Our annual client party and product showcase is always a high point of the year for RIGHTSLEEVE.
We get to hang out with our clients, enjoy good company, and have fun with SWAG.
Here are shots of the exclusive SWAG 2.0 2013 Merchandise Collection featured at the event.
To see more pictures from the event, check out full the full gallery on Facebook.
Word on the street is that the Mayans have us slated for worldly destruction come next Friday.
In an effort to keep our wits about us, and to prevent massive hoarding of bread and eggs by employees, we decided to focus the troops on their promotional product predictions for 2013, should Bruce Willis save the world (again).
With experts like Forrester predicting 375 million tablets being sold worldwide in 2016, it’s no surprise that we expect tech accessories to be a dominant trend in 2013. Even though I’m an android die-hard, overall, we look to requests for Apple-friendly accessories to drive the majority of requests.
source: Forrester
Keep an eye to our Must-Haves for a curated collection of promotional items for start-ups or the tech minded.
The retail to promo life cycle will shorten in 2013. Look for products introduced at retail to make it into brand-able options in ever shortening cycles.
Likewise, look to promo to introduce more products that filter to retail. Tech gloves are a great example of this type of flip-flop. We first introduced the smart-phone friendly gloves in 2010 and they didn’t hit retail until 2011.
In response to changing economics, design trends, and technology, promotional products companies are innovating in new ways that benefit end-users.
Budgets are coming back, but marketers will remember the lessons they learned navigating the ups-and-downs that started in 2008.
We expect businesses to favor higher quality items with longer life over the tired throw-aways that have historically given promo a bad name.
As big players prove the power of swag by creating promo shopping experiences on site, other brands will follow suit with in-office swag “stores” or pop-up shops. In doing so, they will grow more protective over the statements their products make and will choose swag that reinforces their brand consciousness.
As Flux invades companies large and small, and the power of story continues to embed itself in our lives, 2013 will continue to bring change to the marketing landscape.
As long as the Mayans were wrong, that is.
RIGHTSLEEVE is a promotional products agency helping companies establish emotional connections to their brands through tangible, logoed merchandise. Please say hi on Twitter or Facebook.
The release date isn’t until March, but talk of The Hunger Games is heating up. The citizens of District RIGHTSLEEVE took four lessons from the series and voted for our favourite crossover products.
The victors will speak for themselves.
Gear Up |
Fan the Flames |
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| Enough storage for everything short of a bow and arrow. Hang the bag on your side for quick access to tools then adjust the shoulder strap and sling it when you need to make an escape up the nearest tree. | Like Katniss’ stunning debut at the opening ceremonies, this hand crafted piece of art makes your tribute pop. |
Strength of Symbol |
Channel Your Inner Scout |
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| Go viral or go home. The spirit of your District will fuel the movement. | Use it to stock the Cornucopia or as a sponsor gift. Don’t have the training of a Career Tribute? Don’t sweat it. It comes with a Natural Disaster Guide. |
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.
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.
On May 12, we hosted our 4th annual product launch, Swag 2.0
Why do we call it Swag 2.0? We have always believed that we’re on a mission to change the way people view promotional products. We also believe in the emotional connection people have with promotional merchandise, especially when it’s done right (ie., well designed, geared for the right target audience, and focused on delivering on a tangible marketing objective).
Swag 2.0 also reflects our personal philosophy of bringing together a community of like-minded clients (offline & online), each united in their desire to have fun and embrace the emotional connection people have with good quality branded merchandise.
Here are some pictures from the event
Thanks also to Jon Bunning for his great photographs of the event
Thanks also to our friends that took the time to blog about Swag 2.0
… and the pictures too
We have had it with those pesky bag clips.
We’ve all been there. After opening up the new bag of hamburger buns you attempt to clasp the bag shut and the supplied quicklock clip breaks. Without a twist tie to save the day, you’re left to come up with some way to tie the bag shut. 50% of the time, they break on the first closure and we can’t remember the last time one ever made it in tact after multiple openings and closures. There has to be a better way.
Well, we have finally found a solution. Here’s why we love these clips:
1. They don’t break nearly as easily as their cheap brethren
2. They are easy to use
3. They are an extremely cost effective advertising vehicle (and think how happy people will be to see your logo each time they easily clasp their bread bag shut).
It is our personal mission to free the world of these cheap bag quicklock clasps. Thank you for joining the fight.
ps. these bag clips also help people who get equally frustrated with the flimsy strips of tape also found on bread bags.
