PROMOTIONAL PRODUCTS Everybody loves a freebie
Promotional products expert, STUART DERRICK, looks back on the London Olympics, which, as expected, proved to be a shot in the arm for the industry. He also casts an eye over some of the latest innovative promos.
A
fter five years of build-up and naysaying, the London Olympics was even better than we could have wished for. Buckets full of medals for Team GB; a global advert for the country that showed thereʼs more to Britain than bowler hats and cups of tea, and the sun even shone on a few occasions. Now with the latest GDP figures, it seems that the Games may even have played a small part in helping lift the UK out of recession.
The fact that people were so up for the Olympics quickly made it a boom time for promoters who had planned for that eventuality, particularly those with merchandise strategies. In the Olympic Park I witnessed the frenzy of visitors around P&G staff who were handing out stickers and Union Jack groundsheets that blanketed the hillside facing BAʼs Park Live screen. Everybody loves a give-away.
Another brand that had a good Olympics in terms of merchandise was Coca-Cola. Its Powerade brand (left) was supplied to athletes track side and it produced special waterbottles for the Games. Customers could claim for free an exact replica of the bottle used by Mo Farah, Rebecca Ennis and David Weir simply by entering a unique code into a redemption website. Almost 300,000 of the bottles were redeemed, which will now act as mobile billboards for the brand around the gyms, football pitches and parks of Britain. Simple stuff, but what a great investment.
Of course there have been plenty of other sporting highlights this year, not least the recent Miracle of Medinah, when Europeʼs Ryder Cup team came storming back on the final day to pip the Americans at the post and retain the trophy. Understandably this has led to a few celebratory products. Flix Golf, Europeʼs leading pitch repair tool supplier has commemorated the result with a branded Flix tool (right) featuring the two continentsʼ flags alongside the score line – a perfect gift for any US clients (or maybe not!). The tool is designed for the course-conscious golfer – or just the duffers among us – to repair the damage our wayward swings inflict on the fairways. The lightweight tool is
compact enough to slip into a pocket. It can be supplied on its own or in a gift pack along with 20 printed tees. TKG, a leading supplier of promotional golf products, has also designed a commemorative item in the shape of a Ryder Cup golf tee. The 70mm wooden tees are rotary printed with the nationsʼ flags and score in three colours on the shank. They will be available in 50 piece gift boxes or in 100, 500 and 1,000 piece bags.
Given the number of gongs picked up by our various sportsmen | 66 | December 2012
BRIGHT IDEA: B-Loony’s
Glowflags glow in the dark.
and women this year, Carrie Dwerryhouse could be on to a winner with her new product, the Medal Holder. She came up with the idea to help display her husbandʼs growing collection of sports medals. It is a black frame medal holder with a transparent centre, between which the medal is suspended giving the impression that it is floating. The Medal Holder is available in four standard sizes and bespoke versions can also be created, including branding on the frame. A slightly different take on sporting endeavour comes in the form of the Nike Grind collection, supplied by Outstanding Branding. The initiative collects and recycles old trainers and uses them to create sports surfaces and also promotional products. These include shoe horns, pen pots, golf markers and flying discs, all of which are branded with the Nike Grind logo. The programme has already recycled 28 million pairs of shoes. For those who want to show their appreciation at events as the nights draw in, B-Loony has launched its Glowflag. The custom printed flags have glow-in-the-dark flag sticks. Just bend the sticks and they will glow for hours making them ideal for evening events such as Christmas lights switch ons. The company can also produce paper flags and is the only supplier of environmental flags with recycled paper and biodegradable sticks.
Sometimes the best ideas are the simplest ones. I am particularly taken by a merchandise led promotion for Cravendale milk this month. Itʼs a traditional collector mechanic, albeit one that is redeemed online, like Powerade. There is an element of pester power to the EPIC straws promotion, which requires customers to collect label codes for Heath Robinsonesque drinking straw kits which are assembled and used by kids to drink milk. They can collect three of the straw kits, and they look fun enough to make you want to have them all. Well done Cravendale. Itʼs tough for brands to come up with merchandise that has a high perceived value in these days when we can pick up so much of what used to work in the past in 99p shops. Coming up with merchandise that has ʻgot to have itʼ appeal is tough. Thankfully, itʼs something else that we are still quite good at in this country.
www.printwearandpromotion.co.uk
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