What guarantees the success of a promotional campaign? Does it take promotional products that cost the earth to win over existing clients, prospective customers, and employees? Is it worth siphoning your precious marketing dollars into a promotional campaign at all?
All these questions find answers in a survey done by Advertising Specialty Institute. The survey was conducted in US, Canada, Great Britain, and Australia and brings up facts that allay many a fear.
Overall results show that the choice lies between products that are relatively low-priced but are extremely functional and those which command both functionality and low cost-per-impression.
The promotional industry thinks around ‘cost-per-impression’ when determining which promotional products are best suited to a particular promotional need, event, cause or niche. A product might seem to cost more, but when its average lifetime of usage is considered, the longer and more its usage the greater the number of impressions it creates, which in turn reduces the overall cost-per-impression.
So a pen might cost less but its average usage lifespan would be lesser compared to that of a bag or a promotional t-shirt. Once the pen runs out of ink it goes in the garbage and along with it the advertiser’s brand. The company would need to give out a fresh batch of imprinted promotional pens to sustain its brand advertising. Now consider a bag that evidently costs more, but is used much more and over a longer period of time. Each time the recipient takes it along with him/her for shopping, etc., your brand logo and message are seen by countless number of people wherever he or she goes.
Interesting facts elicited from the survey show:
1) Bags and totes are the industry winners; the simple reason being that promotional bags are highly functional. People use them over and over again, sometimes for years creating a whopping 7,224 average lifetime impressions! With an average cost of about $10, the cost-per-impression for promotional bags turns out to be a meager $0.001! Need one say more? You simply cannot go wrong with promotional bags and totes for your advertising campaign.
2) Pens aka writing instruments, on the other hand, are the ‘most owned’ promotional products. What this means is that these promotional items are given out in greatest numbers. They are also the most used promotional items—19 times a month in Great Britain, 18.2 times in the US, and 17.6 times in Australia. They generate 2,005 lifetime impressions, and with a cost of $3/per item, $0.001/impression. This makes them a cheap promotional option and also a big favorite across all business niches.
3) Other promotional products that command a high number of lifetime impressions are:
(i) caps/headwear: 2,984 impressions, cost of $6/item, $0.002/impression
(ii) electronics/computers: 2,243 average impressions, cost of $13/item, $0.006/impression
(iii) shirts: 2,208 average impressions, cost of $11/item, $0.005/impression
(iv) promotional calendars: 1,984 impressions, cost of $5/item, $0.003/impression
