Commonly known as the number-one vehicle for carrying an advertising message, promotional products actually offer more of a response mechanism than other standard media. Not all companies track their results, but some do.
- Using imprinted products such as gloves, caps, keytags, etc., as a way of promoting its “Call Before You Dig” seminars on maintaining safe working practices in cable line areas, AT&T generated a 95-percent success rate in scheduling seminars, which, within a year, translated into a 100-percent decrease in underground cable cuts.
- As a way of improving response to its customer-satisfaction surveys, a manufacturer/servicer of electronic document-processing solutions included a piece of foreign currency and a customized description with them. It generated a 43-percent response.
- A Nabisco co-op promotion offering imprinted NFL merchandise with proofs-of-purchase garnered increased market share of 1.5 points and a $200 million increase in sales volume for the advertised brands.
- The Kirby Company used promotional materials to assist its dealer system in illustrating the benefits of a new home-care system. Those who used the materials achieved a 50-percent higher closing rate than those who didn’t.
- For the grand opening of a new branch, Commonwealth Federal Savings Bank used a wide selection of promotional products as gifts to walk-ins and as incentives for opening new accounts or making deposits to existing accounts. Deposit amounts exceeded the bank’s original goal by a staggering 225 percent, and new accounts beat the goal by an equally impressive 209 percent.
- Utilizing an incentive of two school-locker magnets, each featuring images of four top rock music artists, Warner Bros. Music, in a co-op with HMV Canada, a chain of record stores, achieved sales of 50,000 CDs or tapes of those artists in a one-month period.
- At a Chick-fil-A fast-food restaurant, $181 worth of ad specialties led to a $1,249 increase in sales.
- A desktop telephone message holder helped a Waco, Texas florist post an 11 percent jump in “goodwill standing.”
