A Spicy Promotional Giveaway

In the promotional products industry, the word ‘giveaway’ is one that is commonly heard and spoken about. As we break this word down to interpret its meaning, it is not difficult to understand what is meant by a promotional giveaway. In fact, when you really think about it, almost all promotional products are giveaways. The only time a promotional product is really paid for is when it is being purchased by the person or group who is eventually going to give them away. There are of course situations in which you may obtain a promotional product as a bonus when you purchase something else, or you may even receive a promotional item when you sign up or commit yourself to something. So there are certain cases when a promotional product doesn’t come completely free of charge, but in most cases, promotional products are most effective when given away for free. This is for a variety of reasons:

1. 1. People love to get things for free – even if it is something that seems useless or pointless, people usually tend to react well to receiving something for nothing. This positive reaction can help you to remember the company or cause that gave you this product. If so, this is a very effective form of advertising.
2. 2. Promotional Products can be useful and convenient – people also love when things are useful and/or convenient. This is why the promotional pen is and will always be so popular. Everyone, in virtually all age groups make use of pens almost everyday if not multiple times a day. Giving away pens with your contact information or company branding encourages people to store pens where they may not usually store them. For example, if a bank gives you a pen before you leave the bank, you are probably more likely to keep it in your purse or car, rather than storing it with your favorite pens back at your desk. The next time you need a pen when you’re away from your desk, it is more likely that you will reach for this pen, and each time you do, you’ll be reminded of the bank that made this possible. That is also effective advertising, and can potentially reach even more people when the owner of that pen is willing to give away the pen to someone else who may need it.
3. 3. Promotional Products can be cool and fun! – This may not sound very convincing at first, but it’s absolutely true. There are some items that I never knew existed until I found them in the form of a promotional product. Sure if its cool and exciting enough, you could probably sell it to someone, but what better way to raise awareness for an event or company, than giving away something that creates a buzz? Most effective forms of advertising involve this ‘buzz’ or in other words, it gets people talking about it for some reason or another. This is the very concept that the Super Bowl advertising world thrives on. Which is one of the reasons why it is so expensive to advertise during the Super Bowl.

The main reason being, that it is the most regularly watched annual event on television so commercials will reach many more viewers than usual. But having the money to advertise is only half the battle now. Advertisers work hard to come up with a commercial that is going to get people talking about it the next day. This is the reason why Super Bowl commercials have generally leaned towards comedy or shock value recently. Though it seems to have proven effective, as the most talked about advertisements are usually ones that make us laugh out loud, which in turn makes them more memorable.

You might be wondering at this point where the ‘spicy’ as mentioned in the title is, and how Super Bowl commercials relate to promotional products. While commercials are certainly not promotional products, the lure of revolving your advertising campaign around the Super Bowl certainly spills over into the realm of promotional giveaways.

This year, Tabasco Sauce opted to use promotional giveaways instead of spending their money on an overpriced 30 second television spot. With the cooperation of several thousand pizzerias country-wide, Tabasco is including a small sample of their signature sauce to each box of pizza that is ordered or delivered on Super Bowl Sunday through February 15th. This is the definition a promotional giveaway. Tabasco is literally giving away their sauce for free so that people can experience the taste for themselves. Sure, you could suggest that Tabasco sauce is delicious on a slice of pizza, but you could do a better job of convincing people with a free giveaway than with a comedic commercial. If the sauce is as good as they claim it is, the taste of that pizza would certainly be just as worthy of talking about at the water cooler as that commercial where they make it look like the baby is talking like an adult.

I am not certain about the actual cost of this promotion, but based on the criteria outlined above it seems like it will be worth it in the end. People are getting something for free, it is useful and convenient since you don’t have to do anything extra to immediately receive an additional sauce for your pizza, and while hot sauce doesn’t necessarily excite everyone, in most cases it will make your pizza eating experience just a little different from the norm, which might be construed as exciting. At worst, a pizza lover may not like the taste, but could still talk about how there was surprisingly some hot sauce attached to their pizza, at best, someone may love the taste and buy a bottle so that it is on hand for the next time they order pizza. And that clever Tabasco marketing team has even made that deal sweeter by also attaching a $1 off coupon towards the purchase of a Tabasco Sauce product. Promotional Giveaways at work!