If your organisation invests in promotional products, then there will soon be more opportunity to use them as product placement will be allowed in UK TV programmes from 28 February 2011. Sponsorship rules have also been relaxed, and paid-for references on the radio can be integrated into programmes from today, according to regulator Ofcom. To pave the way for paid-for references for products and services, as revealed by Media Week earlier this month, Ofcom has published new rules about what can and can’t be shown. Branded goods will be prohibited in all children’s and news programmes and in...

Are you signing big contracts? Making big deals and concerned about possible fraudulent activities? Let me introduce you to fraud defence ink…   What is BIC Fraud Defence Ink?   It can be found in Bic promotional pens by special request, and is an ink that provides a durable defence against check or prescription fraud.   What is check or prescription washing?   Common household solvents can be used to literally “wash” away the writing ink that appears on checks and prescriptions. This enables others to rewrite checks or prescriptions, usually for fraudulent purposes.   BIC Fraud Defence Ink...

November sees the start of an exciting research exercise for the promotional merchandise industry. Around 1,000 pens will be distributed across the UK and Ireland, with each pen printed with a text number, email address, and unique code. Recipients will then be asked (via instructions on the pen) to text or email the location where they picked it up.   Overtime, it is hoped that a profile for each pen will be built showing how many hands they go through and how often, as well as how far they travel and how long they last. Industry association PROMOTA said “There is currently very little research on...

We love our favourite brands, and they love us, as we faithfully part with our hard earned cash for certain companies and their logos. But who was the first to recognize the importance of branding?    Bass & Company, the British brewery, claims their red triangle brand was the world’s first trademark. Lyle’s Golden Syrup makes a similar claim, having been named as Britain’s oldest brand, with its green and gold packaging having remained almost unchanged since 1885. Another example comes from Antiche Fornaci Giorgi in Italy, whose bricks are stamped or carved with the same...

USBs, data sticks, flash-drives, memory cards these are all popular names for the same thing, but many people don’t know much about them, despite being a very important product for all kinds of industries.   What is a flash memory?   In your promotional USB stick, you will find a flash memory chip, which is a component of almost every electronic device. This memory is super-portable, and importantly is constantly powered. This allows the user to program or erase data safely and quickly, without requiring outside power to maintain date stored on the chip.   Why is there often no prices on...

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...

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...

We sell promotional products to all different sectors of the economy, and to a wide range of business and organisations. Our main client base is made up of public sector organisations like schools, councils and the NHS. We also sell promotional material to lots of charities, and to large businesses via marketing agencies.   One sector we haven’t broken into is the space industry – yet! The government in conjunction with industry and academia, have said the UK space industry can become a much bigger global player, employing thousands of highly skilled workers and turning over approximately £40bn...

 Yesterday I touched on promotional products with the Fairtrade logo, but what exactly does this mean?   Fairtrade is all about ‘decent working conditions, local sustainability, and fair terms of trade for farmers and workers in the developing world.’ The fair trade market in the UK is growing, and has a estimated retail value of £493 million in 2007.   The Fairtrade Foundation is the UK member of Fairtrade Labelling Organisations International (FLO). It helps improve the position of producers in the great scheme of things, by assuring a fair price for their goods. How does it achieve this? By...

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...