Trade-show samples, company giveaways, corporate swag. Call them what you want, promotional products are part of doing business today.
According to a 2009 Promotional Product Professionals of Canada (PPPC) report, promotional products have been the advertising industry’s fastest-growing component for over a decade.
The report estimated that the industry employs more than 37,000 Canadians and, from 1998 to 2008, increased revenue by a cumulative 244% – from $1.2 billion to just under $4 billion.
It added that the average annual growth in the sector over the period was 13%.
“These are low-value, high-visibility items that people absolutely notice and hold onto,” confirmed Ben Baker, vice-president of PPPC’s B.C./Yukon chapter and president of Richmond-based CMYK Solutions Inc. “But you can’t just hand stuff out for the sake of handing stuff out. The trick is to give pieces people will find of value that tie back to your company in a meaningful, memorable way.”
Even in the worst economic times, Baker said swag proves effective – both cost- and marketing-wise.
“Take your standard [logo] pen. With a cost per impression of just $0.12, $0.13, $0.14 per piece, it will see an average of seven people in its lifetime. Nowhere else will you find advertising with that kind of ongoing value in such a low price range.”
But Baker cautioned that no matter how practical, a pen – or a T-shirt, tennis ball or tote bag with your company name emblazoned on it – might not be the right promotional item for your brand.
“It’s got to tie-in to what you’re doing, to who you are as a company,” he stressed. “When you’re designing and developing your promotion you need to make sure the product you choose is going to somehow benefit your unique target audience – the people you do business with – so that they’ll see it and use it and immediately think of you each and every time they do.”
Also important, said Baker, is remaining atop changing trends.
“They were No. 1 in the ’50s, but nobody gives away ashtrays anymore,” he said. “Now people tend toward anti-tobacco promotions and things that are healthy and green. Items that are biodegradable or made of recycled material – those are big.”
The sustainability and corporate social responsibility phenomenon is something Denise Taschereau knows well. She co-founded Fairware Promotional Products Ltd., which focuses on providing ethically sourced and environmentally responsible promotional items, in 2005 after witnessing “great companies giving bad swag.”
“Whether you’re just starting to green your operations or you’ve made sustainability your priority since Day 1, you need to have appropriate brand alignment with the items you distribute promotionally,” Taschereau told Business in Vancouver. “This is very visible stuff. Make sure it supports your mandate.”
Though going green – promotionally speaking – is a good thing, it’s not the only thing. “You can’t just hand out a recycled product and expect it to work,” she said. “‘Here’s an organic T-shirt. Sorry it’s ugly.’ No – it has to look fabulous and have a nice colour palette and meet your brand objective as well.”
And because the sustainability side of promotional products is itself constantly evolving, Taschereau agreed about the importance of staying current.
“Something we’ve seen a lot of lately is folks looking to create from their own waste streams,” she explained, pointing to Science World, which Fairware helped produce giveaway “padfolios” (promotional portfolio writing pad holders) from old banners. “Clients have approached us with old T-shirts, truck tires, even pine beetle wood, asking if we can help them create something unique.”
John O’Meara, president of Imagen Green, said the billions of dollars spent by North American companies each year on plastic and/or petroleum-based promotional products is having an increasingly obvious impact on the environment.
“Fortunately, there are many items available these days that are, in some way or another, less detrimental than the ‘usual suspects,’” O’Meara said, pointing to pens produced from biodegradable corn plastic and music download cards made of seed paper that, planted after use, blossom into North American wildflowers.
“Marketing your company through promotional products is a proven, effective method of growing your business, but it no longer has to be at odds with Mother Nature.”