The Promotional Gifts Guide - The Promotional Gifts Formula

The promotional gifts industry is no different to any other in that there are accepted guidelines and procedures that will apply to almost all projects. The Redbows acronym or formula for successful promotions is: Selection, Artwork, Fulfilment and Excitement (or SAFE) for short.

Selection: here the focus is on the selection of the right promotional gifts for your campaign. This in itself is no mean task and is one that can be complicated by a number of factors – the main one being the human element required to make the selection itself.

Everyone loves promotional gifts and when you announce within your company that you are interested in purchasing them, it seems that everyone has an opinion about what would be right for the organisation and which are the best gifts. Sanity has to prevail. You cannot please everyone and so the decision has to be logic based, focused on the person who will receive the gift and the impact you want to make with them. As with any promotional spend, the use of promotional gifts either as part of the main marketing communications strategy or a subset strategy, needs to be set against a background of objectives.

The ‘5Ws and H’ checklist can be useful here:

• Who – is to receive the gifts?
• What – is the purpose of providing them?
• Where – do they need to be distributed to?
• When – do they need to be supplied and against which event?
• Why – will the gifts be used?
• How – will the gifts reinforce the marketing strategy?

Answering these basic questions lays the foundations for the use of promotional gifts within the campaign. A capping element is provided by two further factors being the quantity required and overall budget allowed. Applying this part of the process should leave you with a handful of items that could be considered. To make a final selection we always recommend you rate them on a scale 1-10 with ten being high and one low based on their overall suitability, appropriateness and overall appeal.

Artwork: the next stage after order placement involves artwork, its generation and approval. Printers require artwork in a certain file format and type, to specific guidelines and rules. These are encompassed in vector files – the printing industry norm.

Most promotional companies will have their own Design Studio and team. They will be able to take the artwork or files provided by a client and turn this into printer-ready artwork. Often there will be a small charge for this service. Other sources for this type of artwork include external advertising agencies and if available a client’s marketing communications team.

If getting to a vector file is a relatively straightforward process then proceeding to signed-off can take some time. In perspective it can take a designer five to ten minutes to complete a vector artwork file and then several days to get client approval. This can introduce extra delays into the delivery stage of the process that could have been avoided if the artwork had been signed-off initially and earlier than product selection. Again human-decision making plays a large part here in terms of not only the make-up of the team involved but also their own work pressures.

As clients know that signing off artwork is their last chance to spot any mistakes, they often delay the process till they have sufficient time to give to the approval. In addition multiple artwork corrections can be just as inhibiting a factor. The best formulaic solution is to apply the AIDA checklist (Awareness, Interest, Desire, Action) and then check the minutiae of the contact details with regards to spelling and readability.

Fulfillment and Delivery: with gifts selected and printed the logistics part of the process kicks in. The question is do you supply the promotional items – direct to the client or via a third party? The lowest-cost method is nearly always from the printer or even a fulfillment house where shipments need consolidating and goods made up. Certain promotional foods and confectionery may also require air conditioned transportation and storage. Logistics is just as important an aspect of the process as the preceding ones and a reputable promotional gift supplier should be able to manage this service for you, including providing a full off-loading and positioning service.

Excitement: well though the acronym is SAFE we cannot forget the buzz that surrounds promotional gifts. ‘E’ reminds us to make sure that we create excitement through out the process. If giving gifts is not fun, go back to stage 1.

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