Style Umbrellas are the best way to go.  They generally provide a large area of rain protection and come in stagged panel coloring.  This makes for a unique and attractive item.  The quality on most golf umbrellas is generally quite high due to the winds that can be found on open area Golf courses.

The next time you are in teh need of a promo item, think of a Rainy Day.  When it rains, it generally pours so take advantage of those grey days.  Advertise your logo and watch the business roll it!

— Steve the Blogger

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A Haunted Halloween: Business Style

Posted on November 1, 2011 by Steve the Blogger

As an on site advertising consultant for Maxx Global, I have the opportunity to visit numerous businesses and discuss various Marketing and Advertising ideas.  It was October 31st, and just like any typical day, I was in a Board Room working the slides of a Power Point presentation.

At about 11:30am, the board room door slammed open and a “suited” up Super Mario Bros. character walked in and handed us all some imprinted calculators.

Within 15 min, we were interrupted by an Evil Doctor, a Medieval Knight and a resemblance of Harry Potter.   It was the costume distributors corporate Halloween party catering to their supplier chain.  Each of the main suppliers all showed up in different costumes as part of a Sales/Marketing event.  With 30+ suppliers, the promotional items being passed around created a true character to the costumed marketing reps.  It was definitely a sight to take in.

With the spirit of Halloween, the gesture of Advertising Promotion was made very apparent in this extraordinary meetings of the Zombies and Pirates.  From glow-in-the-dark Sunglasses to imprinted Bandannas, I walked away with a new sense of Trick-or-Treating.  The entire Costume and Design industry is based solely on unique and different promotional items.  Having something unique brings new business and creates awareness in a highly competitive industry.

As the candy wrappers start to accumulate, I still think back to yesterday when a Sumo Wrestler was handing out inflatable pumpkins fully equipped with a dual sided logo.  As I wite this blog, this pumpkin is proudly displaying the logo of the Costume supplier.  Promo items work…especially on unique items!

– Steve the Blogger

  

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