On Saturday, my dad took my brother and me to Citi Field to see the New York Mets play the Houston Astros. The Mets haven't exactly had a stellar season, so we weren't expecting a huge turnout. But boy were we wrong!

How did the Mets draw in the crowds? Every fan received a great logo toy upon entering the stadium: a limited-edition Mike Piazza bobblehead. Everyone was so excited to be receiving the promotional giveaway. And of course, because I work in the industry, I was ecstatic as well.

Photo Courtesy of the @Mets official Twitter

To be frank, it's not every day that Citi Field looks packed. It got me thinking: How many people attended the game strictly for their Piazza bobblehead? And if a large percentage of spectators did come out just for the toy, why don't more teams give out freebies? I can only imagine how much extra cash the stadium made that day from everything from ticket sales and souvenirs to food and drinks.

Best of all, the Mets won the game, beating out the Astros 3-1. Do you think the big turnout helped the Mets kick butt?

It might not be the most optimistic baseball season for us Met fans, but opening day 2012 didn't disappoint.  Johan Santana, back from an 18 month rehabbing of his pitching shoulder, pitched like the Johan of old with 5 scoreless frames of 2 hit ball.  The team’s unofficial captain David Wright jumped all over a Tommy Hanson fastball for a base hit scoring the first run of the season.  It was all the Mets would need after the revamped bullpen shut down the Chipper-less Braves for the remaining four innings.  Frank Francisco earned his first save as a Met and Ramon Ramirez (acquired in the Angel Pagan trade) earned the win with one and a third scoreless.  Who knows what the rest of the season will bring, but for a day, we are at the top.

Players of the Game: 

J. Santana
IP:  5.0
H:  2
ER: 0
BB:  2
K:  5

D. Wright
AB:  3
R:  0
H:  2
HR:  0
RBI:  5

Ladies and Gentlemen, it's just about baseball season. Not quite there yet officially, but spring training has begun.  It is a wonderful time for baseball fans of all teams. That is because spring training is a fresh slate and means everyone can have hope. Remember, the World Champion St Louis Cardinals were 10 games back at one point last season and rallied back to win it all.

Yes, all fans can have hope....except for maybe the Mets fan. For the Mets fan it has been a very long offseason. The Mets have lost a face of their franchise and one of the best players in baseball, they didn't do much else to make up for that either. All of this, while every team in their division have stocked up on big time baseball weapons. You don't have to be a big time baseball expert to have the Mets tagged for last in the NL East.

So with all of the team in camp, and certainly hearing the doom and gloom from the media around them, one of the team's owners Jeff Wilpon, swooped in to try to save the day. He chose to do it with customized t-shirts.

The logo you see there is the logo from the classic cartoon called "Underdog". The idea was for the team to embrace the "Underdog" theme and to show everyone not to count them out. In about 29 other Major League baseball camps, this would be a non-story. Unfortunatly, this is Mets camp, and everything is a controversy or news story.

Fans complained about ownership calling the team an "Underdog" saying that they should have higher expectations of the team they built, and there were rumors that certain players didn't like the statement the shirt was wearing. This all lead to a press conference by the manager....about the customized t-shirts.

Terry Collins, Mets manager said "he is embracing the notion of team being ‘underdogs,’ and says if any player has an issue with the shirt they are missing the point. Collins said he has a certain set of expectations for the way this game is supposed to be played."

In all likelyhood, this will be a dead story by the end of the week if not by the end of the day. It does go to show you though the power a statement on a t-shirt can make.

I'm really looking forward to the 4th of July this year. We're taking a trip down to Washington, DC to visit friends and family. I expect we'll come across many 4th of July Giveaways in the nation's capital. Friends have told us about a parade at the National Mall, which I'm sure we'll check out. The fireworks at night will be amazing.

I think the highlight of the trip, however, might be on Saturday. We made plans to check out the Mets vs. Nationals at 7:05pm. Over the weekend, we discovered that the game was moved to 4pm, aka the Fox Game of the Week. Hmmm why would they want to televise this game nationally? Could it be a STRASBURG outing? If so, I'm sure the Baseball Giveaways will be in full effect.

(Disclaimer: I did the math, and it doesn't look like the National Treasure will be pitching. This would be a good thing for the Mets, of course, but it would be cool to see him throw.)

Since 2003 ESPN Magazine has taken it upon themselves to figure out each year who the "Ultimate Sports Franchise" is, essentially figuring out what sports franchise is the most "fan friendly". It is actually a very scientific process based on a fine mix of financial numbers and fan feedback/surveys. There are eight main factors that determine the rankings (from examiner.com):

Affordability – from tickets to apparel to parking to concessions – what it costs to be a fan of a franchise

Coaching – quality of on-field coaching/managing for the franchise

Fan Relations – how the teams and owners interact with the local fan base

Ownership – overall commitment and effort owner makes to players, coaches and fans, as well as a willingness to spend money and commit to winning:

Players – effort given on the court, field or ice, in addition to how likable they are off them

Stadium Experience – the cleanliness, parking, security and promotions at the home venue

Title Track (winning) – how successful and dedicated the team has been in pursuing and winning championships

Bang for The Buck – wins over the past three years, measured against the money it receives directly from fans

Sadly, yet not surprisingly, my beloved Mets were not one of the top teams.  In fact, New York did not do very well in general, my apologies to Bill Paden, but the Islanders and Knicks were close to the bottom. One of the questions surveyed of sports fans were, how much do you like your teams promotional giveaways? No surprise, the #1 ranked franchise, The Los Angelels Angels of Anaheim also had the top rated promotional giveaways. They loved their Angels promotional cooler as well as their Angels rally monkey promotional bank the most. It's not just about winning championships, it's showing your fans you care. It just goes to show you the power promotional products can have. In this economy especially, giving the fans something useful, the fans that spend money on tickets, transportation and food to see your team play can really go a long way.

We're past the All-Star break in Major League Baseball. We're just getting into the dog days of summer. This is where all of the off-season conditioning pays off. Four months down, two months to go.

Most teams know where they stand right now. Some are playoff bound, some are looking ahead to next year. My Mets are in purgatory right now (both in the standings and with their mess of a front office). This ensured that they were quiet at the July 31st trade deadline. With the continued expansion of the web (sports sites, blogs, fantasy sites, etc.), trade deadlines have become events in and of themselves. Last week, I heard a couple of analysts talking about people playing hooky from work so that they could watch ESPN or the MLB Network and keep up to date on the possible and consummated trades. What's next? Trade deadline promotional mugs and trade rumor promotional key chains? I know I'd want to win the "Pittsburgh Pirates Firesale 2009" promotional sport bottles.

Anyway, the next two months will show us who the true World Series contenders are. It pains me to say that the most likely matchup, as of this writing, is probably Yankees vs. Phillies. If that is the case, I'll have to root for some kind of controversy where the winner is tainted and the loser is.. still the loser. Maybe the Mets will find a way to have a late run and reverse the pattern of the last two seasons. That would be Amazin'.

My blogs are usually about sports, but nothing has really caught my interest in the past week or two. Tom Watson has turned back the clock and is tied for the lead at the British Open. The American League won another All-Star Game. The Mets stink.

So this week I'll write about a great promotion that I ran into a couple of summers ago. While out to dinner at a pub with Laurie and her parents, Budweiser sent in some reps to run a promotion. The company wanted to push their brand, so what better way than to hand out promotional products in a venue that sells their products? There were raffles throughout the night, and I was the winner of this package:

It's not the best picture I've taken, but I won a promotional folding chair and two imprinted koozies. Not bad!

What made me think about this promotion? We've been spending more time outdoors lately (as the rain has finally lessened) and the chair has come in handy. It's been used at the park and on our patio. The koozies were used when we hosted a barbecue last weekend. Why did Budweiser go to all this trouble in providing these summer giveaways? They know that every time someone uses the chair or the koozies, people will think about Budweiser.

If you can notice, the koozies themselves are pretty special. They are not your run of the mill koozies. Budweiser went the extra mile and created customized products. The koozies are shaped like the crown that Budweiser was using (the king of beers). All promotional products stand out, but fully custom products definitely make an impression.

Speaking of giveaways, I need to come up with a gift for my groomsmen. Last summer, I was in a wedding party and we were given promotional bags. It was a great gift, but I want other options. Any ideas?

At least as far as New Yorkers go, it all started with the fireman. Every Sunday that the Jets would play in Giants Stadium the Jets fireman would get up on his friends' shoulders and lead the stadium in J-E-T-S JETS JETS JETS. To most New Yorkers at least that was the birth of the Super Fan, that guy who is at every game, might be a little not all there, but always prepared to cheer on the home team. As far as baseball is concerned the first Super Fan in New York is Freddy "Sez". Freddy is an elderly gentleman who is at every Yankee game with an encouraging sign and a frying pan with a shamrock on it to bang for good luck. You can't make this stuff up. As it goes in New York, if one baseball team does something the other team needs to find a way to compete. One man decided to become Cow-Bell Man. He wears a personalized jersey and walks around CitiField banging his cowbell to the beat of Lets Go Mets. The thing is, not all have rallied around Cow-Bell Man, listening to a banging Cow-Bell for 3 plus hours can becoming irratating. Thus is the opening for the next man who would be a Super Fan, Pin Man! Pin Man is covered literally head to toe in promotional pins. Some are old, some are new, some blink, some move, but all are Mets related. You can see him coming from a mile away, but unlike Cow-Bell Man you can not HEAR him coming from a mile away. Having had the pleasure of meeting Pin Man and Cow Bell Man , Pin Man is much more reserved and less obnoxious but this is but one man's opinion. It is for the thousands upon thousands of other Mets fans to decide who will ultimately be THE SUPER FAN.

For the last two years, something has been missing from my life. That sounds dramatic, so it must be a serious issue. It is. The Mets no longer have the imprinted wall calendars giveaway day.

Calendar day was easily my favorite promotion. Besides getting to see a Mets game, we were given imprinted wall calendars with all of the Mets information you could want. There were fun facts, interesting stats, and, of course, the daily schedule. The calendar was the perfect size and the pictures were great action shots.

I have been searching for a replacement calendar for the past two years. In 2008, I had a store bought Mets calendar. It wasn't even close to the same thing. Close to half of the months had pictures of players from 2007 who were not even on the 2008 squad. Anthony was nice enough to print out a picture of Johan Santana's face and tape it over Tom Glavine's body. They're both lefties, why not?

This year, I have a calendar with pictures from Mexico. At this moment, to my left is a nice landscape picture, complete with cacti, of Oaxaca, Monte Alban, Mexico. It's a nice picture, but it means nothing to me. I think back to my Mets calendar... and Mexico... and I think of Ollie Perez going home to Mexico for the World Baseball Classic and coming back overweight and terrible.

Maybe I will email the Mets and see if we can't get this promotion back for next year. For the price of tickets at Citi Field, they should be able to give out calendars once a year!

I blogged recently about spring being here, which meant baseball and outdoor activities... but I haven't really seen spring. It's been cold and rainy. So what better to occupy my time at work than to... work on tasks related to promotional umbrellas!?

Our first task was to create the April Showers Umbrella Sale newsletter. It was a fine design by Anthony, but it did nothing to cheer me up about the weather. Isn't that the main purpose of the Motivators Newsletter?

Next, we created some new pages on the site to better display our selection of promotional umbrellas. Everyone can now easily choose from our wide selection of Kids Umbrellas, Print Umbrellas, and Vented Umbrellas.

Once again, I think we're missing the point. I want to see spring! I wouldn't even want to see this umbrella, because it probably means a rain out!