Living ‘Rent Free’ in the Client’s Office!

Football, hockey, basketball, auto racing, golf, tennis and every other spectator sport have one other thing in common aside from just being a spectator sport. They all generate huge revenue by selling signage all over their respective stadiums and playing fields. Advertisers pay to have their logo visible to fans and a wider audience when the broadcaster follows the action with the logos in the background. (Game day handouts (bobble heads, ball caps, etc. also provide great potential for large sales if you have access to sports organizations. That is the subject of a future article).                              

These ads were not TV commercials or long form Internet productions. They were the simplest form of marketing - brand recognition. 

Since 2019 I have conducted a very basic survey. I asked 117 business leaders to answer a one question survey. The question I asked was “ Do you have one or more advertising specialties/promotional products in your office?”. 117 times the answer was yes.

As refreshing as this was, almost all immediately told me what the specialty item was and where it came from. From pens from insurance salespeople to desk fans from building maintenance companies, all these business people experienced the effect of continual and unlimited ad impressions.

What costs tens of thousands of dollars to accomplish at a sports venue, a promotional product accomplishes “rent free” in the client’s office!

Helping your clients understand how to generate hundreds of ad impressions for pennies is really the only “selling” you need to do. Promotional products media is essentially taking expensive billboard, transit, stadium and other out of home advertising and shrinking it down to fit perfectly in a client’s office. Ad impressions go way up and costs go way down. 

While the focus here is how your client will benefit from promotional products media, you can certainly fuel growth of your business using the same strategy. 

The most benefit will be gained by focusing on the clients and prospects that most closely align with the objective being sought (new accounts, higher sales from current clients, more corporate identity apparel sales, etc.). Using the characteristics of the best current clients/customers as a  guide, their interests and businesses can lead to similar new clients. 

For example, if the client (automotive service supplies) wants their message to be effective to automotive dealers, items such as imprinted flashlights, microfibre wiping cloth or auto fragrance products are good choices. Looking at successful projects for current clients can help stimulate ideas for prospects. It is not necessary to start over for every project unless clients are direct competitors in the same marketplace.

10 years ago a distributor needed a concept that would get a taxi company’s name and phone number front and center at the individual nurses stations at several local hospitals. Dozens of times a day, nurses called for taxis for patients being discharged. Hospital rules did not allow anything on the walls so calendars were out. Pens and desk items "disappeared" quickly. Something that had ongoing value to the nurses had to be used. I suggested using a large apothecary jar filled with mints to be given to each station and that the taxi company would keep them full. 

Today, 10 years later, this program is still active. The taxi company occasionally replaces broken jars and their customer appreciation person is always welcome at the hospital.

The initial investment for this project has long ago been covered by increased business. The taxi company has lived 10 years rent free at these hospitals.