Say goodbye to Chotchkies

Gone are the days of giving away pens, key chains, and simple items that have your logo on them. According to a recent USA Today article, traditional media like TV and radio ads no longer work as they used to. Consumers must participate and participate in your marketing for it to take hold effectively.

For all the time, tech gurus touted digital media as the next great avenue of marketing, new technology was going to expand the market and make advertising accessible everywhere. Little did they realize that all this over-stimulation was going to backfire and begin to turn the very consumers they craved against their efforts.

 

In reality, people wait thirty minutes before watching their normal TV shows, this way they can just fast-forward through commercials with their digital recorders. Radio commercials, a thing of the past with satellite radio and MP3 players. Billboards, bus ads, subway ads? Who needs them with DVD players, GPS units and MP4 players to get our attention? So what must a company do to regain its edge?

 

Enter Sticky Drive®, WOW Card® and Traffic Ticket®, the new line of attractive specialty advertising products. These products, and many more like them, attract the consumer to your marketing by entertaining, tracking, impressing, and playing games with your prospects and target customers. This is technology in action, the old-fashioned way.

 

Promotional products have been around for as long as anyone can remember. From a simple burlap backpack to calendars, pencils, and the ever-popular pen, the notion of getting something for free has always been the hook for these products. Even today, at all trade shows, the booths that give away the best things “for free” tend to receive the most visitors. But, like new technology, are you getting your message out further than in a bag and then in a drawer once they return from the trade show?

 

Marketing people need to look beyond the show, beyond the mailing, and outside of the sales call. There are too many things in today’s culture to immediately distract the recipient once they are out of sight. Products that are properly anchored to your marketing initiative and have a repeated need or desire for engagement will prove more effective than any advertisement, brochure, or sales call. These products are the new era in “chotchkie” land.

 

One market that is about to have a great need for attractive products is the pharmaceutical sector. With the new pharmaceutical guidelines coming into play (self-control rules to help keep companies in check), these companies will no longer be able to deliver pens, watches, notepads, etc. as they once did with loaded trucks. Now the products they present must be educational in nature for the intended recipient. There is no problem using the new tools available through some of the products mentioned above. They can all be used for educational purposes and they not only make the logo and branding appear on the face of potential customers, but also take root in their minds, with additional information on top of that.

 

Technology has helped the promotional products industry close the loop; Going back to the days when receiving them was a pleasure and wearing them just as fun. Just the way it should be when marketing products and engaging both potential customers and potential customers.