Were you one of the lucky 4,700 professional attended this years PSI show in Gay Paris? (I wasn’t.)

A PSI spokesperson said: “The high caliber of visitors was remarked upon by most of the exhibitors. The selective policy of the PSI Paris trade show was first decided on several years ago, and now guarantees that the event is a success.”

There were 187 exhibitors at the show, with more than 370 brands represented. Also announce at the show were the PSI Awards, honoring the most innovative products in the fields of “creation, trend, design, leisure and gastronomy, office and sustainable development.”

The show was a great opportunity for companies involved in the promotional products industry to unite, exchange ideas and boost their business. If you missed out, then there’s always next year. Exhibitors and delegates will be back in Paris early in 2010, as PSI has changed the dates for next year’s show to February 2-4. Hopefully I might even get to make an appearance, keeping an eye out for the latest and greatest promotional products.

Browsing over the ever informative marketingmagazine.co.uk, I now know that branded-goods manufacturers spend £25.6 billion annually on sales promotion activity within retailers, according to the Institute of Sales Promotion.

It’s not just promotional products that businesses use to increase sales. Over 50% percent of that total, £14.4 billion, was spent on retailer promotions such as BOGOFs n the 2007/8 financial year. That compares with £18.6 billion spent on above-the-line ad spend in 2008. The research is the first project overseen by retail industry researcher Colin Harper, who was recently named as the ISP’s first head of insight.

‘People only tend to notice the obvious marketing spend, on above-the-line advertising or obvious Point of Sale (POS) activity, for example. But sales promotion is a bit like an iceberg — there is far more going on below the surface than immediately meets the eye,’ Harper said.

Kellogg’s is getting sick n’ tired of other people making cornflakes, and want to make double sure that people don’t think that there cornflakes are going into other peoples boxes.

So when you’re munching on your Waitrose own brand corn flakes, don’t be fooled into thinking your getting Kellogg’s cornflakes. If you do a big green chicken will come round, and put you straight.

 In a bid to protect their brand against imitation products, Kellogg’s are to literally brand some of their flaked corn. The cereal main men plan to burn the Kellogg’s signature on to individual flakes using a laser, and will then insert a proportion of these branded flakes into each box.

If the system proves a hit, it could be used on Kellogg’s other cereal products, including Frosties, Special K and Crunchy Nut. Helen Lyons, lead food technologist at the company, said: ”In recent years there has been an increase in the number of own brands trying to capitalize on the popularity of Kellogg’s Corn Flakes.

I think she is being slightly pretentious, I don’t see why people would automatically presume this in the first place. Anyway she said; ”We want shoppers to be under absolutely no illusion that Kellogg’s does not make cereal for anyone else. We’re constantly looking at new ways to reaffirm this and giving our golden flakes of corn an official stamp of approval could be the answer.”

Is this nonsensical marketing stunt, or an off the wall attempt by one of the world’s biggest food producers to stop people buying corn fakes. The British PR office for Kellogg’s claimed on their Twitter today that it has succeeded in etching its brand into individual corn flakes so they stand out against any copies.

If you think some promotional cereal is the answer to your business’s marketing needs, then  sweets2order can supply you with some branded cereal bars.

A custom printed promotional cereal bar, makes for an unusual promotional item but one that is perfect if you want your brand to be associated with a healthy lifestyle. Sweets2order won’t go as far as to brand individual cereal flakes, but they will do a good job of printing the packaging. They have a great range of branded cereal bars, so get in contact with their friendly team for more information.

When the Tories win the next election, millions of middle-aged workers will be forced to wait an extra year before collecting their state pension. It is certainly a bold move, which risks alienating voters currently in their 50s. Surely it is simply a matter of necessity? Something must be done to aid the countries failing finances, and that a planned rise in the pension age from 65 to 66 must be brought forward by up to a decade.

Great Britain currently runs on an eye watering deficit, while these plans will apparantly help to reduce this by £13 billion a year. Under current Government plans, the pension age is set to rise from 65 to 66 in 2026. The women’s pension age will start rising next year from 60 until they are gradually aligned with men’s.

With this in mind it might be a good time to start handing out branded piggy banks from Gift Selection. A branded piggy bank is just the sort of promotional product that this country seems to need. Admittedly probably not as handy as branded ISA, a branded piggy bank is not without its uses.

It doesn’t matter if you’re looking for a; branded ceramic piggy bank, branded metal piggy bank or a branded plastic piggy bank – there is a promotional money saver to suit you. A promotional money saver is a novelty item, but still has a practical element to it. With their quirky appeal and great branded potential, they might just save your bacon.

Posh supermarket giant Waitrose has decided to pull the plug, on its UK TV Ads with Fox News (On Sky) after controversial comments from one of the channels leading commentators – Glenn Beck.

It was back in July, that Beck described President Obama as racist. His comments are laughable as he said the president’s reaction to the arrest of a black academic Henry Louis Gates in Cambridge, Massachusetts proved him to be “a guy who has a deep-seated hatred for white people or the white culture. I don’t know what it is…”. Not exactly ‘proof’ surely, and when was he ever charged anyway?

A Waitrose spokesman said in a statement: “We take the placement of our ads in individual programmes very seriously, ensuring the content of these programmes is deemed appropriate for a brand with our values. His comments didn’t go unnoticed in America either as Wal-Mart, Best Buy and Travelocity were three of several U.S companies to withdraw their advertising from Glenn Beck’s show because, the Guardian says, they feared becoming “tainted by association”.

This just goes to show how fragile the global world of PR and advertising has become, but a bit odd that this backlash has taken so long to come into effect.

Personalised pens are the most common corporate gift, within the promotional product industry. What would you do if you received an ugly branded pen? Well your not likely to use it are you. What’s more, you may even be left with a negative image of the brand rather then a positive one.

Generally people want a low cost branded pen that can be given out in bulk at trade shows and exhibitions or sent out in the mail. One great value branded pen, that won’t let you down in the style stakes is the printed Newport Pen from pens2order.com

A printed Newport Ballpen is built for comfort, without compromising on style. With its sleek modern finish, and curves in all the right places, this promotional pen offers exceptional quality for such a low cost.

If you’re in the market for a printed promotional ball pen, why not send over your artwork over to their friendly team – and they will create a visual for you free of charge. Different artworks suit different styles of promotional pens, so it’s always worth looking at a few different options.

For the first time ever, the internet is raking in more add revenue then any other medium, overtaking its traditional big brother – television. Marketing professionals shouldn’t get too excited however, as the UK spent £1.5bn less in the first half of 2009, compared to the same period last year.

Online advertising such as; paid for search, display and classifieds grew by 4.6%, within a market that fell by 16.6% to £7.5bn. Guy Phillipson, chief executive of the IAB, said: “Internet advertising has beaten all expectations to achieve growth in the most challenging market conditions.” To put it another way online advertising now has a 23.5% market share compared to TV’s 21.9%, with Google being the unsurprising top dog.The recession had accelerated the migration of advertising spending to digital technology - from more traditional media such as print, radio and television advertising to online, according to the report.

With relatively easy to use software like Adobe’s Flash, internet ads can be just as dynamic as traditional TV ads, and they can provide more information in a smaller space – keeping costs down. Interestingly the UK remains the world leader in terms of market share for online, while the results signal a significant restructure of marketing budgets as advertisers follow their audiences online.