How’s your branding or marketing going? Worried that your controversial idea will get pulled by the odd do-gooder? Well it still might, but just because some people complain about an advert doesn’t mean it will be taken from our screens.

A controversial ad for Marie Stopes International, the health advisory organisation that offers abortion advice, among other services, has escaped a ban from the Advertising Standards Authority despite receiving 1,054 complaints.

The ad, which debuted on Channel 4 in May, also received a further 3,296 complaints in the form of postcards sent in following a petition organised by the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC), and another petition with 63 signatures.

In addition there were 327 pre-transmission complaints. Some viewers objected that the TV ad carried a political message and believed the advertisers actively campaigned to change the law on abortion. The ASA referred those complaints to Ofcom according to procedure set out in the Cap (Broadcast) TV Advertising Standards Code rule 4 (Political and controversial issues).

Viewers objected that the ad was offensive for various reasons including: their belief that it promoted abortion; that it offended their religious beliefs; that it trivialised the difficult decision faced by women experiencing an unwanted pregnancy; and that the ad could be misconstrued – that the life of an unborn child was being equated to decisions about consumer goods.

The Institute of Sales Promotion has now officially been re-launched at the Institute of Promotional Marketing, with the organisation’s new corporate identity being unveiled at the last ever ISP Awards at the end of May and was designed by integration agency Forth Generation.

Clive Mishon, the Institute’s chairman, says that the new name “far better reflects the breadth of promotional marketing activity now being created - it is more than just about sales, though that is important too”.

Mishon stresses that the decision to change the name was not entered into lightly; “We spent months talking to our members and the industry at large. They told us that promotions now span all industries and all media channels, and that the term ‘promotional marketing’ better represents the broader role that promotional content plays in the strategic development and deployment of the behaviour-changing communications across the marketing communications industry”.

Martin Croft, editor of the magazine said; “our industry is no longer about traditional sales promotion on its own. Today, it is just one of a range of techniques which marketers can deploy to achieve their objectives.”

                          I can’t believe they have nothing better to do, but FIFA is investigating whether their sponsorship rights have been breached by a brand of English ale.

Striker, made by Oxfordshire brewer Hook Norton, has been launched to coincide with the forthcoming football tournament. Promotional material claims it is ‘Brewed to celebrate the FIFA World Cup 2010. Supporting England’.

A spokesman for FIFA said that citing the World Cup would ‘clearly go against our regulations’. I think it’s pretty obvious that the beer has no links with FIFA, but there still not happy. I don’t know why Hook Norton even bothered mentioning the FIFA name, as it seems unnecessary to me.

To add to the poor breweries problems, Carlsberg aren’t happy either as they are the official beer of the England team and The Football Association, however they will not be taking action.

If you do have any questions about branding, contact the branding experts at Gift Selection.

The world and his wife are aligning themselves with the World Cup, with some clever branding from a wide variety of businesses. The latest company to jump on the brandwagon is Nestle’s Kit Kat, who are to sponsor all the Sky World Cup coverage as part of the UK’s largest dedicated mobile campaign to date.

I don’t think Kit Kats play a major role in the player’s diets, but this hasn’t stopped the  six-figure deal, brokered by Mindshare, will see Kit Kat sponsor Sky’s World Cup coverage across iPhone, iPod Touch, Smart-phones and all other WAP-enabled mobile devices.

Last week, it was revealed that Mars and The Football Association (FA) are considering legal action against Nestlé, which they believe has breached sponsorship rules in its latest ad for its Kit Kat brand. Unlike Nestle, Mars, landed a five-year partnership with The FA in October and is an official supplier to the England team.

A Nestlé spokesperson said: “During the World Cup, websites tend to become very noisy with a wide range of advertisers vying for consumer attention. This led us to divert our attention to mobile as an interesting new platform to engage audiences. And as the pre-eminent provider of sports and news content on mobile devices, Sky was a natural destination for us.”

If you’re looking to promote your business, with some patriotic promotional products to be used specifically during the World Cup, contact the experts over at Gift Selection. Gift Selection is a quality promotional product distributor who have a full range of corporate gifts, made specifically available for the World Cup 2010.

London 2012’s new mascots have been unveiled, and I’m wondering if I’m the only person who actually thought they were a joke. I mean, ‘Wenlock’ and ‘Mandeville,’ really?

This was the product of eighteen months of research and forty focus groups. From the top of my head I think a torch called ‘Flamey’ would have been a better idea. At least it would have been recognizable, had a catchy name and cost absolutely nothing to think of.

To be fair their unusual names do have meaning behind them as Wenlock in Shropshire is considered by many the birthplace of the modern Olympics. Baron Pierre de Coubertin, the founder of the IOC, visited the town in 1890 and took inspiration from the annual Games organised by Dr William Penny Brookes, a local doctor, to “promote the moral, physical and intellectual improvement of the inhabitants”.

Stoke Mandeville’s famous spinal injuries unit meanwhile was where the Paralympics movement began, and the naming of one mascot after the hospital is an explicit attempt to raise the profile of the Paralympics Games.

These mascots are all about making money however, with big businesses to be had from selling promotional merchandise. London 2012 say the key to meeting their commercial target has been developing a storyline that will lend Wenlock and Mandeville credibility in a pre-teen marketplace where they will be up against Dr Who and other established brands.

Lord Coe and the committee recruited former Children’s’ Laureate Michael Morpurgo, who came up with the concept of the mascots being fashioned from two drops of molten steel spilt in the making of the last steel girder used in the Olympic Stadium. Since when did children need a story line to be persuaded by something anyway? The Teletubies weren’t a success because of the interesting anthropological questions raised by their unusual gene pool. They were a success because they were fun and that’s it. 

Stephen Bayley, founder of the Design Museum, believes his daughter summed the mascots up perfectly when she referred to them as ‘rubbish earrings’. He said: ‘The logo was hideous enough but now we have these ridiculous, infantile mascots. Who is to blame for this I ask you? ‘Given the economic predicament that Britain is in at the minute, what right do they have to throw their money at such hideous creatures? They are atrocious.’

To be fair there has never been a decent Olympic games mascot. If you don’t agree, can you recall a single one? Waldi the multi-coloured Daschund anyone? I didn’t think so…

Recent research by Leapfrog shows that consumers will be pleased to know their favourite brands are home grown, and business should be keen to show off this fact.

Just over a quarter of people (26%) say they actively support British business because they want to keep money in the country. And 23% worry that if a brand is sold to a foreign company, it will lose its British identity. Understanding a product’s provenance is also a reason for 22% of people to buy British.

When people are out shopping, they like to see British brands on supermarket shelves, says research director Sarah Buckle. “There’s a nostalgia element to these associations – people have grown up with these brands,” she explains.

The research suggests Premier Foods-owned brands such as Hovis, Bisto and Oxo are synonymous with Britain. The UK-owned brands have been known to shoppers for several generations and the fact that they are still based in this country makes them favourites in a super competitive market. It seems we have a real connection with food, as it is food and drink brands that suffer most if they sell up to foreign owners. The survey states that 31% think it would negatively affect a food and drinks business if it was no longer a British company.

This distinction between British and foreign brands is a hazy one. Many brands that have overseas owners are believed to be British, for example 38% believe that Hamleys, which is part-owned by an Iceland bank, is wholly British owned. Buckle says that’s no surprise as the toy store is “synonymous with London”. Land Rover, which is owned by Indian company Tata Group, is also believed to be a British brand by 39% of respondents.

This is clear message that brands should try to remain as authentic as possible, with foreign-owned companies with UK heritage should not be hesitant to market their roots. Although many say they’re not happy Kraft’s takeover of Cadbury, if their British values and image maintain, consumers won’t even notice the change, let alone mind.

If you’re looking to use promotional products as part of your marketing campaign, then speak to Gift Selection about which promotional items are made in the UK. Most promotional items are imported from the Far East, and then personalised here in Britian, but there certain items which are completely made in the UK.

The popular St George promotional mug (see image), is one of the few branded mugs that is completely made and printed here in England. If you want to get your typically British message out on people’s desk, contact the friendly team over at The Mugstore who will be happy to talk mugs!

We love experimental marketing here, with my favourite of recent times being Pot Noodles travelling Kebab Shop. Lucozade, despite being at the other end of the health spectrum, is targeting students in a similar way, by travelling around fourteen universities across the UK, with students being eligible to take part in the promotion by buying a bottle of Lucozade Alert Plus.

The game, devised by RPM gives students the opportunity to have ‘One Shot’ to bounce a ping pong ball along a series of obstacles into a final target to win prizes of up to £250. GlaxoSmithKline unveiled Lucozade Alert Plus, its first energy shot in the UK, last autumn, backed by a £13m marketing investment over 15 months. Lucozade’s selling point is their products aid focus, concentration and give rise to peak mental performance.

Nadia Moussa, a brand manager at Lucozade, said: “The activity will encourage students to try the product in order to participate in the challenge and test out the benefits for themselves. I’m looking forward to seeing the long term impact on the sales figures for this product at the targeted universities.”

If you want to promote your businesses along these lines, you could invest in similarly related promotional products. Quality promotional product distributers like sweets2order can offer branded multi vitamin tablets, branded energy drinks, branded cereal bars – there are all kinds of promotional material available.

If you want to energize your brand with the health and well being based promotional products, contact the friendly team over at sweets2order today.

Internet leaders Google have implemented a feature dubbed ‘remarketing’, which enables advertisers to tailor online ads based on users’ web habits. The feature works by detecting when users visit a brand’s website, and then targeting them with ads for that brand on other sites they visit within Google’s Content Network. It seems like the first significant step, to the futuristic scenes in science fiction, with adverts talking directly to individuals.

Center Parcs (that isn’t a typo), are one well known brand who’ve adopted this strategy. For example, they give a visitor to their site a price for a holiday. If that person subsequently browses elsewhere, Center Parcs can run ads via the Google Content Network offering a discount on the original quoted price as an incentive to return to its site and book.

Someone else who like the idea is Paul Holden, chief marketing officer of Samsung, who said it was committed to using re­marketing after a trial campaign for its Behold II mobile handset. He added that the activity had reached more than 100,000 users when it ran on YouTube’s homepage.

Promotional products can be of one aspect of a marketing strategy for practical any organisation. If done well, they can be a great PR tool, which will raise the businesses profile to a great degree.

However your public’s perception of you can easily be blotted! Take the Conservative party for example, with their constant stream of PR stunts they hatch (watch David Cameron at home on Youtube – great), you’d think we’d all be voting blue this May.

More than a third of voters feel the Conservative Party’s reputation has been hit by recent stories about the tax s­tatus of deputy party chairman Lord Ashcroft. A PRWeek poll of 3,000 people found 51 per cent were aware of such stories. Some 37 per cent of people said the Ashcroft coverage had damaged the Tories’ reputation.

Quick, we’ll need more press released images of David Cameron in a polo shirt before we can forgive them for Lord Ashcroft’s antics!

Pop music is big business, but Blur’s manager recently issued a word of warning to musicians, against appearing in just any sort of promotion.

In particular Chris Morrison pointed out: “I think Duffy’s Coca-Cola ad was abysmal and I think Robbie Williams on T Mobile was terrible. I don’t think either of those two things did any favours to the artists’ careers or the way they’re perceived. I think you have to be very, very careful about how you associate with brands.

Brit Pop legends Blur themselves have allowed their tracks to be used in commercials, with their 1997 hit Song 2 earning more than 20 times as much money through use in ads, TV shows and film soundtracks than in actual record sales.

Musicians from all genres of the aural spectrum invest heavily in promotional products too. Manchester based DJ & producer Mr Scruff, well known for his love of tea, is one artist to created some promotional mugs from this quality corporate gift supplier.

You can buy all sorts of promotional merchandise direct from his site, including promotional tea cups, T shirts, USB sticks and badges to name just a few.