Print Blog: communicate, motivate, educate, enhance, celebrate, animate, and promote with print and promotional products

Printing is the most gorgeous form of advertising

We freely admit we are biased.

If we were the judges in an Advertising Genre Beauty Pageant, it is safe to say we would vote for the print medium as the most beautiful form year after year.

To our knowledge, there is no such thing as an Advertising Genre Beauty Pageant. But ironically, we happened to recently stumble across all 53 Miss America contestants during a promotional fashion show a week before they competed for the crown.

The contestants were all seated for a traditional "meet-and-greet" with shoppers at a Las Vegas mall.  All of them had gorgeous promotional postcards to autograph.  But not all of their cards were designed to fully maximize the power of branding and to increase the chances of the beauty queens getting hired for future paid appearances.

Some of the postcards were simply one-sided photos with the contestant's name and home state.  Others, such as the Miss Missouri souvenir above, used the back of the card to trumpet the Miss Missouri scholarship organization, the printing sponsors, Tara Osseck's personal charity and phone number contacts for hiring her.

There is no greater way for Miss Missouri to promote her career and the national pageant than with a smile and bat of the eyelashes in person. However, her photo postcard -- this one printed on a thick quality collectible stock -- extends the value of her promotional appearance for weeks, perhaps even months.

A postcard like this one likely winds up on the kitchen refrigerator, greeting everyone that comes into the house. It continually reminds people about visiting her Website or how to contact Miss Missouri to appear at a promotional event.

In short, give people a reason to want to keep your postcard or color brochure (coupons do wonders when you don't have a celebrity autograph to create value) and they will. And you will be on the short-list of phone calls when they need your goods or services.

A fabulous way to beautify your real estate documents or legal paperwork is to dress them up in a snazzy, fashionable presentation folder or accordion folder. Instead of reaching for a drabby manila envelope, your clients will appreciate how neat and organized you've made a potential paperwork mess.

Our document folders might not be as sexy as the swimsuit or evening gown competition, but there is nothing more beautiful than someone staring at your company logo and later calling you or dropping you an email.

And just like the fashion show, our presentation folders come in a variety of dazzling styles and colors!

Marketing and branding the Boston Red Sox way

The Boston Globe just documented why the Boston Red Sox are not only talented on the field, but happen to be some of the savviest marketers in the sports and entertainment business.

If you happen to live in New England, you know that Red Sox tickets are nearly impossible to buy at face value. Unless you get lucky with occasional Website lotteries, you absolutely have to know somebody or know somebody who knows somebody to even have the opportunity to purchase overpriced box seats.

So if Fenway Park sells out every night, why are the Red Sox bothering to advertise at all -- let alone turn a mundane moving van into a marketing/branding billboard on wheels?

The reason is that you can't rest on your laurels. Every opportunity needs to be maximized as a marketing opportunity. The Red Sox, with scouts in Korea, Japan and throughout the Carribbean, are a global brand with a global fan base. Every motorist who lays eyes on that truck -- from Boston to Florida -- ia a potential customer of Sox hats, jerseys, sweatpants, etc.

The Red Sox, heavily pushing a sponsorship deal with Jet Blue, also went crazy with promotional giveaway items such as these foam sports fan #1 fingers:

 If you want to give away a fun souvenir at your marketing event, context is everything. At a sports event, foam fingers make all the sense in the world. People will naturally be drawn to them and won't need any prodding to use them and get your branding message out there. 

On the beach, opt for printing your logo and slogan on a personalized umbrella and watch the mobs scramble for shade under your marketing pitch. At a computer or biotech trade show, potential clients will gobble up promotional USB flash drives. 

At a seminar where participants are being bombarded with documents and paperwork, perhaps a branded presentation folder or accordion folder will make you somewhat of an organizational hero.

Remember to brand yourself the Red Sox way.  Even the most mundane events, such as a truck moving equipment from point A to point B, can present itself as a tremendous marketing opportunity!

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Photo credits: The Boston Globe's "Red Sox Truck Day" Slideshow

Printing is essential for Scott Brown or any branding revolution

Two months ago, many of you may not have ever heard of Scott Brown. Now the new U.S. Senator from Massachusetts has his own action figure, has been spoofed on Saturday Night Live (for his good looks and sex appeal), and is even making political appearances in Arizona to boost the re-election bid of Sen. John McCain.

Now, we're going to deftly stay out of politics on this blog. As long they are pro-America, we frankly don't care what ideology our customers subscribe to!  But the recent Scott Brown election carries branding and advertising lessons that go way beyond the Democrat-Republican divide.

With the rare exception of the governor's office, Republicans seldom win in Massachusetts. The state Senate now only has FOUR Republicans. It likely is the most lopsided government body in America.  Consequently, any Republican running for statewide or national office in the Bay State is not only an underdog, but a Rocky Balboa kind of of underdog.

Having front row seats for this past election, the most amazing thing about Brown's comeback against favorite Martha Coakley, was the heavy focus on printing to promote his brand, specifically his lawn signs.  Talk radio was flooded with calls from people saying that the campaign had run out of signs. Official campaign bumper stickers were heavily sought-after merchandise, too.

As the Scott Brown campaign experienced the utopian feeling of having supporter demand outstrip their supply, Massachusetts voters made their own homemade signs with markers and posterboard. The media always uses political lawn signs and bumper stickers as a barometer of grassroots support, but in this election even more so.  The pundits kept citing the dramatic imbalance of posted lawn signs and stickers as evidence that the Brown campaign was gaining momentum and might be much stronger than any of the "experts" gave them credit for.

For us, aside from regrets that we weren't one of the printing vendors for the Scott Brown campaign, this historic election was an exciting indicator that old-fashioned printing still wields massive branding power in the Internet Age.  Before the Revolutionary War, patriot Thomas Paine relied on the printing press to challenge British tyranny with his "Common Sense" newspaper. 

And three centuries later, we're still using printing to promote our ideas and challenge our competition.

The great thing is that you need not be a revolutionary to harness the power of printing. Maybe your big battle is to modestly become the most dominant real estate agent or insurance agent in your region.  Branding your document folders and custom presentation folders with your logo and slogan serves the same purpose as a political lawn sign.

Everytime your prospective client glances at their documents, they'll think of you!

Oh, one more thing, it looks like Scott Brown is a huge fan of promotional merchandise.  Everytime you sit on your tush, you'll think of him:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Printing Keeps Your Tweets Alive: Twitter Goes Retro

 

With the possible exception of Google relying on brochure printing to advertise Google Ads, you don't get more ironic than this...

Twitter addicts are now choosing to permanently immortalize their tweets in an old-fashioned coffee table book. The publisher, TweetBookz.com, will capture your last 200 Twitter messages in the $30 hardcover books -- melodramatically including one Tweet per page as if it were a haiku or poetry book.

Emails, texting and Twitter have pretty much collectively slaughtered the art of the handwritten note. Meanwhile, the media is going bonkers over the Amazon Kindle, the so-called electronic book.  Yet, people are seemingly yearning for the simplicity of a letter and the comfortable feel of a real book.

The TweetBookz make the Twitter feeds feel permanent because they are constantly visible, not shuffled away by the next infusion of Twittering babble.

The same principle applies to marketing and advertising your business. A snazzy, handsome printed brochure may sit on someone's desk for months, serving as a reminder to call you.

A branded desk pad calendar never stops subconsciously marketing 24/7/365. A branded presentation folder or document folder -- which serve a practical role of keeping your paperwork organized for the client -- will get stared at far longer than a Web site ad. 

And get stared at much much longer than a fleeting Tweet!

Promotional advertising works even when you're doing laundry

 The advertising giant BBDO West recently teamed up with Goodwill and Levi's to promote the message of recycling used clothing.

The suggestion to donate your jeans to Goodwill when you no longer want them (or maybe gain too much weight?!) appears just below the washing, drying and ironing instructions on the laundry tag.

Goodwill builds brand awareness while simultaneously aiming to reduce the estimated 23.8 billion pounds of clothing that annually gets tossed in the trash by Americans alone. By offering its tags for promotional advertising, Levis brands itself as a company that cares about the environment. 

What's particularly brilliant about this advertising strategy is that it encounters the consumer at the point of his or her decision making.  The message to recycle may even urge the jean owners to keep other materials out of the waste stream as well.

Promotional advertising is most effective when you have a captive audience, when your message is emblazoned across an item that your target audience uses in their everyday life.

Customized Business Envelopes aren't as sexy as Levi's jeans, but they are a golden opportunity to broadcast your brand when a consumer buys tickets to a concert or entertainment event. Mini pocket folders for gift certificates may include bonus coupons for a restaurant or any business.

And for real estate agents, attorneys and travel agents, snazzy-looking presentation folders that keep documents neat and orderly may just have a longer lifespan -- and advertising potential -- than the jeans you are wearing right now.

 

Pocket Folders Don't Bite; Bugs Do

On Flickr, the popular photo-sharing Website, a Pittsburgh artist known as "Mleak" has done some remarkably innovative work with corporate logos. She's taken the unprecedented step of turning live insects into promotional merchandise!

Mleak calls her work "parasitic advertising," and her intention is to release these branded insects back into the wild -- presumably to influence humans and other insects.

Astoundingly, the paint jobs are real and not some Photoshop trick. Here's the artist revealing her secret:

"Depending on the insect, I put it in the fridge for 5-15 minutes. They're cold-blooded, so that slows them down, though it only gives me a minute or two to work before they start reviving, so I usually have to put them in a few different times before I'm done."

Appropriately, the above work is called the "VW Beetle."

Obviously, Mleak does not make her promotional insects to advertise Fortune 500 companies. We're speculating that she's making some kind of artistic statement about the pervasiveness of corporations in our everyday lives. We also wonder if PETA or any other animal rights group has confronted her about her hobby.

Nonetheless, while parasitic advertising is cool and unusual, it's not an effective way for a company to promote their brand.

Can you imagine the response of customers who are approached with logo-decorated insects?  Depending on the breed, we think their first instinct would be to pull out the can of bug spray.

Ideally, when you invest the money to put your logo in front of as many eyeballs as possible, you'll be better off if the medium is practical -- an everyday item people naturally use.

A pocket folder is a perfect vehicle for packaging corporate information, it's designed to your specifications, it presents the message you want to present, and it provides a professional, organized package for your collateral material.

Pocket folders are an effective way to present your message to a captive audience.  They're perfect for mortgages, refinancing and other real estate/legal paperwork!

Wonder if Mleak's painting skills will eventually progress to the point where she can put your company logo on a mosquito?

In that light, here's one thing we promise you. Our pocket folders will never ever bite!

 

Promotional merchandise; why low-tech thrives in a high-tech world

Print advertising is dead, they say. Conde Nast is closing magazines because of plummeting ad pages. Newspapers are shrinking into pamphlets, and quite frankly, it's a miracle there's even a physical phone book with Yellow Pages ads anymore.

Those mediums are genuinely struggling in an Internet World. But to paraphrase Mark Twain, reports of the death of print are greatly exaggerated.

People still LOVE freebies and promotional merchandise that you can give away to your clients, employees or customers is still one of the most effective ways to make your brand identity "sticky."

Check out the tattered antique Colgate calendar booklet pictured above. The toothpaste company, which arguably has one of the most recognizable consumer brands on the planet, found value in distributing advertising calendars back in 1902! Not only did the original owner hang on to this freebie (and be reminded of the Colgate name daily), but it survived 107 years to wind up on eBay!

Same idea with this vintage matchbook cover advertising cough drops. Never mind that smokers would have no need to soothe their throats or freshen their breath as often if they simply gave up tobacco.  The point is that these matches were ultimately meant to be used and thrown away.  But the time between the first flame and the last was wisely regarded as precious advertising time.

In effect, each cigarette break was "sponsored" by this cough drop company -- because it had the captive audience of the individual smoker.

These matches illustrate the most important principle in selecting which promotional item is best for your company.  Promotional giveaways must be practical. They must be something that people will naturally want to keep AND use.

An Orlando hotel recently packaged their hotel key cards in a mini pocket folder that doubled as a colorful advertisement for the new Simpsons amusement park ride at Universal Studios.  What a creative way to take advantage of a captive audience, sell advertising space on the promotional merchandise that is handed to every hotel guest.  Many companies also take advantage of their captive audience by offering discount coupons for other services that can increase their revenue.

Think pragmatically.  Who is NOT going to want to keep a promotional custom USB flash drive?  If you are in the software industry or any e-commerce business, your most prized clients likely live in front of the computer screen and will think of you whenever they back up their files.

Even more pedestrian items, such as document folders, can become exciting giveaways if they fulfill a customer's needs.  We've found that our attractive expandable accordion files are kept long after the original use. They're durable, practical and serve the evergreen purpose of organizing life's endless stream of paperwork.

Your company's promotional merchandise likely won't be an antique collectible on eBay in 50 years, but you'll be capturing those valuable eyeballs now.

And now is when you need them! 

Document folders; cross sell other products and services

The cost of acquiring new customers, according to many surveys, runs 8 to 10 times more than the cost of keeping existing ones. That being the case taking small steps to remind clients of all the services your company provides is an effective use of marketing dollars.

Document folders given to a client after a transaction, are an effective and inexpensive way to promote and cross sell other products and services. Document folders can be used in many different ways, from presenting a neat and professional package to including a specific call to action. Look at a few simple ways companies use document folders to cross sell other products and services.

A credit union created  unique, portfolio style document folders for mortgage clients. the folders remind and encourage mortgage clients to check out money market and Internet banking services.

An insurance company created accordion document folders to package life insurance  policies, that highlighted an available discount for clients who combine both their auto and homeowners policies.

A hotel chain created document folders for the room keys that included a discount coupon for dinner in the hotel restaurant.

A bank created welcome kit document folders for new account holders that promoted their mortgages and investment services.

An appliance repair company created document folders that included a satisfaction survey and a discount coupon to be used on the next call.

A tour company created document folders for tour customers that promoted cruise packages available through their cruise division.

An auto glass company created document folders that hang from the car mirror and hold all the repair documents along with a discount coupon for an oil change at a partner company.

Document folders are a perfect way to promote your brand and cross sell other products and services. Most companies provide some kind of documents after providing a product or service, packaging those documents in an attractive professional folder is a great way to show clients how much you value their business and remind them of other services you provide.

There are hundreds of ways to use document folders to promote and cross sell other services, if you've seen creative cross selling with document folders or any other other collateral material please share those ideas.

 

 

 

Pocket folders; product packaging for the information age

Product packaging is big business and an important way to keep your brand visible, mobile and in front of your target market. I sent flowers to my wife for mothers day and she was almost as impressed with the package as she was with the flowers.

I ordered from proflowers.com they were having a special and I heard about it on the radio. The flowers showed up in a very elaborate full color box with the proflowers logo emblazoned on the side. Inside there were compartments for the flowers, the vase, and the plant food, I remember thinking "man that box / package must have cost as much as the flowers". I heard my wife talking to a friend and she spent more time talking about the really nice box than she did about the flowers themselves, which when you think about it is exactly what proflowers wanted.

Proflowers uses their product packaging to create repeat customers and generate referrals, they want you to remember the flowers, but  they really want you to remember where they came from. I noticed the same thing last night when we ordered pizza from The Upper Crust (great pizza by the way) the box had their logo, locations and contact information printed across the top. Just like proflowers they know the box is going into the trash, but they also know the value of creating multiple impressions of their brand and they're willing to spend more to make sure the client remembers where the product came from.

Today is the information age, how can you create a package that will be remembered if your product is information. Pocket folders are the solution; well designed colorfully printed custom pocket folders present your information in a professional manner that will be remembered.  Insurance companies, consulting firms, financial services firms, lawyers, title companies, travel services firms, and real estate companies are just a few whose primary product is information, and pocket folders are a perfect way to package their product so their brand is remembered.

Pocket folders are not just presentation folders, they include portfolio folders, accordion folders, document holders, and even totes or boxes. Any of these products can be customized and printed to create a professional and memorable package for all kinds of information. Features such as business card holders, tab dividers, Velcro or bando closures, and special die cut pockets can be added to create a professional package that is functional, useful, and will promote the brand.

Pocket folders to package information have a real advantage over packaging for consumer products, they are less expensive and they don't get thrown away. As nice as the proflowers box is we threw it away right after we opened it. When your product is information such as an insurance policy, marketing information for partner companies, financial documentation, or real estate documents, the pocket folder becomes part of the information and is put away for future reference, not thrown away in the trash.

Product packaging is a great way to promote a brand and create referrals, custom pocket folders are a great way to package information. If your product is information take a lesson from successful consumer products companies and package your product in a pocket folder that will be remembered.

 

Custom folders; keep your brand in the clients hand

Custom folders are used by many businesses to package information about their company, and in many cases to package their actual product. Whether its a standard presentation folder, a custom document folder, a three panel legal presentation folder, or even a small specialized custom folder, they all send a message about the company giving it out. Custom folders present a professional image and remind clients and prospects of all the services available. the reason they are used so much is that they are an effective marketing and advertising tool.

Custom folders take many forms and are used in all kinds of applications; they are far more than the standard 2 pocket 9 x 12 presentation folder most people think of. A custom folder is often used to package a product and keep the brand in front of the customer while reminding the the client of services provided and other important information.

Think about the last time you checked into a hotel, chances are they handed you the room key in a custom folder. this mini custom folder is specially designed to hold the room key while providing you important information about your stay. It prominently displays the hotel logo and is printed with important information about the hotel services etc. Why have they spent the extra money on this custom folder when you've already bought the room? The same reason Starbucks prints their name and logo on every napkin that ultimately will end up in the trash; to the keep their name in front of the customer at every opportunity. 

The front desk at the hotel could just hand you a key card without the custom folder to package it, but then they'd miss the chance to reinforce their professional image and advertise other hotel services.  Some hotels get real creative and sell advertising space to local businesses so they can attract out of town guests. they use the front of the key card folder to promote the hotel and the back to provide a discount coupon to a local attraction, its a winning formula for everyone.

Custom folders do more than help you stay organized, and present a professional image, they allow you to keep your brand in your clients hand and reinforce your professional image. Don't forget about the custom part ,as the hotel key card folder illustrates a custom folder can be used in many creative ways.