Today there are so many choices including custom USBs with 8GB memory to stainless steel water bottles to high end brand name golf shirts like Greg Norman and Nike. You can now logo everything from sunglasses to digital frames to measuring tapes to kitchenware.

Interestingly enough, writing instruments are still considered the most commonly used promotional products (about 54%) followed by shirts, caps and bags.

The average length of time people keep an item is 7 months and the reason they have kept it was due primarily to its usefulness.

Bags were reported to be used most frequently, on average 9 times a month, and delivered the most impressions, with 1,038 per month on average.

Analysts have now established a “cost per impression (CPI)” and not surprisingly, promotional products are the least expensive cost per impression at $.004 cents. The CPI for a national magazine is $0.033, a newspaper ad is $0.0129, a prime time TV ad is $0.019, a cable TV ad is $0.007, a syndicated TV ad is $0.006 and a spot radio ad is $0.005.

Customers should keep this in mind when they are considering advertising options. Promotional products are still a proven method to increase brand exposure and drive sales at a reasonable cost. They continue to be part of the integrated marketing solution we deliver here at Palmer Marketing.

Of the 25 different deliverables Palmer Marketing provides, promotional products is my area of responsibility. I recently attended one of the major trade shows for the industry and came across some statistics worth sharing. I was pleasantly surprised to learn that advertising specialties aka “promotional products” or “trinkets and trash” beat out all forms of TV, radio and print advertising as the most cost effective advertising medium out there.

 Here are a few of the stats:

•  84% of people remember the advertiser on a product they receive
• 42% have a more favourable impression of an advertiser after receiving an advertising specialty
• Approximately 24% indicate they are more likely to do business with an advertiser on items they receive
• Most respondents (62%) have done business with the advertiser on a product after receiving it.

 All of which proves the point that promotional products still provide good measurable results for a very reasonable investment.