Top Promotional Products Of The Past

By Author: Jeff Hales
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A great promotional product never really dies. There are some original promotional product ideas that are still being effectively used in promotions today. Many are corporate in nature. As the market for promotional products grew and developed, new ideas were added. Let's have a look at a few leaders in the field of promotional products and what has made them so effective.

What Makes These Promotional Products so Great?
The fact that many similar promotional products are still being used today shows how effective these products really are in terms of being promotional items. Characteristically, top promotional products are those that are either useful or interesting to the person receiving them. They are branded with either a company logo or promotional slogan. Typically, it is something that people will like enough to keep and use. Here are a few examples:

Hitting the Mark With Branded Pens
Possibly some of first types of promotional items were pens that came in a metal casing and could be engraved. The engraving was usually of the company logo or a person's name, and sometimes both. The idea was ...
... that the person would have a personalized pen to use in the office or at home and every time they used the pen and saw the branding they would think of the company that gave it to them. The pens used would be stylish and often would be paired with a clutch pencil that looked the same. As the concept of using pens as promotional products grew, all styles, colors and shapes were created. Pens then became one of the most popular types of promotional products, used not only as gifts for managers and important clients but also at trade shows and for a wide range of promotions. Always useful and needed, pens have led the way in terms of promotional products for years.

Stress Balls Lighten the Office Mood
One of the first gimmicky types of promotional products to be used, stress balls were originally round-shaped; they were made from plastic balloon-type material and filled with grains or flour. The balls could be squashed and molded by manipulating them with your hands. The concept was that when you became stressed at work, instead of shouting at your work colleagues or banging your fist on your desk, you could take your frustration out on the little moldable rubber ball. It may sound overly simple but stress balls have remained one of the most popular promotional products. They have evolved into different shapes and most are now made from a more durable foam-like type of rubber that retains its original shape better. They also come in a broad variety of colors.

Golfing Items for Business Executives
Golf has long been the game of corporate executives. Golf days are also one of the oldest types of corporate promotional activities. It makes sense that when promotional products started developing, there was a natural inclination to look at golfing gadgets as promotional products. Golf tees, markers, towels, divot repair tools, and wood covers were all items that could be branded with a company logo or the client's name. Especially popular were stylishly presented gift box sets that contained several golf items. These could be given to clients as gifts at the end of the year or on special occasions. Golf shirts were possibly one of the first types of clothing promotional products. As stylish collared t-shirts, they were perfectly suited to the corporate market who wanted to wear something more comfortable yet still a little formal.

A Wide Range of Promotional Office Stationary
Aside from pens and pencils, many other office stationary items came out tops with regards to being promotional products. Branded notepad holders or blocks of notepads provided useful items that have a large amount of space for corporate branding. These items were popular with office workers. Stationary holders were also branded and used very effectively as promotional products. Often they were paired with other promotional items such as pens or note blocks. Giant paper clips, paper weights or message holders were other promotional products that could be adapted to either be stylish or gimmicky.

Anagrammed folios, business card holders or travel wallets proved to be fantastic promotional products for important clients, upper management and directors. For the type of people who are constantly in meetings, a folio is a useful item to have and often used with regularity. Branded desk calendars are other items that work exceptionally well as promotional products. Small foldable annual calendars can double as stationary holders and larger monthly wall calendars with nice landscape or wildlife pictures can be used as planners.
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