Im not the biggest sports fan.  I come from Boston and I am living in NY so I get it coming and going.. the guys at work razz me about the red sox / yankee battle and my friends at home say I am a trader.. but I don't really follow it that much.  I will check out any game any sport if it is at the park and the only way you will catch me watching a game on tv is if it is in the background at a bar or if it is the Superbowl.  I think everyone enjoys the superbowl, whether it is the game, the competition, the party food, or the commercials.  This year we will be watching the game and I will add another reason to watch... Promotional Items.  I am curious to see how many foam novelities I will see or how many noisemakers there will be in the crowd or at least I want to see this guy..

 

Here we are at the end of January.  The football season will come to a climatic end this Sunday after the playing of the Super Bowl and the only major sport in America that will still be in-season will be basketball.  And no, I do not count hockey as a major sport in America!  So, with that being said what is the next great event on the sporting calendar?  It is March Basketball Madness, with seeding, tournament brackets, and office pools galore!  I encourage those of you who are into the tournament and look forward to rooting for your alma mater or favorite college team during "March basketball" to get an early start on the event with a few promotional products to lift the enthusiasm level surrounding your team.   

 

Signature Basketball   

 

 

 

With Super Bowl right around the corner, I'm sure everyone is getting exited about Pittsburg taking on Arizona ... or is it the commercials that everyone is so exited about?  I would guess the latter for most people as everyone usually quiets down when the commercials come on and begin talking again when the game is back on.  This fact is part of the reason the super bowl commercials are so expensive; that and the millions of pairs of eyes watching the commercials during the super bowl.  According to Ford's spokesperson, Robert Parker, some 30-second spots sold for as much as $3 million this year.  Also, according to Nielson Co., last year's Super Bowl was viewed by a record 97.5 million people.  By my calculations, that means when you're buying a 30 second spot for $3 million, your paying just about $0.03 per person your commercial is exposed to, which is probably why people do it.

 

 

As for everyone who doesn't have the bank for a $3 million commercial, be sure to make you way to Motivators.com for some excellent deals on promotional items that don't go away when you turn off the TV!

 

Valentine’s Day isn’t Valentine’s Day unless you get something sweet, scrumptious and delicious from your ‘someone special.’ Unfortunately, this can leave health-conscious and allergy-prone individuals feeling a bit disconnected. If you’re searching for mouth-watering and tasty yet healthy treats for the ones you love on Valentine’s Day, BabyCakes NYC has exactly what you need. While most of BabyCakes NYC’s desserts are missing all of these unhealthy ingredients, they are certainly not lacking a single thing in the taste department. From warm, soft and chewy chocolate brownies to fluffy and scrumptious blueberry, pumpkin spice, banana and apple cinnamon muffins – each and every treat is delicious and satisfying! From the first bite to the very last crumb, it’s difficult to tell that these treats are actually good for you.

There has been a lot of love for promotional bags on this blog recently. I personally am a promotional bag fan myself, but who wouldn't be? They are probably my favorite type of promotional product. A good bag can get a lot of use from someone and in addition to that your logo gets to travel the world, or it at least goes where the end user goes. Personally, my favorite promotional bags are Ogio bags. Ogio is a very modern, very retail looking bag brand. It's retail looking because its actually sold in stores around the world. My favorite Ogio bag is their Half Dome Duffel Bag. This is probably my favorite promotional item that I actually own. It is durable, it is large, it is bright and it most of all doesn't look like any old promotional product. Ogio doesn't just do duffel bags though. They also have messenger bags, golf bags, backpacks and so on. If you are looking for a high quality, reasonably priced, retail looking promotional bag Ogio is the way to go. 

I have always been a big fan of my old bottles, I really dis-like the can.

My new bottles are going to bring me much more enjoyment though!

 

 

I am going to be the proud daddy of a baby boy soon! His name will be Tyler William Paden (kinda named after his daddy). Since I have been very involved in all of the baby planning for and shopping for and getting ready for I see how Promotional Products are really everywhere in our lives. I went to a baby store and I got this picture frame free! I LOVE FREE!!! I cant wait to see my little guys face in it. We then made our way to another baby store where they were giving out free baby cups again I LOVE FREE! Please dont think I am going to stop using my old bottles,  I am just going to have to incorporate my new bottels into my life now! I will tell you the only thing I am looking forward to as much as my child is all the promotional items I am going to be getting FREE!!!

Just this morning (okay about 20 minutes ago) I blogged about Ikea's use of promotional bags to offset their carbon footprint. They're charging 5 cents for each plastic shopping bag, and the money is donated to the American Forests Global ReLeaf Fund. But, if you all want to know about that you can just go check out the promo blog. But it made me start thinking about all the various promotional bags I've come across while working here. We've seen tote bags, back packs, laptop bags, business bags, any type of bags you can possibly think of, we've seen them. But everyone has a favorite. Now I think of all my bags, my favorite would have to be my purse. It's a black Coach purse that comes with me everywhere. It's almost 3 years old, and it still looks good as new.

And I've blogged before about how much I love my Cross Crunk Duffel, because it's super useful. It's a great bag to travel with since it can fit pretty much everything you need. But if push came to shove and I have to choose my absolute favorite of all our promotional bags, I'm thinking it would have to be one of our promotional drawstring backpacks. They're awesome. They're compact so you can pretty much squish them into a teensy ball and stuff them in your pocket. They're easy to carry because of the strings. They're roomy. In a word, they're perfect. I have about 10 of them. I keep a couple in the car in case I need them. There are a few at my mother's house in case I'm ever over there and I need to move something.  The rest are at my apartment. Most recent usuage: toting laudry stuff to the laundromat. I now have a drawstring backpack that's entirely filled with detergent, dryer sheets, and other little laundry accessories I need. They really are useful and I think of Motivators every time I use mine. It's not just because I work here...it's because our logo is printed quite large on the bag.

Did I mention the imprint area is huge? :)

What girl doesnt love getting a bag? Better yet, what person doesn't appreciate getting promotional bags?! I have already made a decision to give the girls in my bridal party their own personalized bags with their names on them as part of their gift. You would be surpised with how much people enjoy getting items with their name on it. Recently William received a promotional bag with his innitials debossed on the front and he loved it! Don't forget, promoting people is just as fun as promoting a business!

This is basically what William received as a present. Very useful so far! I am still deciding on which bag for the girls!

A few months ago, I was looking for an image that could truly capture blogging as a whole. So I happened over to Google (because the answer is always Google) and hit images and off I went. I found, what appeared to be a Motivational Poster about blogging. That was of course, until I read the tag line:

Never before have so many people with so little to say said so much to so few.

Aside from making me crack up, this poster alerted me to the existance of our antithesis. Welcome to demotivators.com the ultimate source for anti-motivational posters, mugs, and all other fun types of items imprinted with slogans that profess the things you wish you were clever enough to come up with.  Their slogan is "increasing Success By Lowering Expectations." The site's really quite funny, but I actually thought of it when I read greg's blog about Valentine's Day. There are so many cynical singles in the world who loathe that holiday and the anti-us knows that. Hence the reason they created BitterSweets. They're just like those little promotional candy hearts except they say fun phrase for single people! Appartently there's 3 different collections.

The Dumped Collection includes such fabulous phrases as:

"U LEFT SEATUP", "BACK 2 KENNEL", and "RUSSIAN BRIDE", "YOU HAVE A BLOG".

The Dejected Collection has such gems as

"LOSS LEADER", "SETTLE 4 LESS?", "TABLE FOR 1", "I CRY ON Q" and "DIGNITY FREE".

And they had to make a Dysfunction Collection:

"NO FIX 4 DUMB", "SUB PRIME", "GAME ON TV", "PAROLE IS UP!", "RETURN TO PIT", and "BOOTY INFL8N".

That's just special. And I think if I ever saw one of their imprints, it would easily be one of the funniest promotional products I've ever come across in my life.