This year I turned 34 and I had my first senior moment.  I lost my car in the supermarket parking lot.  Sure I have lot on my mind.. but I should not have lost my car.  I had done the shoping for the week and I came out and I was completely lost.  no clue as to where my car was.  I walked up a couple of rows searching.. then I relized grab your keys and hit the button on the lock unlock or event the panic button.. I grabbed for my keys.. and DUH.. there it was my problem  hello kitty keyring.. DOH .. I totally forgot that i had taken her car.  It is an old school car so no electric locks or panic button.  I found it parked behind the construction cube van, hidden from sight.  I got home gave my wife a fancy new Carabiner with Compass keychain.  She thought it was the greatest..little did she know if was for my benefit.. next time I take her car if I at least take my coordinates of where I am parked I can find it using my boy scout compass skills.

 

One of my favorite things about living in a new place is finding all the shortcuts and backroads. And I've definitely decided that one of my favorite short cuts is through a local park. It spans a huge distance and really helps me get to the mall quite easily. I've really only begun to think of this park as a quick route to my shopping destination of choice. So recently, when I saw a sign advertising the local March of Dimes Walk, I was reminded that the park is actually a place to hold events, not just a place for me to speed through on my way to Best Buy.

Whenever there is a walk of any sort, my mind first goes to the promotional items. It's partially because I've worked here so long that promotional products always seep their way into my brain, but it's also because I'm generally interested in seeing what people choose to give out. For something like the March of Dimes, I would assume that their will be items that are baby friendly. Maybe a baby sippy cup or even promotional baby blankets. Whatever people give out, the most important thing is that awareness is being given to such a worthy cause. Because after all, a health baby is a happy baby.

 

In these hard times, consumers more then ever are looking for a bit of a break wherever they can find it.  I am finding out that for many clients finding a product on sale is just not good enough.  They are looking for the absolute lowest and discounted pricing!  As a business it can be difficult to balance meeting the needs of a customer while yet being fare to your business.  After all, like any other establishment you would like to make money.  Yet, Motivators does recognize and is sympathetic to the struggles that we as a whole of society are currently experiencing.  So, as we make room for new promotional products, Motivators has priced many closeout promotional items at extremely low prices which is sure to be a help for many concerned consumers.

Mini Porthole Notebook  

 

 

 

 

 

   CLOSEOUT COLORS
BLACK for $1.79
CLEAR for $1.79
TRANSLUCENT BLUE for $1.79

 

My favorite day of the year is coming, it is not my favorite day because I am Irish(which i am) and I want to celebrate my heritage. I love it because my wife lets me have a huge party every year and all my freinds and I get silly on adult bevrages! We all talk about how promotional items touch our life everyday, blah blah blah blah. Well in this case I have gone so far as to get St. Patrick's Day giveaways for my party and they are always a big hit. I bought the Bottle Buddy Koozies and had them imprinted with let's call it some "risque" language. This year I was thinking about getting some T-Shirts made with a funny "Kiss Me I'm Irish" leprechaun image on them, but with the pending arrival of my child I had to scale back the cost of my party. Either way I am sure my party is going to be as good as it has ever been and I look forward to seeing everyone there!

The beginning of every year is considered tradeshow / convention season. I have been to a few tradeshows/conventions in my life. I have gone to a few ASI  tradeshows but my two favorite shows I have been to are the MLB All Star FanFest and the annual NY Auto Show. Believe it or not the NY Auto Show is actually right around the corner (as long as you consider April right around the corner). The Auto Show is great for two reasons. The first reason being you get to play around with cars you will never be able to afford in this lifetime. The second reason being trade show giveaways! This being one of the auto industry's biggest events of the year you can't leave this show without some great promotional products. These shows are always awash in tote bags, caps, t-shirts, ice scrapers and there are always a few surprises. This year the New York International Auto Show is trying something new for their promotional products. For this year's promotional t-shirt they are letting internet voters decide what their t-shirt should look like. There are 9 different choices to vote on and the winner will be sold at the show. It's a great idea because the people who are most likely to buy a shirt are the people who care the most about the show and therefore are the most likely to wander over to the website to vote.  We have a ton of ideas for great promotional products to giveaway if you happen to be setting up show at this or any auto show any time soon with an entire category for auto accessories and for auto show giveaways.

Last Monday, I got really sick (horrible stomache virus) and ended up not coming into work for a couple of days. Right when I thought I was getting better, I came into work, and then got a severe sinus infection that very day, which I am STILL suffering from. Feeling as horrible as I did, I ended up visiting the hospital and doctor's office a couple of times last week, and realized how promotional products are such a HUGE part of the healthcare industry. Everywhere I turned there were branded medical equipment, brochures, supplies, all with medication and pharmecutical companies' logos imprinted on them. Recently however (as of January 1, 2009) many pharmecutical companies pledged to stop distributing these promo "goodies" to doctors offices in an effort to cut down on costs associated with influencing doctors to prescribe their drugs. Despite their cutbacks, everywhere I turned, there was plenty of  promotional products just laying around. One item that specifically struck me was the doctor's prescrption pad (with the LIPITOR logo on it). And of course, every promotional pen, pencil, and highlighter we touched had a logo of some sort of drug on it. It seems like there is no way of escaping it. No matter how hard the pharmecutical companies try, they have already swarmed hospitals and offices with so many products that even if they stop sending out new ones, there is still so many laying around, they are still influencing doctors and patients with their brands.

 

 

NBC loves Africa.

And by Africa, I'm not talking about the continent, although I'm sure NBC loves them too. I'm talking about one of the greatest songs of all time by the legendary band Toto. Okay so maybe legendary isn't the right word, perhaps I'm overusing it just like Barney on How I Met Your Mother. (Ted, we're building an igloo in central park. Snow suit up! It's going to be legendary!) But they're awesome. And what's even more awesome is how many times this song has popped up in my life recently. To be specific, it's been 3 times and 2 out of those 3 were NBC related. Let's take for example, Saturday night. I was out at a club with a friend when Jay Z's song Izzo began to play. Common club song right? Not when the DJ plays one verse of it and then branches into Africa by Toto. Strangest melding of two songs I have ever heard in my life, but still I went with it. Sunday I caught a rerun of Scrubs (NBC reference) and it happened to be the one where JD is singing Africa in the bathtub. See below for that hilarious video.

Finally last night, while watching Chuck (greatest NBC comedy currently on the air), Jeff and Lester's band (and I use that term loosely) aptly named Jeffster used it as their audition song. Already the forums and blogs are a buzz. Jeffster rules! Long live Jeffster! Jeffster is the greatest! I'm wondering just how long it's going to take before NBC starts mass producing the Jeffster promotional t-shirts. It almost reminds of Donald Faison in Can't Hardly Wait with his Love Burger t-shirt. Bottom line: promotional t-shirts are definitely a necessity when promoting your band. And if NBC is reading this, I'll take a Jeffster t-shirt please!

 

UPDATE: I knew it would take a few days, but it's finally happened! Jeffster has officially made it on to YouTube. So watch the performance and let me know who rocks your socks more. Is it J-Dizzle with his mango body butter or Jeffster with their awesome t-shirts and dance moves?

There's a fever going around Motivators, and contrary to popular belief the only prescription is not more cowbell. Although, around here more cowbell is usually the prescription for anything. But alas, this particular fever cannot be cured with noisemakers.

Nearly every department is being affected by the wedding fever. We've got a bride to be in sales, a bridesmaid in prep, and a mother of the bride in Customer Service. The IT department is currently leading the way with not 1, but 2 grooms to be and a maid of honor. (We always have to lead the way, it's how we roll!) That just leaves art and accounting, and I can estimate with 98% accuracy that one of those two departments will soon be hit with the fever as well. I smell an engagement. The bug has definitely hit and it's hit hard.

As the aforementioned Maid of Honor, I was doing relatively well at avoiding the fever and it's effects. It does slightly help that my best friend lives in North Carolina. I'm not constantly beraged with wedding magazines and decisions to be made. Every so often I'd get a phone call or an email, about how the DJ had been booked and the menu had been chosen. The color of the bridesmaids dresses was chosen early in the game (carnary yellow) and everything seemed to be moving along quite well. Until this past weekend when I got a panicked phone call that she had forgotten to budget for centerpieces. That set in motion a whole conversation about things that she needed. Of course, wedding favors were brought up and since I've decided that to be my department, I'm now in full fledged planning mode. I'm leaning towards the 3.25oz Votive Glass Candle. I really love that it has a digital imprint method so that I can put a picture of the bride and groom on it, as well as the date. Of course, the bride has the final say and it's currently with her for final approval. It's my first suggestion, so we'll see how the process turns out. I'd like to say that I have high hopes...but I also had high hopes for my dress. I wanted it to be long and preferably not canary yellow. But since the bride was having a short dress, it had to be short. The bride then decided to go with a long dress, and I thought I saw a light at the end of the tunnel. But alas...two of the other girls in the wedding party had already purchased their short canary yellow dresses...so I'm stuck. Stay tuned for all sorts of wedding madness...courtesy of Motivators.

 

I love how women tend to have the most random yet useful items in their bags. For example, I always have a Tide Stick and eye drops, Rebecca (in the prep dept) always has tylenol, Ozzie (in sales) carrys handy wipes, Kristen (supervisor in the prep dept) has a a mirror, and my Mom always has a bandage dispenser.While we can't carry everything in our bags, it seams as though Motivators does on the site! So take a look and keep in mind how many things women tend to keep in their bags when giving out promotional products!

After cleaning my desk last nite and relizing what damage I had done to it.  One of the biggest damages to my desk was the rings that were left from my coffee cup.  I can't go without my morning cup of coffee or my mid morning or my late afternoon cup.. so i need to change my habits.  One thing that will surely make a difference are these attractive leather round coasters.  These come in a variety of fun colors and have a large diameter to have you logo debossed.  I can't think of a better product placement for your logo than on your clients desk all day.