Using a conventional product [a subway schedule] in an unconventional way [an instrument].

What have you redefined lately?

Conductor: www.mta.me from Alexander Chen on Vimeo.

Since opening our doors in 2000, we’ve had the good fortune of working with thousands of clients who have engaged us to plan their promotional campaigns. We’ve also witnessed the odd promotional train wreck. After 12 years in business, we sat down and analyzed the tens of thousands of orders we have produced and identified three common mistakes that marketers  make when organizing their promotional marketing.

Problem #1/You’re Hitting the Snooze Button

You’ve spent months creating and planning a project then a week before it goes live someone asks what your giveaway is. You call “your promo guy” and tell him you need something that your customers will love and keep forever.

Oh, and you need it in three days. And, your budget is gone.

What do you get? Something small, rushed, and cheap. And it falls flat.

The Fix

Don’t let your promo be an afterthought. Sure, we’re great at coming up with stuff on the fly and getting it to you when you’re crunched for time, but that’s not how the best campaigns are run. You plan your ad spend ahead of time. You plan your events ahead of time. Why wait until the last minute to plan your promo? Bring us in early to get better ideas, a wider variety of products, and maybe even a better price.

We know it’s tempting to keep hitting snooze, but try getting up early a few times to see how much better your campaign is.

Problem #2/You’re Firing a Shotgun

You know the principle:

Marketing strategy whereby (in contrast to rifle approach) the aim is to cover as wide an area or population as possible.

This tells us that you don’t:

• know your target audience,
• have product ideas that speak to them or
• have the time to figure it out

So you go high quantity & low price and hope that your message sticks because SO many people will get it. It’s like throwing a promo hail mary. To go really wide you’re going to have to go low cost which will limit your chance to get a product that speaks to your ideal customer. You’re left handing out XL men’s shirts to an audience half-filled with women. Even if those women love your brand, those shirts will go straight into the PJ drawer.

The Fix

Understand your target audience by

• looking at the demographics
• engaging them on social media
• finding out what they like

In short, do your homework.

Be picky about who you’re giving your brand away to and focus on your core. Move your event sign-up online and ask registrants to indicate their shirt size during sign-up. Use these numbers to get a feel for your audience then order accordingly.

Problem #3/You’re missing the medium

Your boss gives you an assignment: Remind our employees that our company is a fun place to work.

You call “your promo guy” and he throws your logo on a pen or padfolio and you hand them out at meetings.

Yawn.

The Fix

Promotional marketing isn’t about putting your message on an item, it’s about making the item part of your message.

I’m actually turning into a high school english teacher as I write this, but SHOW your audience, don’t tell them.

Then add your message to it and the medium becomes your message.

	If you wan to be fun, put your brand on poppers
	If you want to capitalize on a current trend go for capsacs
	If you want to appeal to the youth market check out tuber’z

You might not commit these promo mistakes, but you probably know someone who does, so keep these tips handy in the event of a promo intervention.

Did we miss something? Or miss the mark completely? Let us know in the comments!

And, remember, Friends don’t let friends buy bad promo.

[Our Take]
Jewelry first and storage second, these USB sticks bridge the fashion vs. function divide. Placing design at the forefront, rather than as an afterthought sure reminds us of someone else. Each piece of jewellery in the empty MEMORY collection is hand polished and finished in coloured gold. The stainless steel casing houses the USB connector and contains 4GB of storage.

[Why It Matters]
This new spin on a tech category usually filled with utilitarian or whimsical design will stand out against other products.

[Directions For Use]
Apply sparingly to make an impact.

Wise words from Seth Godin on Christmas morning.

A reminder to marketers that delighting customers is so much more than just meeting the spec.

Merry Christmas!

We feel that the best promotional products are those that are actually used (vs being tossed in the trash bin at a trade show). In the spirit of highlighting fun and engaging promotional items, we present to you the Animal Popper.

Cool promotional products are part of the zeitgeist at RIGHTSLEEVE so we decided to shoot a little video to show why we love this piece so much. But, we need help with an ending. If you can think of a good way to end this, please post your comments below.

We’ve teamed up with our friends at iwearyourshirt.com today. Jason (above) and his crew will be wearing our soft and supple Next Level shirts today so sit back and enjoy the entertainment throughout the day.

I met Jason at a conference a few weeks ago and was really intrigued by his approach to advertising and community engagement using the web and social media. Given our love of all things design, web and social media at RIGHTSLEEVE, I thought it would be a lot of fun to work with them.

We have a 15% off Next Level Tshirt promotion on at the moment so be sure to hop on over to our Facebook page to learn more. “Like” us and you are on your way.

Don’t these guys look sharp?

I had the pleasure of speaking at the ASI Chicago show last week to a number of advertising specialty professionals. My focus was on marketing best practices and the connections between brand leaders like Google, Zappos & Apple and the promotional products industry. This is a topic near and dear to my heart as I have always believed that business success is largely defined by the emotional connection a company has with their customers. Google, Zappos & Apple have inspired me with their approaches to marketing, branding and customer loyalty.

Many of their best practices have shown up over the years in RIGHTSLEEVE‘s approach to branding and I wanted to share some of these with you here.

My second presentation was on budget friendly marketing tips for people in the promotional products industry. If you have any additional marketing tips you wish to add, please comment below or let me know on Twitter or Google Plus.

We have been the merchandise sponsor of the Mesh conference since it started six years ago. It has been a wonderful partnership that we hope will continue for many years. We wanted to share some perspectives on the approach that was taken this year as it was particularly successful.

We have learned that a conference swag program is a success when you look around after the first day and have a “ditched to kept” swag ratio of 0 to 100. Believe me, I have been to my share of conferences where attendees conveniently “forget” their lackluster swag bag in the washroom, beside their seat, or in the hallway. Unfortunately, it’s the alarmingly high “ditched to kept” ratio at most conferences that give this industry a bad name.

Here’s what we did  to make this year’s program a success (in conjunction with the wonderful event planning firm MCC Planners and the brand aware Mesh founders).

1. Understand the target customer. We picked a bag that we knew attendees would actually use. As the target demographic was the technology community (geeky, picky, discerning swag aficionados) we knew that a bag that could serve as a grocery tote, laptop/tablet holder or even a purse for women would resonate with both genders.

2. It’s all about perceived value. The bag had high perceived value, validated by a retail price of around $50. Attendees of tech conferences are often inundated with cheap swag and many openly mock these gifts on blogs. We wanted to surprise attendees with a product they weren’t expecting.

3. Make it colourful. Most swag is produced in black or navy in an attempt to appeal to the masses. But when you aim for the middle, the results are often average at best. When people see colour, they get excited because it’s so unusual. We printed 50% of the bags in black and 50% in vibrant colours and within hours people were looking to trade their black bags for one of the coloured bags (yes, even the guys).

4. Don’t give away all the swag away at once. When delegates arrived, they were presented with their package (agenda, speaker bios, schedule, the bag) in addition to a printed voucher which entitled  them to a “limited edition” mesh T-shirt. This voucher was redeemable at a separate merchandise table (aka pop up store). People loved this because it gave them something to do and also extended the gift experience.

5. Cater to the women! We printed 7 different colours of shirts in a full size spectrum, ranging from ladies small to men’s xl. People loved the choice of colours, but the consistent comment was that “the shirts actually fit and weren’t cut to fit like a dress” or “wow, I will actually wear this shirt out tonight!” While a tshirt printed with a 1 colour logo is quite inexpensive, they were still a success due to the fact they fit, were stylishly printed and were not constructed from your typical cardboard-like cotton.

6. Merchandise like a retailer. Conference  swag doesn’t need to be squirreled away in tattered Made in China boxes when it can be nicely merchandised out in the open. Retail stores know this tactic as it’s an effective way to entice shoppers to buy. In a promotional setting where the goods are free, it’s just as important to create that sense of excitement by having a nice presentation. After all, you are asking recipients of your merchandise to walk around advertising your brand. This is all the more reason to make the experience exciting. We had access to a fantastic (and sharply dressed) volunteer team that helped merchandise and distribute the product at the merch booth. Little things like this count.

7. Engage the online community. A big part of the success of any merchandise program is gauging people’s reactions online. People increasingly turn to Flickr, Twitter, Facebook, etc to share their views with their friends. As most people like to receive free products, they usually talk about this online. Engaging with the Mesh community online about the swag was an important component of the program (examples here, here and here). One of the most powerful ways to extend a promotional products campaign is to keep it alive online. For some more thoughts on swag and social media, click here.

At the end of the day, we wanted to elevate the product and turn it into an experience. We accomplished this by creating a sense of excitement about receiving a limited edition shirt in a separate merch area as well as giving out a bag with high utility value. This was in contrast to doing swag for the sake of giving something out as people simply expect it (and often ordering it at the last minute because it wasn’t part of the initial marketing strategy).

When people get something they like, they talk about it and share stories with their friends. In the digital age, this is amplified via Twitter and Facebook, especially at a tech conference. When a promotion goes well, this translates into a great product marketing success story which attracts plenty of eyeballs – which is the whole point, isn’t it?

Photo credit (at top) Alexa Clark

Other photos, credit Kaz Ehara

It’s an exciting day here at RIGHTSLEEVE as we woke up to a story on our office space in The Globe & Mail.

This is part of their Amazing Space series where they feature interesting office spaces across the country. When we spoke to the Globe, we felt it was very important to highlight how our brand, company philosophy and approach to working with clients (and each other) is inextricably linked to the design of the office.

Colour, Collaboration and Cubicle-less.

Thank you to Della Rollins and Katherine Scarrow for the great photography and reporting on this story.

When we took over the office space in 2008, things looked a little different before we started construction.

I believe that it’s the little things that count in business.

Unless you are Google or Facebook and have invented a brand new business model, most industries are defined by commoditization, noise, price pressure and utter dullness. This makes it harder to stand out more than ever these days. Offering “great service, prices and quality” no longer cuts it as a point of differentiation in today’s market. This is why the businesses that truly soar ahead of the competition have figured out that customer experience is often their secret weapon.

Let me give you an example.

I just ordered business cards from moo.com, a slick, webby operation that transacts exclusively online. While their site is what you would expect from a progressive, designed oriented startup, what really sets them apart is their packaging.

I ordered 50 cards as part of a promotion with about.me (they offered to print 50 cards of my about.me profile). I have ordered scores of business cards over the years and my decision often comes down to price simply because there are so many choices. Business card printing is even more commodity driven than the Tshirt business, something I know a lot about.

Sure, the cards were well printed, but the magic was in the packaging. This is what hooked me from the moment I opened the box. Up until a few days ago, I didn’t think it was possible to be excited about business cards. Take a look at the packaging below.

Here are some lessons I take away from this experience with moo

1. Invest in good design and copy. These are the tiny details that people remember. Successful companies like Groupon know all about the power of copywriting (see New York Times article).

2. Invest in packaging or hang tags. If you are selling a Tshirt, add a hangtag (well designed) that speaks to the customer. If you are selling business cards, do what moo.com did.

3. Make it emotional. I have not stopped talking about these business cards because I was excited to learn about the moo story. They came across as real people that really cared about my business. I want to do business with people that care about what my order means to them.

4. Have a good product. Above all, your product must be good. If your product quality stinks and your customer service is horrible, it doesn’t matter if you invest in 1-3. People will see through you pretty quickly.

There’s no question that the current business climate is demanding. Competition is particularly cutthroat in mature industries where the barriers to entry are very low. However, this also represents an incredible opportunity for businesses to introduce design-based thinking to connect with and inspire their customers. As is often the case in life, it’s usually the little things we remember.

——————

ps. This post was inspired in part by my good friend Bobby Lehew’s article on Delight and Surprise.