Funky promo items: what are best?

Posted on March 31, 2008
Filed Under Advertising, Business, Marketing, Off-Line Promotion

Giving away freebies is a great way to publicise your small business, but before you place an order the challenge is to find items that are likely to give maximum impact and really promote your company. Any such items will undoubtedly be more effective if they are also relevant to your target market, but where do you start?

The first challenge is to find an item that people will use every day or on most days of the week, but isn’t too expensive to supply. Ultra-cheap, tacky items should be avoided for two reasons; first, they won’t give a very flattering impression of your company and second, they will be instantly discarded. People like to receive free stuff but that initial joy at getting something for nothing will soon evaporate if they are simply not usable, or unwanted.

Unless you want it to spend most of its days stuck in a dark drawer, also consider something a little more adventurous than a branded biro. Although top quality pens will definitely be used by recipients, they are far too expensive to give away indiscriminately and so would be far more suited to being given away as Christmas gifts to your customers.

Look for innovative novelty value or go for something particularly visually stunning to distinguish your promotional items from the many others out there. Items that have a unique or everyday function are more likely to be accepted as a useful give-away.

If you need more inspiration or are worried about ‘being seen to be green’ how about looking at promotional items made from recycled materials? In an amazing initiative in Oregon, USA, a non-profit organisation collects approximately 3,000 pounds of used bicycle parts from shops throughout 17 states every month, and then attempts to recycle as much of it as possible. Any parts that can’t be re-used are turned into usable items such as funky bike chain bottle openers, that can be used as a keyring or hanging from a belt.

Indeed, keyrings with built-in bottle openers are a pre-requisite wardrobe item for most youngsters these days, and if you are operating in a younger market you should certainly consider these as an effective marketing tool - especially if you can make them extremely funky!

Funky promotional keyrings also fall into the ‘used every day’ category and a cursory search around the internet throws up other such marvellous examples as; hard hat keyrings, PVC keyring bottle openers and house-shaped bottle opener keyrings, amongst many others.

It appears the only limitation to buying innovative or funky promotional items to publicise your company will be your budget, as there is a plethora of material available out there. Enjoy deciding which is best for your company!