One of my favorite clients is holding a huge birthday party this weekend. It's going to be at a big, new club in the city. Besides the venue, drinks and tons of important people that have been planned for months, so were the promotional items.

We began in March with samples and pricing and overseas options. After the samples were sorted out, we narrowed the swag to about 20 items. We did the normal t-shirts and fancy lensed glasses, bracelets and caps.

But what will really bring out the theme of this event are the inflatable animals! Yes, there will be over 2,000 inflatable animals: giraffes, elephants, zebras, monkey and a ton of others! The theme, as you could probably guess, is a forest.

Now all this sounds great but the picture is truly worth a thousand words.  What an awesome event and a great way to think outside the box!

One of my best clients was racking my brain recently about a different promotional item that would be a unique, nice looking gift.  We searched through the standard apparel and fancy tumblers.  Not everyone has a smartphone so the Bluetooth items were out.  What can you get a bunch of people from different walks of life that will stand out?

How about a custom tool, like a knife?  Now at first though you might say, "That's OK, but when would I use it"?  ALWAYS!  I received an overrun and brought it home. I used it three times last night alone! Need a bottle opened? Done. Need a screw tightened? Done. Something, cut, sharpened, toothpick'ed, tweezed, nails cut etc.

There really is no end to what this little guy can do.  If your customers are anything like mine, they will agree too!  The laser etching looks amazing, the item itself is heavy and very solid looking and this will ABSOLUTELY not get tossed out like some less expensive items.

Take a look at the link below and I think you will agree!

I read an interesting story recently, and to sum it up, a few college kids who invented a simple Frisbee game became millionaires!

Let me digress for a moment. A few summers ago a friend of mine received a game called KanJam as a gift. Now I love baseball and football, but Frisbee is not exactly my cup of tea. I changed my mind in about 3 seconds. This game is awesome!

You start out with 2 plastic garbage like bins about 50 feet apart. There are two teams, and each team member stands across from one another behind the cans.

Here's a quick description, courtesy of Wikipedia:

The object of the game is to score points by throwing and deflecting the flying disc and hitting or entering the goal. The game ends when a team scores exactly 21 points or "chogs" the disc for an instant win. A coin toss or similar procedure is used to determine which team goes first. The game is broken up into turns, with an equal number of turns for each team. However, this does not apply in the case of an instant win. The goals ("kans") are spaced approximately 50 feet apart. A team consists of two people each standing at opposing ends of the playing field. One player throws the disk, while the other acts as the "deflector," who is free to move anywhere, unlike the thrower, but the deflector may not catch, carry, or double hit the disc. The original deflector then throws the disc back to the original thrower from his end in order to score, and then the next team takes their turn. No points are awarded if the thrower goes over the line, or if the disc hits the ground before reaching the goal. Three points are awarded to the attacking team if the opposition interferes with the shot; if the attacking team has 19 or 20 points, they receive 2 or 1 points, respectively. Points are awarded for a Dinger, when the flying disc is deflected into the side of the kan (1 point), a Deuce (a.k.a. "direct hit" or "direct"), when the flying disc hits the side of the kan without help from the deflector (2 points), or a Bucket, when the flying disc is deflected into the middle of the kan through the top or the front slot (3 points). In addition, when a player throws the disc into the middle of the kan through the front slot or the top without help from the deflector, he scores a "chog" for an instant win. The game is over when a team scores exactly 21 points -- if a team scores more than 21 after a turn, the extra points are deducted from their score. In the event of a tie, tiebreakers are played to determine the winner, with the highest scoring team winning the game. Whatever team hits 21 first, doesn't matter if they went first or last, the opposing team slots that team is the victor.

I highly recommend giving this game a whirl. It's a blast!

The unofficial summer kickoff is here!  Memorial day weekend!  Although we aren't sure if the weather will let us think it's summer, that won't deter my friends and I from going to Jones beach air show.  This year is a little more special than previous years.  The person who's boat we are going on lives in Seaford on a canal.  his home was destroyed in hurricane sandy.  Even the boat which was on blocks in the backyard got free and smashed into the house.  At the time they were too worried about everything else to check whether or not the hull of the boat was cracked.

Little by little the house was cleaned and fixed and repainted.  They got up the courage to check on the boat and by some sort of small miracle all it had were a few scratches!  So the bottom was repainted, the engine was tuned up and with all they have to be thankful for, friends and memorial day weekend festivities are just another one!

So everyone be safe and enjoy your 3 day weekend!  Hopefully my promotional umbrella will stay home!

I would have to say my favorite promotional item is a t-shirt! I don't know why wearing a shirt that has nothing to do with anything I belong to, root for or even work at, just makes me happy.

Recently we had a bunch of t-shirts in the office that went unclaimed. I grabbed a few for my girlfriend and me. It was some company I have never heard of with no address on the t-shirt. We both wore them a few times and found it funny.

About a month later, we were in Seaford stopping at a Dunkin' Donuts.  After we grabbed our coffee, we walked to the car and BOOM right across the street on Merrick Rd. was the company whose name we have been representing for the past month! We got a good chuckle out of that, and I thought to myself, promo tees are the way to go. Even people who don't know who you are will promote your brand!

I am going to go a different way this week.  Normally my blogs are about sports, beer festivals or promotional items.  Not this week!  This week it's more so about after the sale or purchase.  It's about the customer service aspect of things.  Selling someone an item and promising the world is the easy part.  It's the delivery and follow up that's tough.  what do you do if the customer isn't happy?  What do you do if the item is faulty?  How do you handle an irate client?  

There is no exact way to handle this situation, but my recent experience with Oakley was as perfect as you could be!  I had an issue with a pair of expensive sunglasses I purchased over a year and a half ago.  The frames seemed to have a bit of a weak area and the screw constantly needed to be tightened.  Another issue was the area by the edge of the lenses were constantly rubbing against the edge of the frame and making some pretty nasty scratches.

After some research online I found this particular style had been discontinued and after to a call to Oakley, the replacement parts were totally sold out and never coming back.  For a moment I was annoyed.  I spent a lot of money to have a quality pair of sunglasses and because of a defect from the vendor, I'm out of luck?  Well that though didn't last too long, as the representative I was speaking with quickly rectified the situation.  She offered me 40 percent off any sunglass in stock!  So after owning these for over a year and a half and with an expired warranty they were still going to try to make me, the customer happy.  I accepted the offer and will be picking out a new pair this weekend!  Had they not done that I could of went with another brand and paid less but because of their willingness to help me out, they have a customer for life!

This past Wednesday I attended a pre-draft event hosted by one of my clients. I had no idea what to expect. One second I was helping her with an extremely time sensitive order and the next, I'm getting a secret invitation to some star studded event in Manhattan.

The day started at around 10 a.m., when I hopped on a Penn Station-bound train to the city. I arrived at the location on the invitation and it happened to be Cyde Frazier's wine and dine restaurant which I keep hearing about on the radio.

So I walk in, and right in front of me is Iman Shumpert of the Knicks! Wow this is so cool! After that I walked up to the bar and took in my surroundings.

The whole ceiling was littered with Clyde Fraziers loud suit patterns, and there were TVs everywhere! I grabbed a quick water from the bar and almost bumped into Boomer Esiason! I was just listening to him on the radio no more than an hour before!

I decided it was time to work and go find my client. She was thrilled to see me and tell me how great the bags look. "Now go mingle with the football players and take a look at all the vendor booths in the room," she said.

There were vendors from all different fields, from apparel to custom bow tie creators. They did have one thing in common (besides having famous spokespeople): They all need promotional products!!!  So I mingled, exchanged business cards and took in this great experience.

I don't really know the next time I'll be rubbing elbows with celebritie,s but I sure enjoyed this!  Take a look at our swag bag! 

Now that the never-ending winter seems finally gone, it's about time to get outside and do all the things we have wanted to do for the past few months. Personally, I can't wait to have a baseball catch and go bike riding. I love to exercise and the treadmill and elliptical machine can get pretty tedious over the winter months.

So I'll put on my imprinted sunglasses, fold up my imprinted golf towel and fill up my promotional water bottle and ride.  With so many outdoor promotional items, who could forget your company's name? You are literally a walking billboard and you don't even know it!

It's odd to see that large hot yellow thing in the sky after these countless months of cold, but it's finally here!  It's finally time to put away the coats and get out the t-shirts and shorts.  Bye bye pale skin and welcome bronze back!

I think one of the worst things about winter is, it's hard to go places.  Who wants to trek anywhere in a foot of snow?  It's so much easier to curl up on the couch and stay in the warmth.  But now that the heat is back, so are the frequenting of all your favorites summer places.  Of course ALL of these places have promotional items.  Whether it's a ball game with promotional t-shirts, hats and cups or the beach with promo sunglasses and tanning oils.  They are everywhere.  So whatever business you own or field that you are in, promotional products are the way to get you name to the public.  Associate yourself with summer and fun and let the business roll in!

After a longgggg winter that still won't seem to go away, the boys of summer are back!

As you can see from my previous posts, I am a huge sports fan. Unfortunately, the Mets and Jets have not brought me much joy over the past few years, but I am a fan and that won't deter me from continuing to torcher myself!

I don't care the Mets aren't supposed to be good this year! I don't care if our ace is out for the year! I don't care if going to a game now is equivalent to visiting an amusement park with no one in their seats for most of the game, because they are busy waiting on long lines at Shake Shack, or hitting in the whiffle batting cage in center!!!

OK, maybe I do care a little. But that still won't stop me from visiting Citifield many times this year! I look forward to the green grass, the warm air, the sausage and peppers and of course the promotional stadium cups!  So play ball!!!