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.”

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.

Larger louts, not normally known for their eco friendly stance may be becoming more green then they first realised.

Over the Christmas period the upmarket beer Stella Artois hopes to save one million rainforest trees through a digital ‘Send a Card, Save a Tree’ campaign, which invites their fans everywhere to send a free, augmented reality cards. For every digital card sent, Stella Artois will saved a tree in the threatened Atlantic Rainforest in Argentina’s Misiones Province.

If you live in London you may have seen a sustainably-sourced Christmas tree in the ‘Winter Wonderland’ in London’s Hyde park, which details the progress of their campaign.  You may have taken your decorations down last weekend, but it isn’t too late to check out their site. The Agency Bright Spark Digital created the eCards, so keep an eye out for more innovative work from them.

Did you know that the first recorded history of Stella Artois is in 1366, when records of taxes exist on Leuven’s Den Horen Brewery, a brewery that is still in existence today? Anyway, if your business is looking for some innovative eco friendly promotional gifts, then keep an eye on ecoproducts2order who have a great range of printed promotional merchandise that Mother Nature would approve of.

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.

South African brand Savanna Cider is launching its biggest ever UK on-trade promotion, focused around the world of Facebook. The online competition invites drinkers to “Win your own Savanna party” for you and 99 of your closest friends. The quirky alcoholic drink, is marketed along the lines of; “its dry but you can drink it”.

Their Facebook app allows users to enter 100 friends for their preferred party list. This is then circulated virally to encourage more people to enter, with other links on sites like Bebo and Twitter.

The DJ hosted bash, worth £10k will be held at the Big Chill House on Saturday 19th September, in the big smoke. Not only will you get your very own party coordinator (how do you get that job), they’ll also chauffeur drive you and three of your favorite mates from the party.

This refreshing beverage is made from the finest Granny Smith Apples in South Africa and is imported into the UK by Babco. The owners of the drink Distel, are also having a promotion were drinkers collect codes on a lemon shaped neck tag and then input them at www.savannacider.co.uk. The Great Golden Giveaway has been extended for another month, so there are over 45 additional prizes to be won.

Now here’s some promotional products that really take the biscuit (sorry). United Biscuits UK is set to launch a £2m marketing campaign across; McVitie’s Digestives, Jaffa Cakes, HobNobs and Penguin themed around the search for the UK’s favourite biscuit.

Their new marketing campaign kicks off in August, and is inspired by the good old British public’s love of biscuits. Their novel plan is entitled ‘Bonkers about Biscuits’, it comprises an eight-week daily giveaway of £5,000 backed by a TV ad campaign and targeted radio.

The promotional packs will be available from 16 August for a limited period. To enter the daily prize draw to win a share of £5,000, consumers have to enter a bespoke code from the back of a promotional pack along with their favourite McVitie’s biscuit on www.bonkersaboutbiscuits.com to be in with a chance to win. The great thing about this fun promotion, is that they will keep track of the votes via a game show themed creative.

If you see on their bonkers about biscuits promotional mugs around, and you like the quality of them, then The Mugstore are the clever chaps supplying them. If you’re looking for promotional mugs to promote your brand like McVities have, then give the friendly team at Mugstore a ring.

Obviously they wouldn’t reproduce what they had made for McVities for your businesses, but having your organisations artwork on the same promotional mug would be no problem at all.

Hoola Hoops are launching a fun new competition, for any would be film directors with too much time on their hands.

Starting today, the popular crisp makers want you all to make a two minute film, with you larking about with Hoola Hoops on your fingers. If you’re interested in winning a family holiday to Hollywood, or just £50, then films can be uploaded via their micro-site.

Helen Warren-Piper, marketing director of bagged snacks at UBUK, says: “Hula Hoops is a well established brand with a loyal following. This new TV advertising campaign, along with the on-pack promotion will drive further consumer participation with the brand and will provide retailers with increased sales opportunities.”

Hoola Hoops are following in the footsteps of Barclaycard, who back in February launched a competition to recreate its waterslide ad via its own dedicated YouTube channel. It probably won’t be the most productive thing you’ll do all day, but have a go knocking some Hoola Hoops around here!