Further developing research from the PPAI in the USA has shed new light on the cost effectiveness of promotional marketing and in particular has highlighted the advantages of pursuing brand awareness with one of the classic items - promotional mugs. We are all aware that mugs are a standout item which become a useful and cherished part of the daily lives of many recipients and that the advantage so adding your logo to a classic coffee mug and handing it out to clients and business contacts goes far beyond the initial flurry of excitement and delight which comes with the gifting of these beverage essentials. Everyone loves to receive a gift and in particular people get excited about something which has genuine practical value. It could be this which makes promotional mugs more effective than some forms of general media advertising or it could be the highly visible nature of coffee mugs and the fact that people use them in social situations.

PPAI research on the effectiveness of promotional mugs in advertising suggest that 57% of people are able to recall the name and contact details of an advertiser who uses a coffee mug to promote their brand. The same research report confirmed than only 32 percent of people were able to recall the name of a radio advertiser and an even smaller figure of 28% were able to do so with TV advertising. These are remarkable figures and even more remarkable when one takes into consideration the relative longevity of each message. One of the main problems facing marketers who invest heavily in mainstream media is the short-term effectiveness of their advertising spend. Once a campaign runs on TV or radio, or a series of print ads appear in a magazine or newspaper the effectiveness of the campaign tapers off very quickly. You may advertise for two weeks and spend hundreds of thousands of dollars and within a week of the advertising campaign finishing the phones will stop ringing and it will seem that there is no long-term effectiveness. Offering your clients a coffee mug, on the other hands, ensures that you could get repayment for your investment at any time in the future. The mug will remain behind for years to become a permanent reminder of the products or services your company offers along with a simple means by which your contact details can be recovered and used.

Next time your company is considering how it should split up the budget available for promotion and marketing of your brand and product range it pays to ensure that items which will continue to sell long after their initial distribution are part of your activity mix. While an advertisement in the mainstream media is an oft proven way to get the phones ringing and stock moving out the door the problem always remains of whether the cost of the marketing campaign will exceed any margin which is generated by the movement of stock. In all the years marketers have taken advantage of the effectiveness of promotional products most have come top realise that as a long-term investment which both highlights brand values and enhances client relationships there are few better marketing investments available.