CableDrop - cute like a bug!

We recently received this promo item and we though it was a cute idea to promote your brand on a clients desk ... that a look!

CableDrop
FIXED BEHIND OR ON THE DESKTOP, EVEN ONTO A FACING WALL
Anywhere in fact where you wish to have cables temporarily held yet easily removeable or extended. CableDrop gently grasps your power and peripheral cords so they do not fall off your desk every time you unplug your laptop.

Your Logo on everyone's desk
CableDrop with your logo will end up permanently attached to someone's desk. Such a useful product - used on a daily basis - will be leaving a very good and lasting impression of your brand an anyone who uses it. Already a blockbuster success at retail, this item is a must for anyone giving out promotional products

Contact us for more information.

A twist on the usual thermal mug

We recently stumbled upon one of these wonderful thermal mugs. What do they do? It's pretty simple, they reveal a design when heated.

So:
no coffee/tea or cold coffee/tea = no design
warm coffee/tea = design!

Plus the mugs have really sleak designs as you can see here. It gives a bit more value to a classic gift.

There's more to BlueSky...

A great friend of CC Promo dropped by today to show us all the products available at BlueSky. We talked about their biggest seller on the previous post but there are other models that are just as great.

The first one you can clip to your vanity mirror. Just like the bigger model it displays the phone number of the person that's calling you but it doesn't allow for using with your car's speakers. It works with its own little built-in speaker. The plus though is that the battery is solar.


The Bluetooth FM transmitter is a 2 in 1 as it sends and receives calls through the car speakers via the FM transmitter and works as a standard audio input jack to listen to music from mobile phone, MP3 or iPod. It comes with a bluetooth earpiece that works independently of the hands free car unit and can be used outside the car.


Last but not least this version is made to be clipped on your steering wheel. I think it's my favorite because you can easily push the button and keep your eyes on the road since it really is right next to where your hands are...or should be anyway!


This is a gift that should definitely be on your Christmas Lists.
Contact us to know more and/or to get a sample.

October is breast cancer awareness month

Working in the promotional products industry we know the trends and the times where particular products are requested. At this time of the year we are flooded with requests about the Breast Cancer Awareness Month and I figured it would be nice to know a bit more about its origins and meaning. So I "wikipedied" the question to break it down to you, fellow "promotional products junkies" :)

Since when?

AstraZeneca, which manufactures breast cancer drugs Arimidex and Tamoxifen, founded the National Breast Cancer Awareness Month in the year 1985. The aim of the NBCAM from the start has been to promote mammography as the most effective weapon in the fight against breast cancer.^[1]

Where does the Pink Ribbon come from?

Ribbons have been used to express solidarity on the part of the wearer with the identified cause since the early to late 20th Century. Pink Ribbons (and the color pink) are used to express support for women (and men) who are diagnosed with Breast Cancer.

Charlotte Hayley, who battled breast cancer, produced peach color ribbons. She sold them with a card saying, "The National Cancer Institute annual budget is 1.8 billion US Dollars, and only 5 percent goes for cancer prevention. Help us wake up our legislators and America by wearing this ribbon".^[3] Her message spread fast. This made Penny and Evelyn Lauder interested in Hayley's concept. They offered to adapt Hayley's idea by working with her. But Hayley rejected the offer, saying that they were too commercial.

After discussing opportunities with Lauder, Hayley and their lawyers, they came up with a "new" color. The new color of the ribbon was pink and became an international symbol for breast cancer awareness.

Pretty much any product you can think of now comes in its pink version to help companies raise money and awareness towards this illness. See here some of the ideas available, it goes much further now that only sending pink ribbons or pink pens.

Everybody Loves Free Stuff

It has been a while since anything has been posted on this blog. We are still pretty inspired people but have been in a lot of projects lately that leave little time for posting on this blog that we do love dearly. This blog has now 76 posts in English and French and we hope to hit the 100th soon.
In the meantime I did stumble on a picture that made me smile

It comes from the Blog Everybody Loves Free Stuff, a blog that covers everything from promos in the news and interesting new products to promo tips and vintage promos. The promo nails are probably a step further than many company are willing to take but hey, at any event where there can be body painting (and there are many) there could be nails painting, it's less osé. Then again it also requires some pretty large nail surface...maybe the toes? Then everybody goes home with a pair of Flexflops to save the pedicure! (What a shameless plug ha!) Check the Everbody Loves Free Stuff blog for other interesting promotions of the sort.

Want to buy Flexflops?

We have talked about the Flexflops many times as a great promotional product. It still is but is now also available for individual sales in Canada and we are the official distributor. If you want to buy a pair send us an email at info@ccpromo.ca or place an order directly on the website here!

The King of Pop & Promotional products VS Memorabilia

As the King Of Pop is brought to his final resting place we can only imagine how many factories are working double extra shifts to deliver humongous orders of Micheal Jackson promotional products. From watches to mugs to hundreds of different t-shirt designs, the number of promotional products dedicated to the Man In The Mirror is never ending. Right after the passing of this musical icon numerous people saw flourish "I love MJ" tshirts in every corner of pretty much every North American city. It ressembles what we called the Obamania but it might have an even bigger impact as it is, I think, much easier to profess one's love of pop than one's political affiliation.

As far as the Micheal Jackson memorabilia goes, it might not be a goldmine. While some tried to sell their tickets for the Memorial (held today at the Staples Center in LA) on eBay for as much as 3,000$ (before the website prohibited the sales), Msn money warns those that think that all thinks Micheal Jackson will go up in value. See the article below

" Michael Jackson had barely been pronounced dead on June 25 when the memorabilia market heated up. Copies of his best-selling album, "Thriller" -- worth about $10 that morning -- were fetching five to 15 times that much by nightfall.

A single Cheeto -- a cheese-flavored, finger-sized snack -- that purportedly resembled Jackson doing the moonwalk sold for $35.18 on eBay.

Prices for all things Jackson, from albums and tour posters to commemorative coins and more, popped and have shown few signs of coming back to earth. But they will come back to reality soon, most likely when Jackson's death stops producing hourly headlines.

For many fans of the King of Pop, buying Michael Jackson memorabilia is more about being a fan than an investor, but for anyone justifying a current purchase by assuming that today's trophy will hold its value tomorrow, that's where the trouble is.

Anyone thinking of Jackson memorabilia as an investment -- or with a spare copy of "Thriller" gathering dust in the basement -- may want to move it now because the market is never likely to be this good again.

Moreover, one way that collectors of art and wine avoided some of the down market last year was to pull items from auction; a collection's value can drop precipitously if it has to be brought to market suddenly. "Dealer risk" is enormous, as an item is only worth what a dealer will pay for it.

"Anything with Michael Jackson's name on it is selling ridiculously right now; people have come in and bought up all of the Michael Jackson records I had," said Erik Hansen, owner of Stax of Wax Music and Collectibles in Provincetown, Mass. "The problem is that someone is paying a high price now, and when they lose their job in six months or a year and go to sell it, they're going to find out that most of this stuff is not rare and that dealers -- and probably everyone else -- won't pay any more than it was worth right before Michael Jackson died."

Here's where the logic of the Jackson fan who grabs up something hoping it will maintain its investment value makes the big mistake. Jackson is one of the top-selling musical artists of all time, with his biggest hits produced years before CDs were commonplace. Logically, his albums are less scarce, meaning that the supply/demand equation will eventually reflect the fact that so many records were produced.(...)

The Jackson market may be sustainable for as long as the man's death is in the news. But once the reporters have moved to the next headline, the big value in a Jackson collectible will be that you like the music or the image, rather than the price it will get on the market." Source

So you might want to invest on MJ Promotional Products instead of MJ Memorabilia...In any case, might the King Of Pop rest in peace.

The Inside Out Umbrella

Umbrellas, again. This time, I do get the idea! This umbrella is an incredible invention but nobody has a way to prevent a wet dripping umbrella from creating a mess in your house. This Inside Out Umbrella solves this problem by fully inverting into a small bag. All the wet drippy stuff stays inside. Brilliant.

Une autre idée brillante. Rien à dire. Ce parapluie règle définitivement le problème du séchage de parapluie après un orage. Plus besoin de laisser son parapluie dehors dans l'appréhension de ne pas le retrouver au retour, ce parapluie est réversible et se transport en un petit sac. Ainsi toutes les gouttelettes d'eau sont à l'intérieur du sac et l'extérieur est maintenant tout sec, vous permettant ainsi de l'amener avec vous à l'intérieur de votre bureau, dans le transport en commun, dans une boutique ou encore dans votre voiture. Il est possible de le personnalise avec deux logos (intérieur et extérieur) et l'idée est tout simplement excellente.

The wine-bottle umbrella

I am not really sure why someone would think of creating a wine bottle umbrella but the idea is original enough to deserve a post...isn't it? There isn't much to say about it other than the fact that the whole beverage industry could offer this as a great gift for a tradeshow or as a part of a goodie bag for great clients. A company like the SAQ (Société des Alcools du Québec) could have them as a gift with purchase and I think it would definitely be a hit. Everybody needs an umbrella...especially in Montreal at this time of the year.

Anti-Slip Pads

The image actually says it all.
It is a pad that you can stick to any place and that will keep your cell phone, remote, pen, gloss (for all the glamorous ones ;) in place. We know about the little stickers you could put on your cell phone in order to be able to put them anywhere (especially on your car's dash) without having it slip at every turn.

This anti-slip pad is pretty impressive and offers a great imprint area. The great thing about this product is that its simplicity and usefulness assure you that it will be used and will be in great display offering you the visibility you need. A great giveaway for trade shows.

Yet another innovation: we're on Twitter

We already told you that we are fan's of Web 2.0 initiatives.

Just by creating this blog we wanted to use all the possibilities offered by the internet to be able to communicate our most creative ideas in ways that a simple website didn't allow us to do.
While we are working on a new design for our website (because we are really aware of the fact that it does need to be updated to match our real personality) we find that the blog at least gives a better idea of who we are and why we like this industry. The goal of this blog being to let you know that:
- The promotional industry isn't only about pens, caps and t-shirts
- We have the tools and the creativity to help you develop complete your marketing strategy by using well thought of promotional products that are different and make a great impact. And that is what really makes a difference.
So to continue being available to all your questions and requests as well as being connected with other great players of the industry, we have created a Twitter Page.

What is Twitter? Twitter is a free service that lets you keep in touch with people through the exchange of quick, frequent answers to one simple question: What are you doing?
I would add that with Twitter we also answer the following questions:
What are you working on?
What did you read, find interesting and want to share?
What did you write, and want to share?
What are you looking for? (cause we'd love to help)

Are we the first ones in our industry to do this? No we're not. But we're still in the bunch of early adopters and innovators in our industry and if you're on this blog or if you're one of our clients, well, you already knew it :)

For more information, please check our Twitter page here and if you're already on Twitter, please follow us :)

From promo to the masses

We have discussed a few months ago a product that was a favorite of Cynthia's after her inspiring week in Las Vegas for the PPAI Convention.

It is a pocket tootbrush that ressembles the ones we can usually get on a plane or offered by a dentist but that has the added advantage of having toothpaste integrated in the brush. Yes, the toothpaste comes directly out of the brush by pressing the handle. It seems like nothing, but it really is super convenient. So convenient that there is a internationally known brand that has created a product that does the same thing (help people have a clean mouth and fresh breath throughout the day) with the addition of not needing any water.

When I saw the advertisment for this product on TV, I immediately thought of The Emergency Brush we mentionned here in the blog. The Colgate version is called the Wisp and you can check it out here www.colgatewisp.com.

The Wisp might be customizable...we're investigating it! Stay tuned and let us know if you did use it. I will try it and give you a review soon.

The internet is a great place

While doing some research on new exciting ideas I stumbled on this book, available for preview on its digital version.

Sometimes, when, like me right now, you lack new ideas to talk about, going back to the basics of what you need to make it happen is always good.
Here this book, The Power of Promotional Products tells us about "how to include Promotionally printed gifts and business products as part of a marketing strategy that motivates prospects, rewards performance, and created targeted promotions with residual value."
I haven't read it yet, so I do not know how great (or not) it is, but I would love for all of you who have an opinion about it after reading it to share it with us and start a conversation.
To all of you who are a part of the Promotional Products industry (as manufacturers, suppliers, distributors or even end users), I have been a part of a great debate about the future of the structure of this industry during the PPPC convention in January 09 and have further realized that the challenges faced by it make it even more interesting because it pushes its member (and especially the distributors like CC Promo) to be even more creative. But...like I said...it is sometimes very important to go back and reflect on the purpose and basis of using communicating with objects.

Here's the link!

The Butt Station

Ok, I honestly never thought I would use the word "butt" on this blog. 

But, hey, we always say this industry is full of surprises right?

We stumbled on this little desktop gadget that we loved and, looking at the picture, you must understand why it is called a "butt station" so I do not need to go over that :)

Why did we love it? It is a cute gadget but most of all it is very useful. It holds all the things anyone could be looking for and need on an office desk. It is a tape dispenser, a pen and memo pad holder and the magnetic "derrière" holds the paper clips inside the bowl. Brilliant. And comes in orange, blue and green. This product is for the ones who have enough humour to put their logo on a toilet bowl, but it is, indeed, very cute.

Magic Cubes and Banner Pen reloaded

We have talked about the Magic Cubes and the Banner Pen in the past. They were actually some of the first products we talked about.
These concepts keep amazing us and there are some great new videos showcasing these products.
You will find below a couple of examples of how great these products are. The first one is a Magic Cube that actually comes out to be a USB drive. And the second one is a quick showcase of the Banner Pen. Please comment and tell us what you think if you have ever used one of these...or if you would like to!

0% Fat, 0% Sugar, but made of 100% Cotton

Although you unfortunately cannot savor these with a coffee after lunch they are definitely better for your blood sugar and for your preparation for the swimsuit season...These little towels are indeed very cute and make for a very interesting and original gift. They are small 100% cotton towels presented in the forms of various cakes and pastries and come in flashy colours that make you want to go to the closest cake shop. They come with an imprinted label and great packaging.

The world's smallest camcorder

Ok we are big fans of Oprah (and we're not afraid to say it). Usually when Oprah is a big fan of something it means that 1. It has to be interesting (because she is presented with millions of things all the time) 2. It will be a hit and everyone will want to have it (because she said so...)

There is this new camcorder, the Flip Mino-D and Mini-HD and they are called Mini for a reason: they are extremely small. Although cameras and camcorders have kept getting smaller over the years, the creators of this one have really outdone themselves. It is as small as a Blackberry, weighing in at only 3.3 oz, has a touch sensitive control pad, a 1.5 inch screen, and a rechargeable internal battery (gives up to 4 hrs between uses). Other than its size, what gives it a great appeal is the fact that it makes video extremely easy to share: with a USB connector to the top of the unit, the only thing needed is to connect it to your computer and the videos are available in formats you can share directly on YouTube or modify on iMovies if you own a Mac.
The promotional industry being always in tune with the latest innovations it is possible for us to offer a customized Flip with the design of your choice, a logo, a message for a corporate incentives program or rewards for your preferred customers.

Corporate collaborations

Springwise.com is a web site that sails through the world searching for great business ideas. I visit it a lot and this idea where a company offers a very useful but very generic product free thanks to advertising by very well known companies rang a bell and made me think of the promotional products industry right away.

Many companies have started offering what our friends at Springwise call "Free Love": free products with their logo imprinted on. I guess it is a "win win" situation where the customer gets a free product and the company gets to imprint their logo in your subconscious.

Here is what Springwise had to say about FreePaperCups; a company that specializes exactly in this field: "specifically, operating through an exclusive national network of office coffee service providers, FreePaperCups works with advertisers to provide the cups to companies for free in exchange for branding them with sponsors' messages. The result? Advertisers get their brands in front of consumers and business decision makers in offices, conference rooms, break rooms and corporate dining facilities across the nation; companies get to eliminate the expense of buying the cups themselves; and participating coffee services get to offer more competitive pricing."

Indeed a great idea that could be implemented in Canada... If you're aware of a company that already does it let us know! Leave a comment :)

This is what I call Smart

In our industry we work with many suppliers that update us on the latest innovations by sending us newsletters and email offers. Sometimes we are wow'ed and this is one of the case where I have been definitely impressed.

The card you see in this picture is a smart card (a smart card, chip card, or integrated circuit card (ICC), is in any pocket-sized card with embedded integrated circuits which can process data. This implies that it can receive input which is processed — by way of the ICC applications — and delivered as an output. **Source: Wikipedia). Not only does it have a 1 inch digital screen that can display pictures or any message, it also offers 1GB of available memory. While giving a USB drive is always a great idea, this card allows you not only to share information, offer memory, and associate your brand with technology and innovation but your brand is visible by imprinting your logo and having, for instance, a slideshow of your preferred products available right on the card. Shaped like a business card and only 2mm thin it is a great idea for spreading a message with style.

Food for thought

We have talked of a couple of ways food can be used in an interesting way to promote your brand.

After the apple and the nuts we have a couple of other ideas that we find pretty good!
First. The toaster. Cynthia is crazy about it and I do think that it is a good idea as well. For all the events and businesses where breakfast is served this toaster can help you make a great impression. Other that doing the obvious (toasting ol) it will display on the warm and perfectly toasted slice of bread your logo. It is indeed a pretty cool item.

Next on the menu we have cupcakes. We have a couple of great cupcake places in Montreal and now it is even possible to have cupcakes custom made for an event with the glaze shaped as your logo. I know that it is the little details that make the greatest events and this can actually have all your guests think of you as the ultimate event host. See this picture: Little Burgundy offered custom cupcakes to their guests at the latest opening of one of their stores. Not only to they look delicious, they show the attending guests that the event was thoroughly thought out.