The benefits of doing this are obvious. For a start there will be lower costs associated with website development and maintenance and with marketing budgets being reduced all the time, any cost cutting measures will be gratefully received by companies in all sectors.

There is also the added social marketing factor associated with Facebook, as if somebody “Likes” your brand on the website, this is then fed into the activity streams of everybody that the person is “Friends” with, a number that can often run into the thousands.

Facebook also offers the opportunity to sell items such as promotional products through the company page, increasing the chances of selling these promotional items by capitalising on the fan based interaction offered by the “Like” and “Become A Fan” buttons. The passive atmosphere offered by a company website is surpassed by the community spirit of Facebook and this is increasingly being used to great effect by companies looking to build a loyal client base and also sell branded promotional products.

Of course, social media will never replace a company website for those who rely on e-commerce but for many it is becoming an important way of interacting with their customers, creating a community atmosphere and selling branded promotional products.

Eco-Friendly Promotional Products

Even the recession hasn’t dampened the enthusiasm around environmental issues and now many business contracts depend on companies demonstrating their green credentials. It is important for companies to consider all aspects of their business when marketing themselves as environmentally conscious, and one mistake that is made is using promotional products that don’t meet green criteria when boasting about their green credentials.

Eco-Friendly promotional products give businesses an environmentally friendly platform on which to market their green commitments. Made from recycled, biodegradable materials, eco-friendly promotional products look set to become an important part of the marketing plan for those companies who wish to promote their commitment to a sustainable cause.

Corporate Gifts

The Carbon Fibre Range

Marketing and promotions aren’t all about getting your brand out to everyone who can see it, sometimes something a little more special is called for. For your best customers and hottest prospects you will need more than basic promotional products, and executive corporate gifts will certainly fulfil this brief.

The cream of the corporate gifts crop in 2010 was the carbon fibre range, which proved extremely popular in the men’s gifts category and looks set to grow even further in 2011 as the word spreads.

Promotional Items

Promotional Flash Drives

Promotional flash drives are quickly taking the world by storm, and with memory prices on larger models falling all the time, we are expecting branded memory sticks to take the promotional world by storm in 2011.

Of particular interest is the credit card flash drive which has a large branding area making it ideal for promotional purposes. We predict that it won’t be long until every home and office in the country has a promotional flash drive next to their computer, and this is the year that they will start to take over.

This comes on the back of falling advertising revenues as a result of increasing competition not only with the high number of digital TV stations but from companies turning to the internet to market their brand.

The UK has traditionally been reluctant to introduce this tactic, with TV shows famously using their imagination to get around the ban by creating their own popular brands (such as the Newton and Ridley brewery in Coronation Street) and marks something of a U-Turn in policy by the government.

So whether we like it or not it seems that we’ll have to get used to the site of Simon Cowell sitting at his desk with a branded Coke glass, or football analysts debating the post match controversy with their favourite beverage in their hand.

So with the lifting of the ban, how will businesses choose to advertise their brands through product placement?

One of the popular forms of product placement in the US is the use of promotional products that bear the featured brand’s name. These are particularly useful on panel shows and entertainment programmes where the presenters, panellists or judges can use promotional products bearing the featured brand throughout the show, giving prominence and exposure to the company.

Promotional products have long been used as part of a marketing campaign to raise awareness of a brand and provide a practical, usable item to give the brand exposure. By using promotional products in product placement, the same benefits are maintained but the audience is much bigger, opening a brand up to millions of potential customers. Rather than just putting a logo on a mug, promotional products in product placement can raise awareness of an entire brand, tying in the brand with the values of the TV programme and using a brand consistent promotional product to sell the company to millions of relevant potential customers.

The introduction of product placement will be a huge relief to many UK networks who have been struggling to get by on revenues from traditional forms of advertising, but it may not be quite such a shock for viewers who are already used to seeing advertising in the television that they watch. Viewers will already be used to seeing brands adorning the front of football shirts, stadia named after companies and product placement in Hollywood films, so rather than a promotional revolution it will be more of an extension of what viewers are already seeing elsewhere into the programmes they watch nightly.

Whether you are a fan of it or not, the dawn of product placement marks an important time for UK networks and a valuable advertising outlet for companies who want to get their brand seen by a large, targeted audience of relevant potential customers.

It used to be the case that hotels benefitted from nearby conferences in bespoke conference halls, providing the accommodation for delegates who have travelled to the event. More recently hotels have branched out and provided a venue for corporate events internally, cutting out the middle man and using their facilities to both host the event and provide accommodation.

It doesn’t even have to be a large scale event like a conference, morning seminars and talks can provide the venue with an opportunity to not only charge for hosting the event but also showcase their facilities to many other businesses that might be looking for a conference venue at some point in the future.

If you decide to go into event hosting then using the events you host to market to the delegates who attend can be a crucial way of getting future business. There’s no better advert for your business than personal experience, so impressing the delegates who attend and leaving them with a good impression of your venue can be a hugely effective way of driving future business. Whether it’s the delegates company who are looking to host an event or someone seeking a recommendation from the delegate, a good recommendation can go a long way. With that in mind, providing delegates with promotional products can be an important way of spreading the word about your venue.

It is often the case that people attend many similar meetings and conferences and venues can seem to merge into one. By providing promotional products you will be giving delegates a reminder of the name of your venue and providing them with contact details. This may well prevent people form needing to use Google to find a location, giving you more of a chance of securing the business.

So which promotional products will work the best? The more practical the better, so think what delegates might need to use when they are there. Pens, pencils and notepads are usually the most used items as people will want to take notes and they may well take these items away with them. They are also practical so will be used and looked at often and their notes will usually find a prominent place on the delegates desk on their return to the office. By branding these promotional products with your name and details and ensuring they are brand consistent you will be effectively advertising your venue to a whole host of companies.

The promotional products you use don’t have to be confined to items that can be taken away, promotional products such as mugs for delegates’ coffees and plates for their lunch will be enforcing your brand throughout the event, giving you maximum visibility and increasing the chances that your location will stick out in the minds of visitors.

Whatever the size of the events you are hosting, make sure you put on a good show as you are marketing yourself to other potential customers. Make sure the delegates are well looked after, that your venue looks great and leaves a positive impression and that you use promotional products to increase your visibility and give your visitors the means to contact you without the chance of running into your competitors through the search engines.

These gifts will of course have a marketing motive behind them and look to try and tread the line between gift item and promotional product. But putting corporate gifts to one side, how important are promotional products as part of a festive marketing campaign?

At Christmas, promotional products work a little bit differently to the rest of the year. Promotional products tend to be cheaper items with a more obvious marketing motive than corporate gifts, so using them at Christmas can be quite tricky. When sending out promotional products to your best clients, you want to be sure that they don’t interpret these items as their Christmas corporate gift. This could look like you are rewarding their valued custom with something like a cheap plastic pen and is certainly not the impression you want to give.

So what is the best way to use promotional products during the Christmas period?

The key here is the word “promotional”. Usually the trick would be disguising your promotional activities behind the appearance of a gift, but at a time of year where people are sending each other premium gift items, you want the recipients to know that the item is purely promotional in nature. Use promotional products as part of a targeted marketing campaign, offering your products and services to new and existing customers. Make it more obviously sales oriented than you normally would. People are more likely to be looking to buy at this time of year, so if your company can offer them something of interest then it might just catch their attention.

Promotional products at Christmas can also be used as a giveaway with products, giving you a potential advantage over your competitors. By including giveaway promotional products that are relevant to the items you are selling, it ensures that your products contain more value for money than your competitors and gives your core audience a practical item with your logo prominently displayed.

They can also be used alongside a festive marketing campaign to help bring attention towards your adverts or commercials. Increasingly, marketing campaigns are being seen as “events”, with audiences looking out for them and taking their characters to heart (think of the famous Meer cat as an example). Promotional products can be used as an effective way of promoting your advertising campaign, giving you maximum exposure.

During Christmas it is important to use promotional products carefully, but that is not to say that they cannot be used. Use promotional products wisely to give your company added value for money and greater exposure over the holiday period.

The popular British retailer Marks and Spencer have outlined their strategy this week which includes making the most of their own brand, choosing to reduce the number of sub brands they carry in favour of own brand products. Because of the brand reputation that Marks and Spencer has built up over the years of high quality luxury goods they are in a strong position to use that brand to enhance the image of the stock that they carry.

It hasn’t been easy for Marks and Spencer over the years and there have been many crises of confidence as they have battled to appeal to the contemporary market. Importantly though they have weathered these storms and established themselves as a strong and confident brand that is known even by people who do not use them.

Strong brands also tend to inspire loyalty in their customers who can ally themselves with the values of the brand. Knowing your target audience and appealing to their tastes is a key part of building up a strong and recognisable brand and it is important to communicate this message as effectively as possible.

Promotional products can be an important part of spreading your message, using relevant products that not only carry your logo but also convey your brand values. The evolution of promotional products means that they now go way beyond simply being a vessel for your logo, they can represent the message you are trying to send out. Trying to get across your green credentials? Use recycled promotional products that tick all of the green boxes.

Whether you’re one of the big boys like Marks and Spencer or working to build your brand and appeal to your target audience, promotional products can be a powerful and effective way of establishing yourself in the minds of your customers.

Adverts that are already standing out this year are those for M&S and Argos and it is clear that both have paid big money to get their message across. M&S have invested heavily in getting star names to appear in their seasonal campaign and when the full length commercial was aired during the X Factor a few weeks ago it would have cost a serious amount.

The other advert to stand out this season has seen Bing Crosby beatboxing his familiar Christmas song and it has become an instant hit. If companies get it right at Christmas it can lead to an incredibly successful campaign, but with so many marketers vying for visibility over the Christmas period, some are inevitably going to stand out more than others. And as is usually the case with these things, it will be those who can spend the most who will thrive.

So where does that leave everybody else? Should they just not bother and let the big boys prosper?

Of course, not everyone can afford to produce a big budget advertising campaign. Cost effective marketing is becoming more important than ever in the new age of austerity and luckily it seems that we are in the right era to do this effectively.

The internet has become more important than ever when it comes to marketing on a budget, and coming up with a popular idea can soon make you a viral hit, giving you an audience the size of The X Factor without having to pay for prime advertising space. There is an additional bonus to this approach, as viral hits will often have people actively seeking your commercial online, turning a previously passive audience into one that is going out of their way to find your promotion. There are also the additional benefits of being able to sell to your audience within the click of a button, something that is not yet available through the traditional means.

Another form of cost effective marketing is the use of promotional products. These are becoming increasingly popular when used alongside more traditional forms of advertising to promote a campaign. Take successful adverts such as the Churchill Dog. That one character spawned a myriad of promotional products and it became a marketable product in its own right. This has since been replicated by the love-him-or-loathe-him Meer cat used to promote a popular insurance website. Promotional products can be used as a way of reinforcing your message and getting your promotion out to a wider audience, playing off the enthusiasm for your campaign.

Coming up with such a popular campaign is like striking oil, and increasingly companies are turning to the online world to come up with the next viral hit. Promotional products don’t just have to be used to reinforce another campaign though and they are effective way of promoting a brand in their own right. A study published by the Advertising Specialty Institute (ASI) has shown the power and influence that promotional products can have on their recipients and it makes them the essential cost effective marketing tool. According to the survey, 84% of people remember the advertiser on a product they receive, and 81% of promotional products were kept because they were useful. By giving a practical and useful promotional product you can ensure that your brand is remembered by important customers, giving you vital prominence. This prominence comes at a much lower price than through television advertising and is a vital means of promoting yourself in a cost efficient way.

The dawn of internet advertising and viral campaigns hasn’t signalled the death of television adverts just yet, but the sheer potential of the online world to reach millions of relevant customers for a vastly reduced sum of money makes it an incredibly appealing option. The latest crop of festive television treats shows that, for now, television advertising lives on, but for those who have the ingenuity but not necessarily the budget, the online world wins hands down.

The role of promotional products continues to be a major one and they are consistently effective when used alongside a traditional campaign or as a stand alone tactic. Delivering your brand to relevant potential customers in a unique and memorable way is the ultimate goal for every advertiser and by using promotional products you will ensure this is achieved in a cost effective way.

For many companies Christmas is the busiest time of the year as shops and restaurants brace themselves for the seasonal onslaught, while offices and corporations gear up to reward their staff and customers for their efforts over the year.

It can be an extremely competitive time as it is a crucial period for so many businesses and all of them will be competing with each other to secure those vital Christmas sales.

Whether it’s starting their festive campaign at the beginning of October or launching a lavish, expensive campaign, every business that relies on the festive season for the bulk of their turnover will investing heavily in their promotional campaign.

As well as the obvious promotional avenues such as TV and magazine advertising, businesses should not underestimate the importance of promotional products as part of their festive campaign.

Promotional products tie in very nicely with the Christmas notion of giving and they can provide added value for money when given away with products. Giving away promotional products with items has gained in popularity over recent years, achieving a great deal of success over periods like the World Cup. It is an effective way of giving the customer a little something extra for their money.

Promotional products are also effective when used during festive parties or conferences as a way to get your brand noticed and remembered over the Christmas period. Even during tight economic times, Christmas is one of the few occasions where people are looking to spend money, so to associate your brand and your promotion with the festive period will give you a massive boost.

Promotional products aren’t an end in themselves but they should be considered as an important part of a festive campaign. Relevant and practical branded items are an effective way of getting your efforts noticed and are an essential part of promoting any campaign.

There’s no doubt that the company have had a profound effect on British culture and their anniversary will be celebrated by many who have fond memories of a popular brand.

Brands such as Dr Martens will always make the headlines with their anniversaries, but there are many companies who will celebrate significant milestones every year. In especially tough economic times these anniversaries deserve to be celebrated more than ever before, and by creating an event and establishing a trustworthy brand image they can be marketing gold.

Whether you are the size of Dr Martens or a small business, hitting a significant milestone is an important event and it can be a great opportunity to undertake a promotional campaign and get some free PR.

Press releases can be distributed highlighting your anniversary and promotional products can be produced to commemorate the event, making a real feature out of the occasion. Achieving a significant anniversary acts as a stamp of authority for your brand, showing that you aren’t just a company who have been around for a few months and can’t be trusted. By celebrating your anniversary you are showing the world that you are a brand that is based on a strong history, giving you a reputation of trust.

This is an extremely effective way of promoting a brand and by using promotional products you can get this message across to a wide audience. Whether you are giving out promotional products to staff or awarding them to customers, promotional items will get across a strong message of trust and authority.

Company anniversaries are a unique opportunity for effective publicity and the effects on brand reputation can be huge. Use promotional products as part of a publicity campaign to spread the word about your anniversary.

Whatever your product there will always be a relevant promotional product that can be given away as part of your offer. Relevance is the key to making your offer popular so use a promotional product that will get your customers excited in order to steal sales away from your competitors. This is especially effective for products that have generated a large amount of attention in the build up to release and where many different retailers are competing for the business.

Not everyone can afford to slash their prices and sell items at a loss, so by giving away promotional products with the item you are giving customers something more for their money. If this is something that can be collectible or marketed as a “limited edition giveaway” then this will generate a buzz around the promotion and turn your promotional products into “must have” items.

This is becoming a particularly effective marketing technique for high competition, cult items such as video games and books about a certain teenage wizard, and can increase sales for retailers who cannot afford to slash their prices to the levels of the large retailers.

You can also choose to put your brand on the promotional products and this will forever associate your brand with the item that people are getting excited about. This puts you in pole position for any inevitable sequels as people will look at you first when they are shopping for any related products. If they associate your brand with their favourite game or book then it will also encourage people to shop for other items with you in the future.

Consider using promotional products to create a buzz around the next big release, and make sure customers are coming to you to take advantage of your promotion.