Welcome to Fresh Promotions promotional products blog. Our plan is to make this site a one-stop-shop for promotional ideas and concepts as well a news source reporting on the great promotional products and ideas we hear about in our travels.

Fresh Promotions deal with a wide range of companies, Australia wide, from some of the largest like Ford, Fosters and NRMA through to mums and dads after 10 t-shirts for their staff or people who buy 100 engraved pens to give out at their daughter's wedding. This blog will include our impressions and opinions of the great, and not so great ideas we see cross our desks every day and the different ways companies approach promoting their brands and rewarding their clients and staff.

October 1st 2008

If you're back for more and still determined to estimate the length of time between posts, I can assure you that there have been no more date stamping shenanigans. Five days have passed and I now recall what I planned to reveal last time in Australia's most popular promotional products blog.

The latest gossip in the glamorous world of promotional products caper has just crossed my desk. Actually, it's been sitting on my desk for weeks, but it had fallen down behind the computer screen against the wall which is an elephant's graveyard for novelty items. Socially responsible organisations such as The Red Cross, Fresh Promotions, NASA, Fresh Promotions and No Other Promotional Product Companies feel a common responsibility to throw their considerable resources into the battle to save the planet. While Red Cross aims at bringing

The talk is all about "green" promotional products. First I thought we had sold the 30,000 pens which arrived here with green ink due to an unfortunate after lunch emailing transposition. However, it turns out that most of the major wholesalers in Australia have given up clear felling forests to produce sticky note pads and are now scavenging around the tip to recycle old coke bottles into plastic pens and "environmentally friendly" shopping bags. While the people of Australia had settled into the routine of saving the stick nest rat by buying a new "green" bag from Coles every time they do the shopping, low and behold it turns out that the solution now lies in paying several times the price for a bag made from shredded waste material which could otherwise have been hygienically buried, something for the archaeologists of the future to unearth, polish and place in a museum. Pardon my cynicism, but the sudden demand for muddy coloured, poorly designed, over priced products which have no value beyond the dubious advantage of being recycled from rubbish gladdens my capitalist heart. When our clients ask for a "green" product, usually the girls advise that red works better for blondes and green should only be worn in moderation. Strike one for "Green Friendly". When the caller starts sobbing and mumbling something about disappearing rainforests and snow leopards running out of snow the promobabes have tried suggesting cancelation of the promotion and donating the money to the WWF before heading off to lunch. That was until I saw last month's figures. Now we're on board the planet saving project with a new recycling strategy. My take on is that what we call "profit recycling"(TM Fresh Promotions 2008). Clients who bought last year can return their products to us, paying their own freight to save on paper (cheques we would otherwise have to write to Startrack). We'll cover up their logo with a black texta and flog it off to somebody else. Now that's sustainable development.

September 29th 2008

Well it's been a while hasn't it? If you were the sort of person who always kept a calendar handy you could work out exactly how many days it was since the last blog post. And you'd be wrong, because I have cunningly backdated this post. The total lack of a tidal wave of sad emailers wondering when Australia's most read and quickly forgotten promotional products blog will be back on the air was evidence enough that my time was better spent checking out crappy videos on youtube and promising the accounts lady that I would definitely-once-and-for-all ring the supplier who had short delivered us 12 pencils and sort out the difference on the account. Isn't that why we have an accounts department anyway? Other than their good looks??? Apparently they are critical to the running of our business, performing important duties like working out how give the government whenever they ask for and explaining the process every year in an inch thick document which costs about $50K to assemble, is complete mumbo-jumbo and is sent to the government with another very large cheque just in case anyone there gets a break from banking all the cheques and glances at the cover while throwing it into a furnace. I have suggested that the respected fellows of the Tax Department (incidentally clients of ours though they didn't seem to appreciate my suggestion that we could do them a better price for cash) read this informative blog in future if they wish to learn more about our organisation and why the cost of stocking the bar fridge is rising faster than the rate of inflation

27th September 2008: Christmas Promotional Gifts

It's all action at the moment. While the general message in the economy at the moment is to fly low and stay safe the wily marketing manager will be allocating ever increasing percentages of his marketing budget to the purchase and distribution of branded merchandise.

Keyrings are always a popular promotional ite, particularly those which hav teh dual purpose of opening bottles of alcohol in between keeping your keys together. The latest and greatest product we've imported direct is the Happy Hour Keyrings or Key Ring Bottle opener wich comes complete with gift box and laser engraving. 24th September 2008: Fresh Promotions New Design

As you can all see, we have implemented the new design across the Fresh Network. With great features, like being able to search and select product by price, the new Fresh design is far superior. With the new navigation column, with more content, more products and pricing information, our promotional products are easy to find and compare. Perfect for looking for products on a budget.

You can always find more product on Fresh Promotions. Our team are dedicated to bringing you the best and largest range of promotional products within Australia. When new product is added a Fresh News item will be written on the Home page. Keep an eye on Fresh News and this Promotional Products Blog for updates on the Fresh Network, trends in the industry, and promotional information.

28th March 2008: Fresh Promotions Economic Activity Index

While our cities are full or public servants crunching figures in the hope of putting their finger on the current economic trends far simpler would be to apply the new FPEA index (Fresh Promotions Economic Activity Index). When the news is bad in the papers traffic on our sites falls, and when the headlines are positive the market for promotional items becomes bullish. The reality is that canny marketers should be putting the foot to the floor in times of economic uncertainty. First it is a fail safe against falling turnover and secondly it i the time to take market share from less adventurous and entrepreneurial competitors. And if you're looking to get more bang for your marketing bucks during an economic slowdown there would be few better ideas than diverting some of your mainstream budget to promotional products and branded merchandise. For many years research has pointed to the use of promotional items as the most cost effective marketing spend available.

4th July 2007: Another (Financial) Year Over

It's the first week of the new financial year and we're having a welcome breather as the phones and email enquiry has slowed a little. With a huge rush of last minute orders in the last week of the 07/07 Financial Year our print and laser engraving departments are fully booked for the next two weeks branding products for a wide range of clients across Australia, the Pacific and the Middle East.
Looking back over the past twelve months it's interesting to pull up the spreadsheets and look at the spread of products which have proven most popular. As always pens are at the top of the list, but garments are close behind. The big mover of recent times has been ceramic mugs, where our increased range of available product and styles ha led to a constant surge of orders. Our new niche promotional mugs site www.freshmugs.com.au has also been a hit with online shoppers, attracting over 2000 visitors in its first live month and receiving over 50 orders for a total of over 30,000 mugs sold. That's 1000 per month. Australia must love its coffee.

15th June 2007 Great New Products Coming

Barely a day goes past without Fresh promotions being offered new and interesting products by wholesalers and importers. Now that the new Network is up and running and our proprietary software has been completed the development team will be moving towards the objective of adding 100 new and innovative promotional products every week. We're growing so fast, the level of enquiry is so great and we're being asked to look at so many major sales promotions projects that we have not had the resources to keep adding to the site.
Our newest staff member will be spending three days a week with nothing else on his plate but continuing to build this promotional items site into the best in Australia.
1st June 2007: The Collective Unconsciousness

Carl Jung the noted student and eventual critic of Freud coined a term "Collective Unconscious" when his experience with patients over many years suggested that we are all connected to a universe reservoir of information and experience. I'm not sure that Dr. Jung had any experience in the promotions caper but on a daily basis we see evidence of his theory.

The bets are on every week around here as to which item will win the "Obscure Product of the Week" title. And every week there is one. Last week we had at least ten calls from people looking for "Metallic Silver Umbrellas". This week no calls on the subject, and probably only a couple for the first 4 months of the year. This week there's a hankering for "Green Stress Frogs". What gives out there? Whatever it is go with your instincts. If you sit up in the middle of the night, nudge the wife/husband/partner awake and declare "I've got it...... Green Stress Frogs are what our company needs..." our advice is to go for it. Don't look to the negatives of a potential idea, as long as your budget is manageable and the break-even is reasonable give it a whirl. In our world dominated post-modernist thinking there is no right and wrong anyway. If you've got Green Stress Frogs on the brain it could well be that the rest of the public has too and just hasn't realised yet. Go the Green Stress Frogs 29th January 2007: The Fresh Network - A Big Year Ahead

In 2006 Fresh Promotions was recognised as one of the leading promotional product supply companies in Australia.

With over half the top 100 companies in Australia as clients in 2006, January 2007 has been the busiest start to a year on record. This site is now officially, across the board, the top ranking promotional products site in Australia.

In 2007 Fresh Promotions will launch the first integrated promotional marketing network in the world. The plans in place will guarantee Australian business a complete range or promotional marketing products and services through a broad range of easy to navigate and logically constructed sites.

Bookmark this site, and come back regularly to see what changes are being made.

PROMOTIONS BLOG 9th November 2006
The big question we're hearing 50 times a day at the moment is......

"How quickly can you deliver"

The Melbourne Cup has been run, won and filled with champagne. The last excuse before Christmas is over and the race is on to get everything finished.

An eery lull settled over the office fifteen minutes before to the great race. The phones started ringing ten minutes after the cup was finished. The bet in the office was the people who backed the winner would be ringing to order their Christmas presents. We asked everyone how they had fared on the punt. Nobody backed the winner but they were keen to order. Somehow as Delta Blues crossed the finish line a lot of Australian businesses realised the party was over and the responsibilities of the festive season were upon them.

28th October: Specialty Manufacture
There's a lot to be said for producing a unique promotional product. At least ten times a week clients call looking for something specially made to suit an idea they have, or as a variation on a promotional idea. Through our contacts in Australian manufacturing and in Asia we are often able to accommodate these requests. But like most things in business the viability of depends on having a realistic budget and enough lead-time.

A week or so again a new client called looking for our help in manufacturing a specialty bag which would be given away to donors as part of a national promotion. The client had sketches of the bag designs, but it went further than that. A particular pattern had to be printed on the vinyl, individual colour patterns were required for the piping and handles and there had to be three overall colour variations.

It was a very complicated job, and probably 20 times the work involved just printing an existing bag. The job is now in production, but a succession of manufactured samples and example prints have to be shipped to us from Shanghai, approved by the client and returned to guarantee the quality of the final product.

One of our philosophies at Fresh is to take on new jobs which are out of the ordinary and see them through to completion. We do it because that's how you learn new things on projects like these, it's a good way of cementing a business relationship and the stress involved is worth it if the client is happy with the results.

If you have any unusual product requests or our advice on sourcing specialty promotional products dont be afraid to call and have a chat.

24th October

Getting in Early for Christmas - Please!
It's interesting how different companies look at the Christmas gift-giving frenzy. We have clients who started searching and ordered their gifts in July, while the order books from past years show that there are others who order on the 20th of December. Maybe it's just the difference between boys and girls. I can remember going shopping on Christmas eve and grabbing anything which was stacked high in Myers' doorway. I can remember buying 15 copies of the same novel.

It's the same deal with promotional gear and corporate gifts. We have a range of products which can be delivered in 48 hours, but if that's the timing you need you'll be choosing from a narrowed range of goods.

This is the time of year when a lot of our sales promotion clients are also gearing up and briefing in work which will be delivered early in the New Year. Promotional campaigns which will be running at the end of January or at the end of the holidays needs to be planned and approved now. especially as a lot of clients are looking to have a holiday at that time of the year and leave projects in our hands to produce and manage.

At Fresh Promotions, we're always trying to help our clients out. A lot of the time this is very annoying when somebody has procrastinated about a product for three weeks then needs them next Monday. If it can be done we will do it and put it down to advertising. But we can only do so much. For your own sake shop early and often.

Friday 13th October

Christmas Rush is On!
54 messages on my mobile last Thursday. All calls which came through while I was talking to somebody else. The laser engraving machinery and print shop is running full time. 246 unique visitors to this site yesterday and over 3500 page downloads. Yikes. Contact from all over Australia. A bank even called from Hong Kong wanting to buy 1000 printed umbrellas. We told them we were in Australia, but they still wanted to do business. Our Hong Kong agent is dealing with them direct.

And our end of year advertising has just started. What's going to happen when the catalogues hit and our Google listings for the new site kick in? We changed all the page titles recently and Google wiped us. Now its leaping back in the rankings and the level of inquiry is building. The resident geek claims we'll be top ranking on most terms by the middle of next week.

Luckily we have a plan to cope with the end of year rush. Type and talk faster.

My Dad always used to say If you want something done, ask a busy man?. We're damn busy, and we've never missed a deadline. Maybe the Old Man was right

10th October 2006

Beware the Conservative Approach
Remember the old Target campaign? The ads on TV which showed a red and white target being stretched and manipulated to graphically highlight that month's sale or the product special on offer?

Unanimously that campaign was cited by big company marketing managers and advertising experts as being the best campaign on TV. It ticked all the boxes; the branding was there, the logo appeared in every frame, it appeared to be creative and catchy. Then why did Target continue to under perform if they were doing everything right?

At Fresh Promotions we always thought those ads were lame. If you visit Target they actually have a good range of quality product which is competitively priced. What does an all red and white campaign which is always touting an upcoming sale tell you? Home brand. Generic. Cheap. It doesn't say fashion, it didn't tell the story about the range of product available and it showed the classic big company obsession with logo and pms colour instead of telling consumers what they wanted to hear.

So what's this rave all about? Don't take the easy way out. Get the basics right, but remember nobody cares about your logo. They care about what you can offer them. Leave the reproduction of your logo to Fresh Promotions, but look for a promotional idea which will click with your market and say something favourable about your brand. If you take the conservative approach there will always be a reason to knock a great idea on the head. If you want a big return on your investment try something new and don't listen to the office whinger. Success in marketing favours the brave.

7th October 2006
Trials and Tribulations of Internet Marketing

We've had a stream of calls over the last six months from companies offering SEO services. The calls all follow the same pattern; they claim they are going to get us ranking on the first page of Google, that we will make literally millions of dollars from the work they are going to do for us, that our current website has a million flaws, that they have other clients who are making so much money they don't know what to do with it, and they want a monthly retained plus link costs.

Does it sound convincing to you? Because it has never convinced me. I'm always interested to talk to these people and try to nail them down on what their plans are. We actually have an SEO on staff, and we do optimising for a range of our clients where it is appropriate. I know from having invested heavily in SEO that there are no simple answers.

A lot of our clients are suddenly interested in internet marketing as the returns from traditional media continue to fall off. Also most business people now realise that they use Google or the MSN search engine when looking for suppliers or business information where they used to open the Yellow Pages. You don't have to be Einstein, (or Bill Gates for that matter) to make the connection that you should be looking into your own visibility on the web.

The other thing driving the sudden upsurge in interest in SEO is the large investments many companies have made in their websites and on-line presence. The great majority of sites are invisible. Its a rational business decision to want to get that investment working.

Because of the interest in SEO marketing Fresh will be starting a second blog on this site about on-line marketing and our advice on how to maximise the return on your on-line investments. Stay tuned. It will be up in the next week.

October 6th 2006
Promotion and Advertising as Part of a Company's Culture

I was chatting to one of our new clients at lunch yesterday, an amusing Canadian guy sent over here as Asia Pacific Marketing and Communications Director of a major mining company. He found Fresh Promotions through our advertising in a Queensland business magazine and has since become a solid client.

We were talking about the relative needs of our companies in promoting and building brand awareness. Our conversation went something like this....

Client: "You know Bill, in the USA if a company doesn't spend 10% of its turnover in promotion and branding it starts to shrink"
Fresh: "The average in Australia is about 2%"
Client: "Man, that is unbelievable! There must be a million opportunities in Australia for aggressive marketers."
Fresh: "You're right, but for every aggressive marketer there are 100 cautious marketers. Most companies look at advertising and promotion as an expense."
Client: "Bill, In North America, the most important investment a company make is in branding and new business. If you're standing still, there will be someone getting ready to nail you."
Fresh: "That's interesting. I know from clients we've worked with that a successful promotion or advertising campaign can change the culture of a company. When the phone starts ringing, and the orders start coming in, it puts a spring in everyones" step.

Anyway, the conversation went on to Aussie Rules football, which I tried to explain, but the poor guy still looked bewildered after my five minute summary.

The interesting thing is that in our smaller Australian market the level of competition and aggression in marketing is scaled back. Major players control markets and the rest find cosy niches. Conservatism rules. Plans are based around the "worst case" model and obsession with minor details like logos and corporate colours. But all the evidence we see in the trenches is that fortune, and cash flow, favours the brave. Next time you have an idea for promoting your business, don't just think about it, do it. And if you want some advice on how to get things moving, call Fresh.

Promotions vs. Traditional Advertising and Media
A lot of advertising and promotions companies claim to be experts on how you should promote your business, but none of them have ever promoted or advertised themselves. Some might have a rep on the road or they might occasionally organise a direct mail campaign, but in general the companies who claim to be experts don't practise what they preach and when they do it is done poorly.

On the other hand Fresh Promotions has given almost everything a shot. We have an annual advertising and promotions budget of 10% of turnover. We've spent money which returned 20 times our investment. We've spent money and not received a single phone call. That's the nature of advertising. Anyone who tells you differently is not telling you the truth. One week an offer can get the phones ringing hot, the same offer next week leaves the market cold.

There is always an element of risk involved in advertising or promoting your business, but that's what makes it exciting, and what makes it so satisfying when it pays off.

Unrealistic Briefs
Some time ago we were briefed by a major insurance organisation to develop a sales promotion encouraging people to switch to them for their compulsory third party auto insurance. The marketing manager looked me in the eye and announced that the objective was to generate a minimum revenue ten times greater than the cost of the promotion.

Try to make our lives a little easier, it's worth your while
A few weeks ago we were asked to come up with some ideas for a promotion for a company which must remain nameless. The conversation went something like this....

Client: We are promoting a new premium brand and want to lift sales
Fresh: What's your budget?
Client: Don't know
Fresh: Who's buying the product?
Client: Don't know
Fresh: What sort of promotional products have you thought about?
Client: Something silver
Fresh: How about a 320 Mercedes?
Client: You're not taking this seriously

Sure, our rep's answer was flippant but you can see that we do need something to work with. Fresh Promotions has a reputation for creative promotional concepts and products, but to get the best out of us we need to know where your brand is going. If you want us to do your marketing plans as well, that costs extra and we'll need at least a couple of days to think about it.

Promotional Confectionery is as good as it gets.

A lot of people would suggest that business blogs are nothing but an attempt to game the search engine results, however we would dispute this cynical view of the world. Our purpose here is to spread useful and up to date information to the data hungry consumer of promotional products.

The latest and greatest trend in promotional sales world wide is the expansion in demand for promotional confectionery and custom printed sweets. These products make a great deal of sense if you're looking for something everyone likes and which will be descended upon by the ravenous hordes immediately the product is delivered.