Marketing and advertising have undergone a radical shift in the past ten years. With a tip of the cap to technology, consumers are no longer forced to sit through commercials to enjoy their chosen content: television spots, radio jingle earworms, or even a printed ad can all be bypassed by the target audience without any impact on the content they are consuming.
Due to this, it’s more complicated than ever for brands to capture the imagination of their chosen audience. The days of “Where’s the Beef?” becoming more significant than the hamburger chain it advertised are long since gone. This keeps executives at traditional advertising agencies up at night – and it should.
Given the decreased reach and effectiveness of traditional advertising, how can promotional products help clients inspire the emotions of their audience and drive them to action? To us, it’s straightforward: intentionally design promotional products that encourage your target market to steal.
That’s right, give the target audience permission to take the occasional five-finger discount – here’s why: people love to receive promotional products for three simple reasons:
- They are useful
- They are kept
- It doesn’t “feel” like advertising
Think about an average tradeshow: countless attendees are walking around with a bag filled with all manner of products that they received for free. The savvy exhibitors not only allow people to take promotional products, but they encourage them to take more than one. With a wink and a nod, they will whisper in hushed tones about the vent-mounted cell phone holder, “take one for both of your cars.”
The attendee walks away feeling they got away with a minor misdemeanor, while the exhibitor knows she just doubled (or tripled) the reach of her marketing.
This application of promotional merchandise translates far beyond a tradeshow: the restaurant happy to see a cool pen disappear after the patron signs the check, the grocery store that gladly looks the other way when a shopper doesn’t return a logoed umbrella after use, or the package store that allows patrons to take a dozen branded can coolers for their fishing trip. These people understand that the dollar value of the stolen product is far less than the long-lasting advertising impact the thievery creates.
At Payden & Company, we strive to add value to each client by doing more than just slapping a logo on the trendy product of the moment. Instead, our goal is to work collaboratively with our clients to develop solutions that create a feeling of desire and wanting in their target audience.
