I’ve always found large scale advertising and its cost very interesting I suppose just because of the enormous cost.  One form of advertising that comes to mind is sponsoring in NASCAR.  Companies can pay close to $10 million per season to get the main advertising spots on the car (including the hood and rear quarter panels) as well as the uniform the race car driver and pit crew wears.  Another fantastically expensive form of advertising is naming rights for sports arenas.  One of the more recent occurances of this being the new home of the Mets, Citi Field.  CitiGroup paid a sum of $400 million to have the naming rights for the stadium for the next 20 years.  Costing the same will be the proposed Barclays Center to be built in Brooklyn as a new home for the NETS.  Barclays Bank has agreed to pay $400 million for 20 years assuming the arena is ever built.

If you ask me, the world of promotional products is a much more practical form of advertising for companies who don’t have disposal income of hundreds of millions of dollars.  Coca-Cola could have saved itself some pennies if it printed it’s name on a Budget Pocket Can Holder or a Brewery Glass.  If not either of those suggestions, Motivators Promotional Products have throusands of promotional items to choose from, even if you're looking for low budget promotional items or low minimum promotional items.

Technology is really soaring to new heights I must say, especially personal banking. According to an article that I found in the NY Times Technology section, "USAA, a privately held bank and insurance company, plans to update its iPhone application this week to introduce the check deposit feature, which requires a customer to photograph both sides of the check with the phone's camera." Personally I think this is a great step in the right direction carrying my mobile smart phone in my promotional bag taking it out to snap a photo of a check that I get on site of a job and have it deposited right then and there no long lines to attend to. Granted all this comes with a price your identity being more at risk but hopefully this will become a thing of the past, banking should become more secure and personal to the customer, I guess USAA and it's one million customers that use their mobile device know this all to well my hat off to you as for me I need to get in touch with my banks technology department they need to step their game up.

While life inside of a cubicle can seem haunting, I have no reason to suspect that the Motivators office is a haven for wandering spirits. Desk chairs never creepily roll away from our desks, promotional keychains and aluminum sports bottles don’t mysteriously go missing, and while it does get a bit chilly in here sometimes, I don't see any frosty breath coming out of my mouth.

However, custom imprinted items do exist outside of our office, and if you were to travel to the National Civil War Naval Museum in Columbus, Alabama, you may have a run in with some paranormal promotional products. 

                                        The promotional key chain holder 
                                                                              that is said to spin on its own.

A promotional book to the back? It happens at least every two weeks.

Custom keychains spinning round and round on a rack? They're used to it.

“This happens all the time,” said Susan Ingram, the museum’s visitor service manager. And now it's time to investigate.

An Alabama Paranormal Research Team will conduct a seven hour investigation after closing time in the museum this month. In fear or pranksters, they're not revealing the actual date.

The leader of the team, Faith Serafin said, “We research all the reports very thoroughly. We kind of figure out whether or not there is a correlation between a story and evidence that we pick up, to determine whether or not we can actually say that this location has some type of abnormal or paranormal activity.”

The museums patrons are hoping for an explanation to the regular "hauntings" in the gift store. I for one am thankful that these spirits are twirling around personalized keychains and hitting customers in the back with historical books instead of some of the items on display at the museum. A well preserved naval knife to the back would provide for a more terrifying experience than the thud the book titled “The Confederate Navy: The Ships, Men and Organization 1861-1865,” caused earlier this year.

As for you Motivators, feel free to keep your wooden crosses and ghost hunter kits at home, while we have a great array of promotional Halloween items, I think the ghosts, witches and goblins are steering clear of this office. As for the newly renovated stairwell, I can't say the same. Hold on to your promotional key chains very tightly, and grip your custom multifunction pocket knives even tighter. Some spackle and a paint job isn't going to bury any wandering spirits around here. 

                 

Just popped out of the office for a moment to get gas and had an interesting, albeit kinda frightening experience. Over on Alot More Than Just Promos, I've blogged about auto promotions that could possibly cause injury. From the "lollipop men" to "bleeding billboard" there have been quite a few fails in my book. I'd like to think that my original intention, promoting the fact that promotional auto accessories don't kill or mame you was accomplished. But today I learned yet another way NOT to advertise your product when vehicles are involved.

I was stopped at the stoplight, talking on my cell (hands free of course) when I glanced to my right. The car in the lane next to me had stopped, was looking right at me, and rolled down his window (international sign for I need to ask you a question). I rolled mine down too, and was waiting for him to ask me how to get to the L.I.E. or something of that nature. Instead, he held up one finger (not like that!) and said "Give me a sec." He proceeded to undo his seat beat and got out of his car. I practically panicked, afraid that this guy was about to jump in my car (my lovely VW rolled down the window ALL the way which would have made it easy for him) and he pretty much did. He leaned into my car and handed me a business card and then said, "Give me a call."

I immediately rolled my window back up and floored it the second the light turned green. I eventually glanced at the card and found out it was for a Civilian Security Service. I'm not posting the name because after this dude scared the crap out of me, I'm not giving him free publicity. I will tell you this though the card lists two phone numbers: one for Big Lou and one for Big Spanish. Not entirely sure which of these two I interacted with, but I'm not calling either of them.  And I'm wondering if the guy was seriously trying to promote his business or hitting on me. If it's the latter, I'm flattered but fail. If it's the former...FAIL.

Why would I call a security company who made me feel SO unsafe in the first place? Was that their point? Is that their marketing objective? Scare the crap out of tiny girls in Jettas so they call and say "Oh Big Spanish can you protect me?" Yeah, I'm not doing that. Besides that, Big Spanish? Seriously? I'd feel safer if I was being protected by Special Agent Seely Booth of the FBI and he's not even REAL! That's a Bones reference...David Boreanaz just gives off that vibe.

So I'm thinking that I have found something that may tick me off as much as people leaving things/sticking things on to my car and that's this whole stopping me at a stop light to give me your business card. Unless of course, you're David Boreanaz an equally attractive male celeb, or Z100 stopping me to give me $100. Then by all means, flag me down, pull me over. Otherwise, mail me some promotional keychains and just call it a day.

Starting on Thursday and continuing into the weekend, Twitter, Facebook, and several other sites were hacked and hit with a DDOS attack (Distributes denial-of-service) causing the sites to be unusable for a period of time.  In related news, productivity increased by 150% on Friday.  I would love to take credit for that but that was from Conan O’brien’s Friday night show.  I’m beginning to see the benefits of sites like twitter, however, I just can’t bring myself to broadcast everything I am doing.  I’ve come to find that 99% of the world of Twitter is boring and a waste of time.  With that being said, there are also interesting and useful updates if you know where to look.  I found a site showing some great tweets, one of which was from a Berkeley student who was covering an anti-government protest in Egypt and was arrested by Egyptian authorities.  As he was being hauled off, he managed to tweet “Arrested.”  Immediately, friends at Berkeley went into action, a lawyer was hired, and only one day later he was released.  I do appreciate the fact that news can be out to millions no more than 10 seconds after it happens depending on how quick your thumbs are.  On the other side of things, I saw someone who tweeted a marriage proposal … give me a break, some things really just need to be done the old fashion way.  I’m sure as a little girl, she always imagined the day she was proposed to would be through an online social network, how romantic!  

Personalized bags

Custom pens

This Summer has been a bust. It rained for about a full month in June and today is the first day in the 90's. Don't get me wrong I'd rather it be a breezy 80 something but it does feel like a strange Summer. With that being said my FAVORITE season is the Fall! The colors, the smells, the start of fun holidays! Before you know it, it will be Christmas (my all time fav). But before Christmas let us not forget about another fun day. HALLOWEEEEEN! Belive it or not it is right around the corner. Every August my Mom would ask me what i wanted to be (yes she made our costumes) for a holiday in October. While not everyone is a 'plan ahead' type of person like my Mom I do suggest and encourage everyone to order now for their Halloween giveaways! It is never too early to early to order your custom candy corn and trick or treat bags.

Frozen yogurt Chain Red Mango is next in a long line of businesses to utilize Twitter for engaging customers with giveaways. We've already blogged about the @SyFy bags giveaway that happened right before Comic Con and you've all seen proof of my beyond awesome Barney Stinson bobble head that I won by replying to a CBS tweet. Now, Red Mango is tempting fans with a promotional t-shirt...

And if you're wondering, here's a shot of the shirt...

It's great to see so many people utilizing twitter for promotional product giveaways and if you're a Red Mango lover who tweets, make sure you're following them if you're in for the contest! Good luck everybody!

It is no secret that promotional products can be a powerful thing. By creating a tangible product with your company's name on it you have the ability to create a lifelong customer. That being said, it is a great reason why, as a company, when you create your promotional program you need to be so careful to think about every possible outcome and consequence. Recently Yahoo! published a story about 10 Promotional Stunts That Horribly Backfired. It is a great read but one of the stories stands out to me the most. Many of you, like myself, may have seen the commercial for LifeLock. LifeLock is a company that promises for a monthly fee they will completely protect you from any and all identity theft. Not only that, they also have claimed that anything identity theft that does occur under their coverage they will pay to fix. LifeLock CEO was so confident in his service, as shown in his commercial, his promotional giveaway was a card... that had his social security number on it....next to a giant truck....with his social security number on it. This resulted in people of course trying to steal his identity. In fact, one person was able to get a $500 loan under his name. Now, had Todd Davis come to Motivators he would have found an item we carry that is a shining symbol of identity theft security, the Combination Lock Flash Drive, item number 30593. Nowadays, the flash drive has replaced the CD or a portable hard drive as storing important information. Flash drives are carried everywhere nowadays and can have very important information on it. With Combination Lock Flash Drive it will always stay protected if it is lost or stolen. Remember, you don't need to take a high risk to have a high success promotion.

For years, people have tried to train their dogs to fetch them a beer from the fridge.  When your buddy isn’t getting you a beer from the fridge doesn’t he get one for himself as well?  Why not apply the same rule to dogs.  Thanks to a new product developed as Dog Beer, we can.  The doggy brew is non-alcoholic, and doesn’t use many of the common ingredients found in the beer of us bipedal beings.  The brew is beef-flavored and is apparently a great way to reward your dog by including him or her in a round of beers.

So I thought of a new “Real Men of Genius” Bud Light commercial.  In, for some reason you haven’t heard one of the hundreds of these commercials, check this out first.

“Bud Light presents … Real Men of Genius (Reaaaall men of Geeeenius).  Today we salute you, Mr. Dog Beer inventor guy (Mr. Dog Beer inventor guy!).  For centuries, dogs have had water to hydrate themselves, but you have put a stop to that.  From now on, dogs can share in the glory of our hangovers.  We’ve always wanted to know what slurred barking sounds like.  Anyone have the munchies?  Great, we’ll order a whole pie and some dog biscuits.  So crack open a nice, cold Bud Light oh brewer of the best bud beverages.  You’ve reinvented the phrase ‘hair of the dog.’  (Mr. Dog Beer inventor guy).”

For promoting this great new dog beer, they should use some Dog Food Bowls with a "Fill to here with Dog Beer" printed on the ourside.  I think they would be excellent promotional products to actually have people seek out more information on the product and actually be able to use the promotional products with the product itself. 

Motivators.com

I successfully transported a three person canoe from my brother’s backyard in Huntington to my driveway in Freeport, all with the help of promotional products and MacGyver skills.

When I arrived at my brother's house it came to me as no surprise that he was not home. It was a beautiful day and he bought that fishing boat for a reason. So with no time to spare, I began yet another adventure involving my spaceship wagon.

Obstacle #1: Creepy crawler infests canoe.
Solution: I found a bunch of promotional kitchen and home products around the yard and grabbed a broom. There were 20+ crickets in there. And at least 50 spiders...not to mention the eggs scattered around the canoe as well. But that broom and me...we had a field day.

Obstacle #2: Typical people needed to hoist a canoe onto a car - 2. Bodies available - 1.
Solution: STREGNTH. This one was all me, baby. No promotional items necessary. Of course if I'd had some long sleeved promotional apparel, not so many spiders would've crawled on me as I hulked the canoe up above me.

Obstacle #3: Unable to find tie-down straps.
Solution: I became a scavenger and crawled under the bunny-hut, poop-haven where I found an old crab trap with rope. I've worked with crabbing rope before and it's got a slick glaze on it that makes tying a bit difficult. But loop by loop I tied the canoe down until...

Obstacle #4: I ran out of rope.
Solution: While my brother caught two foot fluke and barking sea robin out in the Atlantic, I made just as good use of some custom fishing items he left behind. I removed the promotional fishing lure from the line and proceeded to unravel yard upon yard of it. I then braided it around and around (Chick can make her OWN rope,) until it was strong enough to tie-down the back of the canoe. I also ended up using one of my niece’s hair ties to help secure the canoe as well.

Obstacle #5: Driving with a big ole canoe on my spaceship with makeshift rope and a hair accessory.
Solution: Well I drove like an angry grandma. A bit slow, but with great vigor.

Obstacle #6: Getting the canoe off of my car without scissors.
Solution: Promotional key chains. How? Why because it was full of keys that allowed me to saw through the rope and get that thing back onto the ocean.

Ah, what an adventure. I've realized that most ridiculous things I get myself into could have been avoided with proper planning...but then I realize life would be boring without these adventures. Shake things up this weekend, people. Make things happen.
                     
Now that I know I can safely transport a canoe outside of the water...let's hope I have the same luck on the water.