While Americans are spending more time on line, the U.S. is nowhere near reaching the paperless society that once was predicted. Reports of the death of print are very much exaggerated.
Printed materials and promotional products are still very much alive and relevant in American business marketing. Rather than being replaced by on line, virtual content, print and promotional products now have new, expanded roles. While they still stand on their own merit, they now complement and reinforce on line marketing efforts.
A perfect example of this is outlined in the following article posted by Hubspot, the leader in Internet marketing and Internet marketing software.
Hubspot specializes in Internet marketing, it's pretty much all they do, with them it's Internet marketing or nothing. In 2010 they vowed never to exhibit at a tradeshow again but in 2011 they changed their mind and made a huge splash at Dreamforce 11; the reason for their success the creative use of promotional products and promotional merchandise.
Without creative promotional merchandise they would've been just another exhibitor at the show, by coming up with fun and innovative ways to use promotional products they became the talk of the show, created a buzz that still lasts today, and received more post show visitors than Salesforce.com a much larger company.
Check out the article for full details but essentially they used promotional merchandise to be everywhere and to stand out from the crowd. Every Hubspot employee was dressed in a bright orange track suit, orange is the company color, emblazoned with the Hubspot logo. They created a campaign around branded stuffed unicorns to highlight the fact that marketers shouldn't live in a fantasy world, leave that's for the unicorns.
The stuffed unicorns quickly became a huge hit, everyone wanted one. Hubspot had bought every available stuffed unicorn in the United States and they started running out halfway through the show making them even more valuable and sought after.
Internet marketing is big and getting bigger but people still live in the real world, if your company is moving more and more of your marketing to the Internet you need a way to get people to your website; promotional products and promotional merchandise are the perfect way to do it, just look what Hubspot accomplished.
Promotional merchandise is an excellent way to complement on line marketing, driving potential customers to your website and on line catalog. Whether it's magnets, tote bags, accordion folders, pens, promotional calendars, or promotional USB flash drives all of your promotional merchandise should be integrated with your on line marketing efforts and drive people to your website. If you do it really well maybe you can get the remarkable results Hubspot got.