How about this for a good piece of branding? A Hollywood-style sign spelling out the name of an Essex town has been erected along the A127. Basildon District Council hopes the giant letters will promote the town as a place to do business.

The £400,000 project is being funded from a grant from Thames Gateway. The glitzy sign, modeled on the famous Hollywood sign, is part of a package of measures to signpost the district better and make it easier for visitors to find their way. People in the Essex area can now, presuming they actually want to go Basildon, can just look up and follow their noses.

What I love about British council’s, is that they know how to save money sensibly. Spend £400,000 a sign – absolutely no problem. Council leader Tony Ball said: “The sign will be good if it makes people think ‘ah, Basildon’ when they drive past, rather than just driving through, and in no time finding themselves at Rayleigh Weir.”

It isn’t all about ex London gangsters, and girls wearing white stilettos and not much else. According to Denise Van Outen (Basildon born and bread), the girls have “moved from that image and now the girls are all into the WAG look.”

Changed beyond all recognition then. If you work for a council, and are looking for some more affordable ways to promote yourself. Investing in some value for money promotional material from Promostore isn’t a bad idea.

Over at Gift Selection, they supply lots of branded clothing for a whole host of different types of organisations. Security professionals are one group of people, who use a lot of quality promotional clothing, all of which Gift Selection can offer.

Smartly corporate branded items such as polo shorts, long sleeve shirts, coats and hi-viz jackets are all good sellers, and are great for keeping a smart and professional appearance. Some of the well known promotional brands you can choose from include: Dickies, Result, Kustom Kit, RTY Workwear and Regatta.

Despite having such excellent corporate work-wear, being a security guard can be a tricky business, as Wendy Thompson knows, after she was assaulted with a cheese sandwich.

Lee Revis was being held for breaching bail over another offence, and wasn’t too happy when he was told he could not smoke in a court cell. Group 4 prison custody officer Wendy Thompson went to check on him at the court in Berwick-upon-Tweed, and he threw the sandwich in her face.

Lee Revis, from Wooler, Northumberland, admitted assaulting the guard and was charged with a fourteen day sentence. No doubt he was a little cheesed off.

Pin badges are a great low cost way for your business to have a completely bespoke promotional product. Pin badges are a neat way for your organisation to make little awards for your staff, or for bigger brands they can make excellent collectables.

Promotional pin badges are made from soft enamel in the recessed areas which can achieve a great vibrancy to your design. Alternatively you can leave the badge colour-free, for the traditional metal look. We can even supply an epoxy finished promotional badge, which is a posh way of saying a smooth domed area.

You’re only limited by your imagination, when it comes to the design of your next promotional pin badges, included in our costs, you can have practically any shape you want within a 25 x 25mm area. Of course if you want something bigger, we can still accommodate, just the let the friendly team at Gift Selection know exactly what you want.

Promotional badges are light hearted and fun, yet are a powerful and cost effect way to communicate your corporate identity and promote your business. Promotional badges such as these would be perfect for a charity or a social society in particular.

When buying promotional pens, many people want a name they can trust, but don’t want to spend a lot of money on the product. This is where Bic does a lot of business, with my favourite pen in their range being the promotional Media Clic. The beauty of the promotional Media Clic, is the personalisation options available to you. You can have this pen exactly how you would prefer it, as you can choose from twenty barrel colours to Mix N Match with, thirteen clip, grip and plug options. You also have the luxury of picking blue or black ink!

There is a more eco friendly version out as well, which is made from partially recycled plastic, again in various colour options. Not only that, these promotional Bic pens are available with a metal barrel if you have a little more budget, and a range of attractive finishes if you’re sticking with plastic.

Pens2order and Giftselection always have at least one Bic based promotion running at anyone time. It may be that if you order 1,000 pens they will give you 500 branded sticky notes absolutely free to match. You’ll have to keep your ear to the ground, and ask their friendly teams what deals they can do you at the moment!

Of course they can supply the full range of promotional Bic pens, including the popular Bic Grip Roller or the Bic Wide Body Ballpen for example – just let them know exactly what you want, or ask if you’re unsure.

The home of promotional mugs has revamped its website today – take a look at their shiny new site here.

So what’s new in the world of promotional mugs? The Mugstore is now pushing their promotional corporate gift sets more then they have been. These quality sets are great for businesses large and small, and will give a really sharp corporate feel to one’s organisation.

These corporate sets are made from porcelain, which is a material there really keen on over there. They have a new range of porcelain promotional items, which they’re hoping will be big within the hotel industry. These promotional porcelain items are especially ideal for chains of hotels, since they’re more hard wearing then regular earthenware. Their promotional mugs, saucers and bowls in this range even carry a ‘five year side chip’ guarantee!

If you fancy buying some smart cappuccino or latte promotional mugs, made from some lovely porcelain to have in your own office rather then low cost giveaways, let the friendly team know over at The Mugstore.

If your business is struggling, promoting it in a cost effective way is your best plan of action. Spreading your corporate identity and marketing your business in a tasteful way, will hopefully get your business back on its feet.

Rather than invest in promotional items, a business women decided to diversify, which looking back on it, probably wasn’t the best course of action. Sheri Uppal was an antique dealer whose business rapidly declined during the recession, so naturally she decided to turn her business into a brothel, which she ran from her family home in Torquay.

Police raided it after locals complained about men visiting at night, who weren’t presumable antique hunting. She admitting the offence, and got a nine month suspended sentence, and ordered to do 125 hours unpaid community service at Exeter Crown Court. Judge Graham Cottle told her: “Your financial circumstances were dire but it is quite a leap to keeping a brother.”

Flicking through the latest issue of ISP magazine, I came across news of news of their Spring Graduation. Nearly 50 graduates of three ISP educational courses, alongside representatives of the agencies or brands many of them work for, friends and family, gathered in the MPs Dining Room at The House of Commons last February.

The audience listened as Clive Mishon, chairman of the ISP, and John Greenway MP, the ISP’s representative in Parliament, explained the importance of the highest levels of professional education to the survival of the UK’s self regulatory system for advertising and marketing.

Chris Bestley, the ISP’s director of education, pointed out that the fact that a small but significant number of students who had started out on all three courses had actually failed was evidence of the hard work those who passed had put in. John Sylvester a director of motivation company PM&M and one of the main men in establishing the diploma, said the course was as challenging and as relevant today as it was when it fist ran in 2005.

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!

Corporate golf days haven’t exactly been booming in the last eighteen months with the economy being what it is, however a new line of eco friendly promotional golf items are waiting and ready, for when you get chance to dust off your irons.

Did you know that golf is more of charitable sport then you may first realise. In the U.S alone, golf generates $3.5 billion for charitable causes each year, with all professional golf tournaments in the U.S managed by charity based organisations.

A smart eco friendly promotional golf item is this little golf tee set (pictured). These 20 tees are made from corn plastic and are placed inside an organic cotton drawstring pouch. This promotional golf item carries a great branding area without looking tacky. Gift Selection is one of the few UK distributors who can supply, unusual eco friendly, promotional golf items like this, but that of course is not all they can offer.

Gift Selection can of course supply all the classic promotional golf items, from Callaway branded golf balls, to awards and trophies. If you’re looking for something more unusual items, then ask their friendly team of experts who will be happy to advise.

If you’re involved in the promotions industry, you may have come across the fascinating design insights that I’ve come across recently from Martin Lindstrom, author of ‘Buy•ology’.

Lindstrom, through a study of the human psyche, throws light on the subconscious mind and how that plays a major role in deciding what the buyer will buy. In doing so, Lindstrom breaks a number of existing myths related to advertising and promotion.

An interesting theory of his, is his idea of a “smashable” product. In 1915 the Coca-Cola company decided that it needed to do something about the design of its bottles, as they felt there straight-sided containers weren’t distinctive enough. The result was that the Root Glass Company of Terre Haute, Indiana, proposed the swirling, curved “contour” bottle, which remains, one of the most recognisable and loved brand icons.

Why did this happen do you think? In 1915 the designer of Coca-Cola’s bottle was given a simple yet brilliant brief: design the bottle systematically and so distinctive that, if smashed, a single piece of glass would be recognizable as, and signify the Coke brand. As Martin says himself; “The Coke bottle story is fascinating from a brand building perspective. In theory, all brands should be able to pass this test. So, working on this principle, if you removed the logo from your brand, would it still be recognizable?”

Remember if you would like any free branding advice, contact the friendly promotions team over at Gift Selection.