Marketing Ideas

21
Mar
2013

Company Earth Day Events & Celebrations

Earth Day is approaching…  Earth Day is on April 22, 2013 so just about a month away.  Does your company or organization do anything to celebrate this holiday?

Many companies celebrate this holiday by hosting on-site events, creating “green teams”, recognizing and rewarding achievements, and coordinating community service efforts.  As many recognize, Earth Day efforts go beyond just one day but Earth Day or Earth Week can be a great way to recognize your sustainability efforts throughout the year. It is an opportunity to highlight, engage, and drive future involvement in sustainability projects throughout the year.

At Pinnacle we have cleaned up our local parks, signed pledges to live a greener lifestyle, as well as participated in Earth Hour.  Earth Hour this year is March 23rd from 8:30-9:30pm where you switch off your lights for an hour to show your support and concern for the environment.  This event has grown into a full global community of millions of people in 7,001 cities and towns across 152 countries… pretty amazing!


If you are preparing for upcoming Earth Day events or just getting started, I have put together an inspiration board of promotional products that can be incorporated in your events or celebrations.  Check out our EarthSmart pinboard too

The Earth Day Seed Paper Mini-Gift Pack is a 100% recycled info card and letterpress printed plantable seed paper globe, packaged together in a corn-based cello bag. This is an inexpensive way to present a gift at your event or even mail to clients since it’s lightweight and flat.

The Pietra Recycled Stone Paper Notepad is the perfect eco-friendly item to show your company’s commitment to the environment. It features ecological paper that is made from stones, so its manufacturing process does not involve tree cutting.

Priced under $1, Recycled Flyers are a great giveaway item for an outdoor Earth Day event.

Laminated 100% Recycled Grocery Tote is a common product that is associated with being “green” but because it’s so useful (especially with some states plastics bag bans) it is still very popular!  This bag is made from 100% PET recycled fabric and comes in 8 bold colors with stock designs.

 

Let us know what fun and unique things you’re doing to celebrate Earth Day this year…  we’re always looking for fun ways to celebrate Mother Earth!

 

-Heather

Merchandising Manager

Posted by Admin in Marketing Ideas, Seasonal Marketing Ideas, 0 comments
14
Mar
2013

Social Media Marketing: What’s the Benefit for Us?

My co-worker, Lee recently shared an article with me from Forbes.com, The Hidden Benefits of Social Media Marketing: Why Your Strategy May be Working Better Than You Think.   It actually put a positive spin on all the social media marketing efforts that most companies are investing in.  It kind of hit home with the two of us. Sometimes it can be challenging to measure your return on investment with social media, especially for small businesses.  This article discusses 10 ways in which social media may be working for you that you don’t realize. Give it a read if you have a chance.

The big benefit of social media for Pinnacle is that it is a place where we can build our community and create a forum for our clients and partners.  We share information, articles, and new & unique products that we think our clients would be interested in and monitor their engagement. From time to time we will ask our community questions about what they are looking for or what they would like us to offer more of.  The feedback we receive is taken to heart. We discuss our clients needs as we continuously plan our future efforts online and off.

We also utilize our social networks as a place to reward our loyal followers or fans.  We do free promotional giveaways and offer exclusive discounts and sales.  This offers our customers an additional incentive to follow us and engage.  Everyone likes to receive something for free, especially if it is a unique product they couldn’t get anywhere else.  We recently gave away Gadget Grip Dot’s on Facebook, little tactile buttons you can place on your smartphone or tablets that offer a very unique branding opportunity.

Our clients that won seemed genuinely excited when we contacted them to let them know.  It makes us happy to make our customers happy :)

So far we have seen that Facebook has been the social network that we receive the most engagement on.  It has been really fun to grow our community there however Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn, and YouTube have also been networks that we’ve seen growth and opportunity.  What social networks are you participating in?  What have you found has been your biggest benefit?

 

-Heather
-Merchandising Manager

Posted by Admin in Marketing Ideas, Top Trending Topics, 0 comments
08
Feb
2013

Upcycling Your Promotional Products

According to Wikipedia, the term “upcycle” was coined in 1994 and is defined as “the process of converting waste materials or useless products into new materials or products of better quality for better environmental value.”   The thought was that instead of taking old products and breaking them down, a more environmentally advantageous thing to do would be to build them up into better products that have more value than their originals.

I think that any company who uses promotional products is, at some point, faced with an overflow of products that they don’t need anymore.  Whether it’s because their logo has changed or the product is out of date (like a calendar) or brands are just looking for something new, there are many reasons why older products don’t get used anymore.  So, instead of throwing them away, why not get a little crafty and make those products into something new?

Larabar had a great example of upcycling old promotional products on their facebook page.

Larabar Upcycles

[image source]

Larabar worked with Western Carolina Sewing Company to turn some of their outdated promotional material, like t-shirts, into totes and pouches.  Not only does this create fun new products, but it promotes an eco-friendly message at the same time.

This idea applies not only to the companies who want to do the upcycling themselves, like Larabar, but also to people who have received promotional products in the past.  I’m a runner.  I can’t tell you how many race t-shirts I’ve received.  And while I don’t want to necessarily throw them away since they hold memories, I don’t always wear all of them either.  This would be the perfect thing to upcycle.  Just a quick Pinterest search led me to all of these great ideas of what I could do with my shirts.

  1. Turn a shirt into a tote bag
  2. Turn a shirt into a baby bib
  3. Turn a shirt into a scarf

Have you ever upcycled any promotional products before?  Let us know what you did with them in the comments.

Posted by Lee in Marketing Ideas, 1 comment
25
Jan
2013

Pantone’s Color of the Year – Emerald Green

If you work as as graphic designer or with graphic designers in any capacity, no doubt you are familiar with the Pantone Matching System, which is the standard color matching system across pretty much all industries.

Each year, Pantone chooses a “Color of the Year.” The color is decided upon at a secret Pantone meeting held in a European capital each year. The color is reportedly chosen in conjunction with many of the cultural influences that Pantone believes are relevant in our present lives. The color is meant to capture the spirit of the year.

Pantone’s Color of the Year for 2013 is Emerald Green.

Emerald Green
 

[image source: plentyofcolour.com]
Read more about Emerald Green!

Posted by Lee in Marketing Ideas, 1 comment
24
Jan
2013

Top 5 Essentials When Attending a Trade Show

Last week was my first PPAI Expo in Vegas.  I had been to other regional trade shows, but this is the largest, longest-running trade show in our industry.  Every year marketers from all over the country come to see, touch, and feel the newest and most unique promotional products and apparel.  The Mandalay Bay convention center has 2 floors filled with rows and rows of booths with products to see.  I knew I needed a game plan before I stepped on the show floor.  Speaking with co-workers that had been to the Expo before, I was given the 5 Essentials When Attending a Trade show.  Bonus, I also figured out 1 additional product we’ll be bringing with us next year!

1) Comfortable Shoes – with so much walking you need comfortable shoes to make it through a full show day.  If you can find a mix of comfort and style that is ideal.  I chose my grey, corduroy TOMS and they proved to be an excellent choice.

2) Tote Bag – You need a tote bag to carry your notebook or padfolio, business cards, phone, and other supplies, preferable with lots of pockets.  Pockets and dividers make finding your things quick and easy when time is of the essence.  Megan and I brought our new Pinnacle tote bags that had 4 separate outside pockets and internal pockets for your phone and business cards.

Megan and me with our new Pinnacle tote bags.

3) WATER – walking and talking can make you thirsty… I recommend you bring a bottle of water because a small soda is $5 at the convention center!

4)  Smartphone/Camera – When you are busy going booth to booth, you’ll want to take lots of pictures of the cool, unique products you find.  Tip: Take a picture of the company sign or business card so you remember where you saw that cool product.  Keep everything digital to avoid having sore arms and shoulders from catalogs and product samples. (Obviously there are some things just too cute not to pick up, hence the tote bag)

5) Hand Sanitizer – shaking hands and touching products that thousands of other people are touching is less than sanitary.  Make sure you bring hand sanitizer or snag a promotional hand sanitizer that someone is giving away.


BONUS Essential for trade shows – Energy Bar (no not a protein bar, but that’s not a bad idea either) an Energy Bar or Emergency Mobile Device Battery, as they are being called is a small compact battery device that once charged will recharge your smartphone or other mobile device.  I know my phone died on me every day around 4pm when I still had more pictures to take and people to communicate with.  I will definitely bring something like this with me next year!

Hope you enjoyed my list of essential products when attending a trade show.  Many of these products that are valuable at a trade show can be imprinted with your logo and are great giveaway items for those attendees that didn’t come prepared (custom bottled water, tote bags, hand sanitizer, etc).  My personal tip would be to have a “recharging station” at one end of your booth with chairs, custom bottled water, and a place to recharge your phone.  While your potential clients are resting their feet and recharging, you can be building relationships and provide marketing collateral or a promotional video for them to watch.

Are there any other products I left out?  Let me know if there are other products you feel are essential when attending a tradeshow in the comments below.

 

-Heather
Merchandising Manager

Posted by Admin in Marketing Ideas, Tradeshow Giveaways & Swag, 0 comments
21
Jan
2013

Almost Promotional Products

Our Merchandising Managers are back from the PPAI trade show out in Vegas, and they’ve returned with lots of new pictures and stories about what to expect this year. For a sneak peek about all the trends they’ll be blogging about in the near future check out the Facebook album they created here.

So it’s with this spirit of “new-ness” that I’ve decided to take a quick break from my usual blogging style of pointing out items new and old on our website and how they could be applied to different promotional campaigns. I’m taking a cue from our ever awesome Pinterest account and one board in specific, the Not a Promotional Product… Yet board.

 

 

Source: fab.com via Pinnacle on Pinterest


 

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Posted by Admin, 0 comments
17
Jan
2013

Trying to Drink More Water

On the scale of non-healthy to healthy, I definitely veer towards the healthy side.  I workout 4-5 times a week, I eat a mostly vegetarian diet (with some fish and seafood on occasion) and I get 8 hours of sleep a night.  But there’s one thing that I am absolutely terrible at: drinking water.

Water Faucet
 

Creative Commons Licensephoto credit: Jenn Durfey

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Posted by Lee in Marketing Ideas, 0 comments
20
Dec
2012

NPR Hosts Their First Swag Sale Event

Last weekend NPR hosted their first ever warehouse sale where public media fans lined up to buy NPR swag and meet their favorite personalities. It was deemed a big success as lines formed outside its Washington D.C. building.  They sold everything from your basic t-shirts, coffee mugs, window clings, and beer koozies to bizarre items like Carl Kasell plush dolls and pillows.  They incorporated social media into the event by using the hashtag #NPRswag to tag pictures of you and your NPR merchandise.  Check out NPR’s blog to see a slideshow of fans and their merchandise.

Photo credit dcist.com

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Posted by Admin in Marketing Ideas, 0 comments
17
Dec
2012

The IdeaKit, for when you know that you don’t know

Sometimes, say on a Monday morning a week before Christmas, you find yourself completely out of ideas. Suddenly there are too many choices and too many distractions, and you can’t choose between a gift bar or a bar gift. During this holiday season we have often ended our gift guides with the phrase “call us or visit our website for more ideas.”, but visiting our website doesn’t mean trying to track down the perfect item by yourself (unless you enjoy the thrill of the hunt, in which case disregard and return to your happy surfing). Sometimes you have to ask for a little help, at that where our IdeaKit Requests come in.

Just click the Need Ideas link at the top of our website and this lovely popup will appear. Then fill out the IdeaKit Request with some basic information about what you are looking for and send it our way. We will put together an IdeaKit chock full of items that will help out your search. So have no fear, the IdeaKit is here!

-Sofia
Merchandising Assistant

Posted by Admin in Marketing Ideas, 0 comments