Go Long! For these Promotional Items

My favorite time of year is just beginning, football season! I love when the weather starts to cool down and it gets comfortable to tailgate outside. There are also a lot of great fall and outdoor promotional items in our industry as well, and they just seem to keep coming out with even more unique items each year. One of the coolest fall promotional items that I enjoy is the new sweatshirt blankets. They are inspired and modeled after a comfy sweatshirt and they are perfect to promote collegiate programs and school systems. They would be a great item for incoming freshman and are also perfect for families to bundle up in while watching their star athlete during those chilly Friday night games.

Promotional items for NASCAR

Labor Day weekend is almost here and I am really excited for my three-day weekend. This has been the longest week of my life it feels. I am going to the Atlanta Motor Speedway for the NASCAR race and all its’ festivities. Promotional items are always a huge hit at the races and it is always fun to see what the promotional industry will come up with next. Last year ESPN even had promotional cups with a special design so you can keep your eyes on the race while taking a sip. Promotional items are huge success because there are so many people in one location just looking to rack up on free stuff.

Promotional items for the avid traveler

Summer is coming to a close and many of us are trying to fit in a vacation before the Fall. I have some relatives flying in from Germany this weekend and I know they are already excited about taking in the sites. They will definitely buy promotional items from the places they visit as a remembrance. They could also benefit from promotional items specifically for travelers though as well, such as promotional luggage tags or even the promotional luggage locks to keep their things safe and secure. They are here for a couple weeks, so I know they will have plenty to see and do.

Hey batter, batter! Swing for these promotional items

I took my boyfriend to the Atlanta Braves game yesterday to celebrate for his birthday. It was a sweltering hot day game and I definitely noticed a couple cooling promotional items carried by fans. Promotional items such as rally towels were soaked and used as a cooling towel for your head and neck and promotional misters were being sold for those in serious need of air movement. I wish I thought of taking a promotional item like that myself, maybe I would have been at least a tad more comfortable. At least the Braves won and my boyfriend loved the seats.

Do some spring cleaning with Promotional items

I read an article on Yahoo about how an unorganized work area can reflect on your personality and efficiency as an employee. Promotional items are often not thought of as organizational tools, but think about it, the most common promotional items are functional items like pen cup holders, clips and note holders. Recipients of promotional items that are used on or around your desk such as staplers, memo holders and sticky notes, to name a few, have the most advertising exposure. So don’t count the standard items out when you are ready to spruce up your work area and get your brand out there.

Promotional items for World Cup finals fever

The World Cup is coming to a finale this weekend with the Netherlands battling against Spain. Unfortunately the team I was rooting for, Germany, will have to settle for third place if they can beat Uruguay. There are events being promoted all around town to watch the finals, so you know that promotional items will be a hot commodity for fans. One of the best promotional items I always enjoy receiving at pub events are the promotional t-shirts. Who knows, some places may even have promotional items mimicking the Vuvuzelas, but hopefully not, since they are pretty darn annoying.

Promotional items that will make you dance

As I was researching the Internet for a blog topic, I came across a YouTube Video of an older man dancing to Lady Gaga's Poker Face. The entire dance was choreographed and he was really getting down. This got me thinking about some of my favorite promotional items. I love listening to music any chance I get, so anytime promotional items involve speakers or compatibility with my iPod, I am immediately intrigued. I have a promotional speaker dock that I can use to play my iPod at the pool, on my deck, anywhere. So easy to take along and just rock out.

Promotional items for the Twilight fan in all of us

With the release of the third movie in the Twilight saga next week, a lot of promotional events are going on. We currently updated our weekend guide on the Pinnacle blog with an event this weekend in which promotional items will be present. The first 200 fans in attendance receive promotional items correlated with the super popular saga. I will be honest with you, I would attend if I could, but unfortunately I have a prior engagement. No matter that I work in the promotional industry myself, I still can’t resist free promotional items, especially when vampires are involved.

Smurfs are back! I Love blue promotional items

I just received a message from my sister in regards to the new sneak peak trailer for a Smurfs' movie coming out next year. The first thing I thought of were the promotional items sure to come as the release date approaches. Promotional items with a “mini” theme or connotation would be awesome, and of course the blatantly obvious blue promotional items will definitely be all over the place. I normally don’t like remakes of my 80’s favorites, but from the short clip I already viewed, this one might not destroy my childhood memories of these cute, lovable characters.

McDonald's recall have you searching for fresh promotional items?

With all the fuss over the promotional items' recall from McDonald's, wouldn't it be nice to feel like you have a safe alternative to promotional items for your next event? Our manufacturers have to pass strenuous product safety tests to make sure they do not include harmful chemicals or materials. Not only have many of our promotional items been converted to safer materials overall, but the standards for product safety have increased in our industry as a whole. BPA is almost non-existent in today’s market, as are products containing lead. Now we don’t have to give up quality for safety.

balancing your marketing with promotional items

Successful marketing is akin to a balancing act. To pull it off, you must find the right combination of advertising, personal connection, budget and promotional items. When you combine the appropriate means of marketing and advertising, you can effectively and efficiently reach your target audience and increase interest in your brand. Consider incorporating several different avenues of marketing into your next campaign. And be sure to incorporate strategically chosen promotional items into all of your branding and advertising efforts. By accompanying your efforts with a tangible reminder of your business, you consistently reinforce your advertising messages and dramatically increase awareness of your brand name.

Promotional items for Memorial Day

A lot of us are in store for a nice three-day weekend with the Memorial Day holiday on Monday. It is a great time to get outdoors and enjoy the warm weather. Promotional items for camping, hiking or going to the beach are a necessity. I know of a few promotional items I already own that will definitely come in handy while I am on the lake. One item to be exact will be my promotional can koozie to keep my drink cold as I lounge in the sun. I can’t wait for some fun in the sun. Have a safe weekend!

Promotional items for Government

We recently stumbled across an interesting article regarding foreign made promotional items sold in the US. Many government agencies purchase promotional items for particular events or as employee appreciation gifts. Like most consumers are doing nowadays, price shopping is a huge factor in where and what products these agencies decide to purchase. What was a surprising fact is that these government agencies do not have specific requests for USA made promotional items whatsoever. Even though overseas product is known to be cheaper, the demand for domestic production has increased and helped reduce price. So let’s get the message to our government to stay domestic. Help America rebuild.

Promotional items for Charity

We are fully into Spring and with that comes events where tons of promotional items are needed. Many charity events such as 5K and 10K walks and runs take place. It is also a popular time for marathons. Promotional items such as t-shirts and caps are widely popular giveaways for any volunteers who want to participate in such events. Habitat for Humanity also does there part year round to build homes for the needy, volunteers receive promotional items for providing their time and hard work as well. So let’s go volunteer, there is much more to gain than just promotional gifts.

Promotional items poolside

Summer is inching closer and closer. Memorial Day is coming up in just a few short weeks and promotional items will be in full force for all the festivities. Neighborhoods and apartment complexes will be opening their swimming pools for residents and oftentimes management will throw poolside parties for its’ residents. Some of my favorite poolside promotional items are the rolling coolers with speakers built into the front pocket, I can’t go anywhere without my Ipod. Other great poolside promotional items are beach towels, sunscreens and even retro looking neon sunglasses. The possibilities are endless so slather on that sunscreen and jump in!

Promotional items and the summertime

Summer promotional items are some of the most fun and useful promotional items in our industry. Promotional items for the Summer range from beach mats to personal mister fans. Some of the most popular and versatile gifts are the retro style neon sunglasses. I have even started seeing them sold in retail stores, which is probably why we have had such an increase in demand in our industry. Around our office everyone is drinking out of some of the new spirit tumbler acrylic cups and BPA free water bottles. Nothing is better than staying hydrated when the temperature rises. So kick off your shoes and get outdoors.

Snow White's Mirror has nothing on this promotional item

Last Saturday was the first playoff game for our Atlanta Hawks team and we made a day of it. My boyfriend and I left early to head down to the CNN center to grab a bite to eat beforehand at Dantanna's. After lunch I went into the restroom where I saw of all things, promotional items. The mirrors above the sinks had advertisements displayed until you stepped directly in front of them, then it looked like a normal mirror. You wouldn’t normally think of a bathroom as the first place for promotional items, but it makes sense, it is the one place everyone has to go eventually.

Promotional items at concerts

I am lucky to have the friends I do. I have been very fortunate to be able to attend several really awesome concerts over the years through tickets they received from their employer. What is better than a concert? A Free concert! One thing you will never stop seeing at concerts are the promotional items that are both given out and sold to promote the bands. Anything from bumper stickers to hats and of course the most popular concert promotional item: the t-shirt. I am always tempted to get one when I am there, but I stay strong unless it is just a really awesome design that I can't resist. Even though I am surrounded by promotional items for work, I love getting swag when I am out. Rock On!

Promotional items- the Hockey Way

Even though I live in the South, I have become a pretty big hockey fan thanks to the Atlanta Thrashers being our city's professional hockey team. I know promotional items are not the first thing you think about when you go to a game, but they help bring the crowds. On select dates throughout the season they always throw in some promotional items for the first 1,000 fans or something like that. I have racked up quite a few promotional items myself and I still enjoy it even though I work for a promotional company. Another big hit at the games are these little Chick-fil-a Cows that they drop from the ceilings and they float down with little parachutes. The crowd goes bananas for those little guys, but maybe it's because they contain a coupon.

"be stupid" with promotional items

I can dig this new ad campaign by Diesel:



The premise is that in order to create change, you've got to "be stupid," i.e., take risks. I am totally on board with that. I have a note taped to my desk that says, "Have more bad ideas." (I think I got that from Seth's Blog.) "The world is full of smart people doing smart things," the ad says. It's easy to fit in, get along, contribute to the status quo. But to do anything remarkable you've got to be a little out there. This paradigm applies to everything, including promotional items. Since everyone buys promotional items, you've got to use yours in a unique way that makes you stand out from all the other booths.

So how will you be stupid with your promotional items?

Promotional Items Take the Cake!

Literally.

Specially designed custom cakes have been all the rage in the past few years – which I personally attribute to the Food Network’s reality series, Ace of Cakes, about the custom cake shop, Charm City Cakes, out of Baltimore, Maryland. They make cakes in basically any shape, often for special birthdays and weddings (for those customers who can afford it at least – the cakes start at $1000.) But often times they make cakes for corporate occasions – which led me to realize that these baked goods are actually promotional items. One such occasion whereby a cake was used as a promotional item by Charm City was when they created a cake replica of the Crayola 64-color box for it’s 50th anniversary at the Toys-R-Us in Times Square.

would you marry a promotional item?

Would you ever marry a promotional item?

My coworker Kim often expresses her love for various promotional items: the Slap-On Promotional Watch, the Kikkerland Grass Custom Charging Station, the Promotional Lip Balm Sleeve. It seems like every day she has a new sample order coming in just for her, or else she's blogging about her latest promotional items obsession.

But marry one? I doubt it.

These people have taken the American love affair with commodity to the extreme. I'm a fairly liberal and tolerant person, but in this case I just can't avoid the word "sicko."

promotional items at antique sales

I'm planning to go a basement sale this Saturday at Highland Row Antiques, and I'm sure I'll be able to find some old timey promotional items collectibles while I'm there.

It's funny how we love old promotional items as kitsch -- political buttons, Coke bottles, tin signs. Mass commodification has become a folk art.

Warhol, yadda yadda.

Coca Cola even pawns off replicated, "vintage" products with their logo as expensive retail items in their gift shops and elsewhere. (I have the magnets.)

Anyway, wish me luck this weekend. Here's hoping I find some pretty, cheap placemats or chairs or wall hangings or fabric or, even, promotional items.

promotional items for a less sedentary lifestyle

Promotional items are good for your heart! Okay, that's a stretch -- this isn't another cereal commercial. But reading this article today in the New York Times got me thinking about how I can have a more active lifestyle organically. Take the stairs, not the elevator. Go to my coworker's desk rather than send her an instant message. And... use promotional items?

I love all things digital. But I also love the tangible. And for me, promotional items represent a face-to-face engagement that has become as desired as it is rare. Putting a product in someone's hand takes time, money, and effort. But it has a far greater impact than sending an email to their junk filter.

Keds as promotional items?

Keds are cool. Mischa Barton taught us that years ago. So why not make promotional items out of them? It's about time, isn't it?

In fact, I don't think there are enough branded shoes as promotional items. Converse Chuck Taylors, Vans, Keds -- these would all make great promotional items with your logo. You can already get your Nikes customized, so I wouldn't be surprised if these other brands followed suit and opened up their line to promotional products companies.

Does American Apparel make shoes?

Check out this pretty sweet video made my Pro-Keds on on Cool Hunting. I wish all brands were this cool.

graffiti murals inspire promotional products

Cool Hunting has a great post today about Steve Powers' ongoing graffiti mural project in Philadelphia. The murals remind me of all the advertising graffiti around my neighborhood and how the impromptu billboards act as dynamic promotional items.

It's common for local galleries and theaters to advertise events on the Krog Street Tunnel in Cabbagetown. Non-profit organizations and start-ups that can't afford traditional advertising can stage guerilla-marketing campaigns with graffiti and promotional items like t-shirts and stickers.

How could you incorporate a graffiti mural into your next campaign?

promotional items for cities

I love cities, so I love promotional items for cities. Since I usually have limited space in my suitcase to bring home promotional items, I limit myself to postcards and coasters. (On my desk right now I have a black and yellow tile coaster from Prague printed with a Jiff Votruba design of Franz Kafka facing a labyrinthine wall of imposing buildings.)

What we used to dismiss as tacky dime store chotchkies, we now examine as art objects. Trendy clothing shops -- first Abercrombie and Fitch, now Urban Outfitters -- sell replicas of old souvenir t-shirts by the armload.

I wonder if someday my Prague coaster will be desired, like a Virginia Is For Lovers button, as a collector's item.

Promotiotional items idea: shower caps

This idea for a promotional item came to me in the shower this morning. On days that I don't wash my hair, I typically use a headband to hold back my bangs, then tie back the rest of my hair in a ponytail. This method is imperfect for many reasons.

1) Water still gets on my hair.
2) My headband broke so now I have to use clips.
3) It's inconvenient to bring all these things with me when I travel.

Because of this dilemma, shower caps make excellent promotional items, especially for travelers. Hotels already use complementary shower cap containers to imprint their logo, but what about companies courting clients? How about a welcome basket of promotional items, including imprinted shower caps?

Museum promotional items

I'm already taking a break from the series on promotional items for employees, because I was reminded today of all the great promotional items available at museum gift shops. Beyond the cheesy Van Gogh coffee mugs and other printed kitsch are some really artful and well designed products, photography and paper cards being a few of my favorite things to browse at museum gift stores.

The Vancouver Art Gallery has an exceptional gift shop if you're ever out west, and here in Atlanta the High Museum of Art sells promotional items with their signature dots in primary colors (coffee mugs pictured).

Promotional items for employees, Pt. 1

My first day at the promotional items company where I work I was given a bag of promotional items that would help me perform my job: pens, post-its, etc. They seem like trifles, but these objects acted significantly. Here is the first benefit of a three-part series:

1. The promotional items branded my company internally. Because the pens and notebooks I use every day are branded with my employer's logo, I feel a connection to the company. This seems obvious: I work here 40 hours a week, right? My job makes me feel connected to my coworkers and bosses and my work, but it's surprisingly easy to develop a disconnect from the company itself. That's why branding internally is so important. Like seeing a concert poster in a coffee shop, seeing my company's logo every day -- even after I leave the office -- integrates the brand into my life.

Hip hop promotional items

I’ve had several encounters with hip hop dance over the past week. I started going to a dance class on Tuesdays, where I hide in the back and attempt to shake body parts I was only mildly aware of previously. And I found out someone I know (a professional hip hop dancer) is on America’s Best Dance Crew. This got me thinking about promotional items I could wear to class to support her crew:

-- wearable promotional items like t-shirts and tanks, sweat pants and arm bands.
-- water bottles
-- and even turn tables, since you can turn anything into a promotional item.

outdoor promotional items: Airscape canisters?

Airtight containers from Airscape would make stylish, high-quality promotional items. According to Cool Hunting, Missoula, Montana company Planetary Design has created this product in the style of a French press coffee maker, using a plunger to seal the container and keep contents like coffee grinds as fresh as possible.

As a very picky coffee drinker, I would love to have one of these on vacation or while camping -- whenever I don't have access to my grinder. It would make a great promotional item for traveling business execs or a gift for clients at the holidays. Now that I think of it, coffee accessories are a largely untapped genre of promotional items. What about French presses or a bag of gourmet beans with your company logo?

Promotional items for a rainy weekend

I wrote an entry on here a few months back about promotional items for a sunny fall weekend. How I long for that weekend! Tomorrow and Saturday have been forecasted as rainy with highs in the 50s and 40s. This is Atlanta, people!

To keep myself in a good mood, I've thought up a Rainy Day Promotional Items pack:
--umbrella and poncho
--booklight for curling up on the couch
--lighter for starting a warm fire

And here's my list of things to do on a rainy weekend:
--cook stew and grilled cheese sandwiches at home
--pull the blankets out of the linen closet and snuggle under them on the couch
--pick out a pile of books and movies to keep you happy and cozy all weekend

Hopefully soon I'll be making a list of hot summer weekend promotional items.

This American Life: new logo, new promotional items

This American Life, one of the best-known and just best radio shows on public radio or any radio, has a new logo designed by Number 17.

This American Life is inventive, curious, and profound. Ira Glass is the perfect host -- intrigued and intriguing, bright yet approachable. I am a proselytizer of the show. When I listen to it in my car I am disappointed to arrive at where I was going.

When I saw this new logo I instantly imagined it on promotional items, and I think the logo will look great on t-shirts and coffee mugs. But it also strikes me that I've seen a lot of promotional items with logos like this. The vertical block capitals seem trendy, and I'm wondering if all their new promotional items won't begin to look outdated soon.

a promotional items testament

This morning I got in the car with a promotional item that is almost 6 years old: a travel mug. My college IT department went around the freshmen dorms on move-in day and gave these promotional items to all the new students. They would pop in the room, ask if you were having any trouble connecting your laptop to the school's network, help you if you needed it, and give you a coffee mug with their logo on it.

I lent mine to some guy from another hall and never saw it again. My current roommate, who also went to my college, somehow ended up with two. And years later Emory I.T. is still with me, in the form of everyday promotional items.

Use promotional items to stand out

Blogtrepreneur has a post today about the importance of being different and standing out. During tradeshow season, companies are all looking for promotional items that will make them stand out among the hundreds of booths at their industries' trade shows. When shopping for promotional items giveaways, look for products that will stand out in the sea of people moving across the trade show floor. Get USB drives in your company's signature color -- they run as low as $9 each (search "norcross" on our website).

Or, attract attention to your booth by giving away high-value promotional items like Alternative Apparel t-shirts or travel mugs to people who answer trivia questions or participate in games.

promotional items for social media geeks

Check out these social media promotional items -- pillows, stockings, business cards and more -- on Penn-Olson.com. Pillows can be bought for $19.99 each on the Etsy store Craftsquatch.

I love the idea of using one form of marketing -- promotional items -- to advertise your love for virtual marketing -- social media.

I remember seeing a pillow like the one above on the top left in the photos of Twitter's headquarters. It can't be too hard to make your own.

What other social media promotional items could you D.I.Y.? Caps, stress balls, dish towels... the RSS symbol would look great on a couch cushion.

Coachella promotional items

Coachella recently released their lineup for April's festival, including but not limited to:

-Jay-Z
-Grizzly Bear
-Passion Pit
-The Avett Brothers
-MGMT
-Hot Chip
-Devo
-Pavement
-Phoenix
-Matt & Kim
-Yann Tiersen
-Miike Snow
-John Waters (?)
-and "Thom Yorke???"

Woot! Too bad I won't be there. Although not THAT bad, since music festivals can be a bit of a nightmare. They aren't even good places to get promotional items from your favorite bands, since every single thing for sale inside those gates is overpriced. You're better off buying promotional items from ebay or at a smaller show. You'll probably enjoy the band better that way, too, when you aren't delusional from dehydration and absurd crowds aren't causing you to have schizophrenic episodes.

Or you could design your own bootleg promotional items and try hawking them outside Coachella.

Promotional Items Inspiration: This American Infographic

Someone named E. J. Fox has resolved this new year to create an infographic for every episode of This American Life ever made. Fox listens to the weekly radio show hosted by Ira Glass on Chicago Public Radio, then expands on the episode by researching data points of interest and presenting them in graphical format.

The infographic was inspired by the "Christmas" episode, and charts holiday spending alongside unemployment rates in order to determine a pattern.

Fox found inspiration in a radio show. What inspires your promotional items? I've already suggested using design blogs to think about color with promotional items. How can stories inform your promotional items choices?

overhaul promotional items, slowly

On this blog I've been goading you to rethink your promotional items campaign and possibly even rebuild it from the ground up.

But that advice comes with a caveat: rebranding should be gradual.

I know it sounds like I'm telling you to change promotional items and at the same time don't change promotional items. In a way, that is what I am saying.

See Dominos (pizzaturnaround.com), Coca Cola (New Coke), and Tropicana (new packaging). These companies made the mistake of changing the thing that made them great in the eyes of customers, to disastrous results.

Then again, all three companies are still kicking. Don't they say that any press is good press?

vintage ads inspire promotional items

I love these old posters from Vintage Ad Browser. You can search for certain terms or browse by topic and decade. The database is nearly endless. Looking at these old ads reminds me of how creative advertising and marketing can get. When I get bogged down in the everyday tasks of selling promotional items I tend to forget the enormous creative potential in this field.

I can't help but notice how passionate these ads are about what they're selling. It's hard to hold onto that passion, but I think that summoning it can make me better at marketing promotional items. I'm going to be working on promotional item descriptions for the next few days, and I'm going to make them as creative and passionate (and, I'm sure, ironic) as possible.

stop arranging your promotional items bookshelf

Glimmer Site has a great article today about why small actions are more important than big plans. GlimmerGuy urges us to stop arranging the bookshelf and start doing. You can never know everything about a topic, so it's more important to get started affecting change.

Unfortunately taking action can be difficult in bureaucratic institutions. Are you the promotional items buyer for your company? How many hoops do you have to jump through and how many forms do you have to get approved before you can order promotional items?

We know that beginning is the most important part, with promotional items and everything else. So what's keeping you from beginning?

avoid CADD with promotional items

What is CADD? Not computer aided design and drafting, but Customer Attention Deficit Disorder, according to the blog Get Elastic. They used the term when talking about You Tube videos on product pages, and the distractions embedded within them that pull customers' attention away from the product, like ads and related videos.

In order to avoid CADD, your promotional items must be simple and consistent. Instead of overwhelming visitors at your trade show table with a thousand chotzkies, choose a single attractive giveaway that will get people talking.

Don't let promotional items choose you; that's when you fall for gimmicks. Instead, go shopping with a plan in mind. Know what you want out of your promotional items. If you stay focused, your customers will too.

Animal Collective Brother Sport video: promotional items converge!

Since I've talked on here about promotional items for Animal Collective's Animal Crack Box and I've talked on my company blog about Where the Wild Things Are promotional items, I thought I'd post this music video for "Brother Sport," the closer on Animal Collective's 2009 Merriweather Post Pavilion. Great song, great video.



The person who tweeted the video (@RaleighBoomBox) called it "better than Where the Wild Things Are." I haven't seen Wild Things (other than their tear-inspiring, operatic trailer soundtracked by Arcade Fire), but I agree that this video is pretty sweet. Merriweather Post Pavilion is also a great album.

Now if only we sold Animal Collective promotional items at my company.

what to do with excess promotional items

At Pinnacle this week we had several dozen spare travel mugs sitting in our lobby. As our office manager encouraged us to take them home, we started talking about what we could do with all these promotional items. Eliza mentioned that she was hosting her book club this week and could take a few promotional items and give them as gifts.

What a great idea. We often think of marketing as direct and deliberate, organized and tracked on spreadsheets with the intention to sell, always sell. But why not take advantage of your existing audience? Market your brand organically to friends and family by bringing home promotional items or showing off your new website. The people already close to you may not be 5-star customers, but they may have friends who are. Make them your brand champions.

design books for promotional items inspiration

Do your promotional items need an overhaul for 2010? Try looking to design books for inspiration.

Apartment therapy offers this list of books on interior design. I love the monochrome colors of A Life of Design and The Well-Dressed Home. What about choosing blood red or cerulean blue for all your promotional items this year? Repetition of color will make you stand out from competitors at tradeshows, and customers will get a clearer image of your brand's identity.

Have any favorite design books on the shelf? Pick them up and flip through, letting your eyes land on whatever catches them. Take notes on how they can inspire your next promotional items campaign. It'll be a fun but worthwhile exercise in thinking visually about your marketing plan.

What are you afraid of? Take risks with your promotional items.

Seth Godin has a great blog today about fear. "We're inundated," he says, "about ways to avoid this pitfall or that risk." Do you promote fear in your work place? Do you "[remind] people that an idea will never work, that the market is in failure, that all hope is lost?" If so, what good is that doing? Or is it only harming productivity and stunting ideas?

It's easy to play it safe with promotional items. To know exactly what the R.O.I. will be. But what about using promotional items to do something evocative, something exciting? What about waging a radical campaign? What are you afraid of -- that you won't be able to predict the results?

Promotional items aren't stagnant. The way you are using them is.

Alternative Apparel tees make hip promotional items

Alternative Apparel has been around since 1995, making fashionable and comfortable tees, simple but stylish and well-fitted. I have a few that I got for a bargain -- about $10 a piece -- and I wear them several times a week.

As branded promotional items, Alternative tees will cost you a bit more than your standard Hanes, but depending on your customers they may be worth the extra cash. Alternative's plain shirts have been showing up on celebrities and in designer boutiques -- I saw one in Baltimore for over $30 -- so as customized promotional items they have great exposure. Alternative is also offering a sustainable line, so look to Alternative Earth for promotional items for the hip, trendy, eco-conscious customer.