If you are a small business like us, chances are you are always looking for ways to increase sales and brand exposure. Can you spare half a cent ($0.005)? This is the cost-per-impression of a promotional product in the U.S. compared to the higher expense of channels such as TV, national magazines and radio.

A study conducted in July and August of 2010 (Global Advertising Specialties Impressions Study) focused on cost analysis of promotional products vs. other media. The results showed that for a modest investment, small companies can obtain the type of exposure normally reserved for large companies with significant advertising budgets.

Jeff Scult, CEO of Golden Goods reminds us, “The beauty of promotional products is that it’s active branding vs. passive branding. You’re actually interacting with the brand as opposed to reading a magazine or watching TV.”

Some interesting facts according to the study:

• 60% of people who receive promo products do better with the advertiser after
• 41 % of people have a more favorable opinion of the advertiser after receiving a promo product from them
• 83% of the people indicated they can identify the advertiser on a promotional item they own
• Women prefer writing instruments more than men do, while men favor shirts
• People ages 45-54 own the most promo products

The bottom line is, nobody likes to throw away a tangible product; 62% of Americans say they give products they won’t use to someone else….this “pass-along rate” allows your promotional products to continue to maintain their value (and YOUR message!) long after the initial give-away.

For ways to increase your company’s ROI through the use of Promotional Products, contact Quintain Marketing today!

The Advertising Specialty Institute today released a landmark study that proves advertising specialties beat out prime-time TV, radio and print advertising as the most cost-effective advertising medium available. The most significant findings of the 2010 Global Advertising Specialties Impressions Study show advertising specialties are less expensive per impression than most other media* and are very affordable and effective when compared to other forms of media.

Among key findings, results show:

• Cost per Impression: In the U.S., the cost per impression of a promotional product stayed virtually the same from 2008 to 2010, at .005 cents.
• Product Usage: Bags have the highest number of impressions in a month, over 1,000, and over one-third (36%) of those with incomes under $50,000 own bags.
• Gender Preferences: Males are more likely than females to own shirts and caps, while females are more likely to have bags, writing instruments, calendars and health and safety products.
• Ethnic Preferences: African Americans have more promotional products on average (11.3) than any other group.
• Positive Reinforcement: Seventy-five percent of independent voters prefer consumer-branded products; nearly 1.5 times more than Democrats or Republicans.
• Identifying the Advertiser: Eighty-three percent in the U.S. say they can identify the advertiser on a promotional item they own.
• Influencing User Opinions: Forty-one percent of U.S. respondents say their opinion of the advertiser is more favorable after receiving a promotional product.
• Global Reach: Nearly two-thirds (63%) of respondents from Great Britain have received and kept a pen in the last 12 months. In the U.S., writing instruments are used the most often, an average of 18.2 times per month.
• Popular Products: The most commonly owned promotional products among U.S. respondents are writing instruments (46%), followed by shirts (38%) and calendars (24%).
  Promo Product Capital: Los Angeles has the highest average number of items owned, at 12.7.

For a downloadable pdf of the study, a video and graphics, click here.

At $0.005, the average cost-per-impression (CPI) of an advertising specialty item is less than nearly any other media. According to data obtained by ASI, the CPI for a national magazine ad is $0.045; for a newspaper ad, $0.029; for a prime-time TV ad, $0.018; for a cable prime-time TV ad, $0.005; for a syndicated daytime TV ad, $0.005; and for a spot radio ad, $0.058.

These statistics show marketers get a more favorable return on investment from advertising specialties than almost any other popular media, with a very low cost per impression, high recall among those who receive ad specialty items, and increased intent among recipients to make purchases from the advertiser.

One of the main reasons that promotional products should represent a significant proportion of any company’s marketing mix is that time and time again, they have proven to outperform traditional media (TV, radio, print and outdoor billboard ads) in terms of return on investment (ROI). Companies are beginning to recognize this and direct their spending accordingly. According to TNS Media, traditional ad spending fell by 2% in the third quarter of 2008, whereas sales of promotional products have been increasing year on year by approximately 3.5% (according to PPB magazine).

There are a number of reasons that promotional products sales are growing:

• They are cost effective: In an earlier blog post, we talked about how the average cost-per-impression (CPI) of an advertising specialty item is $0.004, whereas the CPI of other media forms ranges from $0.005 for spot radio ads to $0.033 for a national magazine ad.
• They are tangible: At a time when marketing budgets are shrinking, promotional products are highly visible and let the buyer see and touch what they are getting for their money.
• They make a strong impression: In another blog post, we discussed how promotional products are the only form of advertising that can appeal to all five senses. This multi-sensory appeal has a powerful impact on the emotions of the recipient.

Perhaps most importantly, promotional products can be used in a way that enables companies to accurately track their ROI – something that can be difficult if not impossible to do with traditional media.

Before you can track your ROI, you’ve got to define what you mean by “return on investment.” To us, it is quite simply the total profit or savings less the original investment. To measure ROI, you therefore must determine what the objective(s) of the campaign are and how achievement of those objectives will be met. How you do this will depend upon the type of campaign you are undertaking. Some examples:

• If the objective is to increase traffic at a tradeshow booth by sending out a pre-show mailer containing a promotional product, ROI would be measured by the number of leads or booth visits that the mailer generates, and the resulting sales to those new contacts.
• When the direct mail campaign is aimed at reaching out to prospective clients, you can use tools such as PURL campaigns (personal URLs or microsites that are used to capture direct-mail campaign responses) to quantify the outcome.
• For a company looking to increase sales, incentive programs can be used to reward salespeople who outperform their objectives and ROI can be measured by dividing the increase in profits by the cost of the incentives.
• Promotional products can also be used for recruitment and employee retention programs. In those cases, to measure ROI a company must first understand what it costs them to recruit new employees (either through payments to staffing consultants or advertising costs) and to retrain new employees (to replace those who have left). With this information in hand, it then becomes easy to understand ROI if the cost of the promotional items is less than the alternative amount that the company would have spent.

These are just some of the ways that ROI can be tracked.

Here at Quintain Marketing, we place strong emphasis on tracking ROI and we’ve seen great results from doing so. If you check out the Success Stories on our website, you’ll see lots of case studies such as the one about our work with City Dock Coffee, where we were able to achieve an ROI of 20 to 1 through a dimensional mail campaign that incorporated a branded fishing lure!

What does all this mean for you as a consumer of promotional services and products? You need to ask your promotional consultant how they will work with you to set goals for your campaign, measure whether those goals have been acheived, and track ROI in a way that is concrete and measurable.

With the economy seeming to go from bad to worse, I know many of our customers are looking to optimize their advertising and promotion budgets. The Advertising Specialty Institute (ASI) recently came out with new research that addresses just this point. Their study found that among businesspeople over age 21, advertising specialties beat out all forms of TV, radio and print advertising as the most cost-effective advertising medium available.

The average cost-per-impression (CPI) of an advertising specialty item is $0.004, making it less expensive (per impression) than nearly any other form of media. For example, according to Nielsen Media data (the folks behind the Nielson TV ratings system), the CPI of a national magazine ad is $0.033; a newspaper ad is $0.0129; a prime time TV ad is $0.019; a cable TV ad is $0.007; a syndicated TV ad is $0.006; and a spot radio ad is $0.005.

Among key findings, results indicate that:

• 84% of people remember the advertiser of a product they receive;
• 42% have a more favorable impression of an advertiser after receiving an advertising specialty;
• 24% indicate that they are more likely to do business with the advertiser of a product they receive; and
• 62% of respondents have done business with the advertiser on a product after receiving it.

Writing instruments are the most commonly-owned advertising specialty, followed by shirts, caps and bags. In most cases where people kept the items they received, it was because they were useful to them in their day-to-day lives, and nearly three-quarters of respondents had their items for about seven months.

At a time when every dollar counts, this research demonstrates that you can get more bang for your buck by making smart choices about the marketing mix you employ on your projects. Call us today to discuss how to incorporate advertising specialties as a significant part of your promotional strategies and programs.