Today's tips focus on promotional products that can be both functional and fun, and just the right things to consider for students, techies and the IT crowd, even event planners, financial officers, and home improvement designers. The three categories I'm going to cover today include calculators, USB flash drives, tape measures and rulers. We've got some thoughts for you on the end‑user applications and some new ideas that will help you plan your promotions. Let’s start off with calculators. There is a limitless number of applications for calculators. They are perfect for students, event planners, and people working for financial institutions. Calculators are great promotion items when you’re faced with the challenge of opening up new accounts or if you're just trying to open the door with new sales calls. There are dozens of hand-held calculators that can be adapted to any school or business use. A very popular item that we also provide is a USB flash drive. These are great with the tech and IT crowd. They're great because they allow you to store your own information with ease of access; they’re especially valuable for storing homework assignments, for promotional information at trade shows, for keeping financial or genealogical records. Because they are becoming more and more cost effective, we've found that they are already replacing the big brochures and handouts that you see so frequently at trade shows. And the prices are coming down every day—except when somebody like Apple comes along and buys 100 million flash‑drive chips—well, other than that, the cost of production is definitely getting better every day. Now, the next items on our list are tape measures and rulers. Obviously, students and financial institutions make excellent target markets for these as, but there are other markets you may not have thought of—the construction and home improvement arenas, for example. There are great tape measures that come with pen and pencils attached; they come with a built-in calculator or a built-in notepad. There are a lot of different ways you can go with these. They're also great for pets, trying to measure the size and length of your pet, your pet's paw size, your pet’s body size—you’ve seen those ads for security jackets for dogs and cats. They’re great for illustrating sales contests or fundraising campaigns. How do you measure up to your competition? How much more do you have to go? There are a lot of different themes that you can apply these fun and functional promotional products to.

2. So we're going to start off with calculators. There are a number of
different applications for calculators. They include students, event
planners, and financial institutions. Calculators have a great
opportunity to open up new accounts or if you're trying to just open
new doors with new sales calls.
Now, another fun product is the stress balls. We get lots of inquiries
for these in the health-care industry. There are a lot of different
stress-reducing exercises you can do, and even throwing them at your
officemates. I mean, why not? As long as your boss isn't around.
Another function for stress balls is in the beauty field. Basically, there
are a lot of different, creative shapes, and you can do a lot of theme
promotions along those lines.

3. And a third application for stress balls is wellness campaigns. They go
great if you're giving somebody an electronic skip rope or some other
type of product like that.
Another option is a letter opener. These are very functional but can
also be fun, because they're great for facilities-management people if
you're trying to sell into them, or if you want to, the sales force can
give them as leave-behinds at the reception desk when they're going
in.
A very popular item that we also do is USB flash drives. They're great
with the tech and IT crowd. They're great because they do
self-storage, especially at trade shows. We've found that they are
really replacing the big brochures and handouts that you see at the
trade shows, because they're becoming more and more cost-effective.
And the prices are coming down every day, except when somebody
like Apple comes along and buys 100 million flash-drive chips, but
other than that, the cost of production is definitely getting better every
day.

4. T-shirts, obviously, are great promotional products and really fun for
team-building. But they can also be used for things like corporate
social responsibility. You can have all of your team members, all the
people working on a project, in your T-shirts. If any PR opportunities
come up with a local radio station or a local television station, they can
all be there as a team and it's great exposure. The other thing is
sponsorships. If you're sponsoring any events, having everybody in
your shirt, either the booth staff or the event staff, is a great way to get
your name out there.
Tote bags are great for trade shows. And they're not only great for
trade shows, but they're great for grocery stores and gifting. Grocery
stores are really getting a lot of backlash with the latest
anti-plastic-bag legislation that's out there. So if you want to get on
board with the green movement, you can do that by giving grocery
stores these promotional tote bags, because if you give promotional
tote bags, they don't necessarily have to be made of a green material,
but the fact that they're being reused over and over again is seen as
very health-conscious and very eco-friendly.

5. Tote bags are also great for gifting. As small gift bags, they're
wonderful. They don't have the same type of environmental impact as,
say, a box would, that you're not going to use and just throw out, so
they're great to use as an individual gift wrapping.
Now, the next item is tape measures and rulers. Obviously, there's the
student and financial-institution target market with these as well, but
there's also things you might not have thought of. The construction
and home improvement. There's great tape measures that come along
with a pen and pencils attached to them, they come with a calculator
built-in, a notepad built-in. So there are a lot of different things that you
can do there.

6. They're also great for pets, trying to measure the length of your pet,
your pet's paw size, all those types of things. As well as sales
contests. How do you measure up to your competition? There are a lot
of different themes that you can do there.
Bottle openers and koozies. Outside of the fact that they usually
contain the beverage that makes the promotional products even more
fun, there are a lot of restaurants and bars that use these as a great
giveaway, along with a themed drink night.
Outside of that, there's also HVAC, the heating and air-conditioning
type of companies that use these types of things, because the koozies
actually insulate, so they're great for that type of a theme promotion.

7. Another option is a sports team. There are a lot of beverages that are
consumed at different events, and I'm sure you've seen a beer koozie
or a bottle holder that has a sports team or an alcoholic-beverage logo
on it. They're great for that application.
Another great functional and fun promotional products are key-chain
flashlights. They're great in the automotive and transportation fields,
just because having one on your key chain is great for the individuals
who are actually working in shipping. If there's a dimly lit area that they
need to see to open up their car doors or they need to see to open up
the truck or the back of it, it's great to have a little bit of extra light
wherever you are.
But they're also great in the real-estate industry. They're great if
somebody's looking at inspecting a home and just looking around in
that dark, hard-to-see vent. And also, in the IT industry, when people
start taking apart computers, trying to look inside the back, look in
those hard-to-reach areas, it's a great application and it can be really
fun and really functional.

8. Another item that you may not have thought of is magnetic clips.
These types of clips can stick to the sides of your cubicle, if you have
those, or onto a fridge. So they're great in the retail and travel industry,
for holding products onto your fridge, say, for example, keeping a bag
of chips closed, or something, just hanging a note from the fridge. And
having that type of brand exposure all year round is great.
Another option is water bottles. Water bottles are very popular at fun
fundraisers and outdoor events. They're great to be used and be seen
on a whole table. And they're very eco-friendly, because you're not
throwing the plastic bottle out. They're refilling it with water from local
sources. So it's a great way to be eco-friendly as well.

9. Now, the last one I'm going to talk about today is mugs. Mugs are
great for new business development and keeping existing
relationships fresh. You can send somebody a mug saying, "Would
love to see you soon. Let me know when you're available. Here's a
mug, and I'll buy you a coffee." That type of thing would be great. A
facilities-management team, it's great to have durable, long-lasting
mugs that are brand-specific in your kitchen, and in your meeting
rooms, because this way, when your customers and vendors and
other partners are in, obviously the branding is all there.
Another alternative are desk drops. Great employee engagement
when you have individual gifts given out to each one of the employees
that share and represents your culture, and then you can get your
name internally out there as well.

10. Thank you very much. I wish you all the best on your next promotion.
Have a great day.
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