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Jake Wells American Solutions for Business jwwells@americanbus.com http://www.americanbus.com 314-477-7496

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GRAMMY GIFT BAGS Sport $30,000 In Promo Merch

Just when extravagance hit an all time high with the MTV Awards Gift Bag, the Grammy’s come up with a close second.

The official 2019 Grammy Gift bag is valued at over $30,000 and includes gifts ranging from a week-long spa stay (the spa donates the cost to a charity) and a handheld electric back massager to Milano cookies.

There will also be a gift lounge for celebrities to visit featuring a dozen plus brands like PRSVR and 23andMe. An additional 150 separate Grammy Gift Lounge bags with different items will be handed out to 150 presenters and performers stopping by the gifting lounge.

Again, there is so much buzz on social media about these products that Grammy Gift Bag Sponsors get in line way in advance of the program to make sure their products are getting those almighty ad impressions the Grammys generate.

Beaded bracelets from Inspire Me

A sampling of Walni's products

The Golden Door Spa $8,500

T-shirts from kids' clothing company City Threads

A tote bag from Shore Bags

Artwork by Andrea Trantham

A shirt and tote from Love Is Stronger Than Hate

COOL IT, KID

Here’s Where The Restauran Experience Begins...

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CONTENTS JULY 2019 ISSUE

.PROMO

8

The Grammy’s $30,000 Gift Bag

18

MTV Scores Big with Awards Gifts

28

NBA Players Brand Themselves

30

Oreo Promotes w/ 3D Food Printer

34

Promo Products--Matter More?

42

The Tariffs--Relief is in Sight

MTV

SCORES BIG WITH FOR ITS CO-SPONSORS WITH ELITE AWARD BAG MTV is no stranger when it comes to promoting its brand with promotional products. MTV has ALWAYS HAD promo products to distribute, even from their first day in August 1981. Since then there’s been an endless stream of cool promo products. Their creativity has served them well. And this year’s MTV Movie & TV Awards was no exception. MTV put together an award bag that people are still talking about (so are we!).

Now 38 years old, MTV has endured the challenge of marketing for almost four decades to late baby boomers and now the many versions of millennials. To give our Promo Buyers a perspective, in 1981 Post-It Notes were launched and millions were printed promotionally with company logos.

What else happened that year? The Iran Hostage crisis ended; Lady Diana married Prince Charles; and the word “Internet” was mentioned in the same sentence that MS-DOS was...which was released by Microsoft along with the first IBM PC.

Why was the MTV Awards Gift Bag such a success? Twelve businesses got to market to celebrities and many of the sponsors had resounding victories due to the products they provided. Twitter, Facebook and all the social media carried stories on the promo products--they got lots of free press doing so. And their fans went crazy too.

Just take a look at the postings to see.

What was included? Jaw dropping items...from a four night stay at Avani Hotels in Asia, S. Africa, etc.; many US holiday vaca spots; Anna Sui (she’s a hot new designer in NYC) clothing , fragrances, cosmetics & accessories; Discount Glasses; Double Good Popcorn; Hairfinity; Herschel Supply Luggage; a one of a kind custom suit by Indochino; KLH headphones; Pixi formulations; Sephora; and more. Total value: Priceless...but we’d guess around $50,000.

Express-A-Button

STOCK SHAPES

NBA PLAYERS Finally Get To Sell Their Self Branded Promo Wear Each month we publish another way promo products influence branding. This month, we picked up on how the NBA has finally given their players permission to brand themselves by selling their own lines of logoed wearables.

But what’s interesting is this...the NBA finally realized that the more their players are promoted, the more their team gets exposure as well. That amounts to millions in additional marketing exposures and when the players hang up their sneakers, just a little bit more job security for them.

But not all are winners. Dwyane Wade of the Chicago Bulls launched an underware line and received a tepid response according to Bloomberg. Lakers Guard Nick Young calls his line, “the Most Hated Player”. Many of the items on his website are “sold out”. Russell Westbrook, point guard for the Oklahoma City Thunders sold his line at Barneys where the items went for hundreds of dollars. Kevin Durant wobbled when he did palm tree designs on moisture wicking shorts with 9” inseams.

What’s going to fuel their sales is the rise of social media talking about their products along with the television exposure. In each instance its the brand or logo that is driving sales. Looks like another big win for promotional products. https://mosthatedplayer.myshopify.com/

Stain Imaging

All Over Print

Oreo Promotes 3D Printer Customers Go Wild Designing Cookies--Opens Up New Frontiers in Promo Food Programs No matter where you are in the USA, Australia, and other countries where Oreo’s are sold, talking about a cool Oreo cookie seems to make everyone’s ears pickup on the notion. That really rang true with this clever promotion Oreo developed using a 3D printer to make designs as complex as the one below.

Columbia University School of Engineering Video https://youtu.be/VUvDCAG4P64

Food categories that are being printed include: Fruit, vegetables, cereal-based, chocolate, dairy products, almost anything sweet. And there’s more on the horizon. Below: a pizza that’s been completely fabricated using a 3D printer. Promo application: Have the cheese printed showing your logo.

Guess what? We see a BIG future for 3D Food printing for promotional and retail use.

Food--always perceived as a creature comfort item--is a great way to promote your product. Soon 3D printing--Food Grade Quality--will be a regular thing in promotional products.

An application to promote your products?

Get cookies printed in the shape of your logo with Oreo’s ingredients. We’re sure that is one of the next big promos.

PROMO PRODUCTS Matter More--An Argument for Expanding Your Promo Programs No matter where we turn there’s an advertisment in some form or another. But in our general everyday travels we encounter promotional products while walking down every street pretty much where ever there are people. There’s not been a day when we haven’t seen some promotional item featuring a corporate logo in as long as we can remember. Its safe to say promo products are an integrated part of our advertising society. They generate BILLIONS of impressions everyday, possibly trillions when you add in social media.

Advertising now is so much different than it was even ten years ago. Social media, radio, TV and more have changed so much its hard to keep up with what’s hot and what’s not. Its even harder in some cases to recognize the changes.

But interestingly, the promotional products industry has evolved into something no one thought it would be.

No one thought a company’s logo would be able to be printed on and then sold on an item that company didn’t manufacture AND THAT SALE WOULD BE PROFITABLE.

This parallel is a little like bottled water.

No one thought branded water would sell either; now it’s a billion dollar industry.

If you really examine the evolution of advertising you’ll see a trend that many social media events are driven by using a “logoed” product. Whether its a t-shirt, cool watch, tote bag or other promo product, PROMO PRODUCTS are the glue that is sticking everything together.

$300 BILLION IN NEW TAR What this Means for

Almost everyone in the promotional products world has been holding their breathe in hopes that this next round of tariffs would never happen. Well, that seems like their dreams might come true...for now.

The derailed tariffs talks got back on during President Trump’s visit overs the last week in June. That means 1, of products that are imported from C will not see another price hike of 25%

RIFFS ON HOLD the Promotional Products Industry

n track seas ,000’s China %.

That’s the good news...because the frenzy that’s been surrounding pricing in our industry can subside for a bit & we can all get back to branding. But don’t get too comfortable--the Eurasia Group only sees a 45% chance that a trade deal gets done this year.

Financial advisors we asked said its a temporary time-out...all part of the dance Washington is doing with Bejing. The stumbling point: China’s theft of USA company’s intellectual property.

The New Tariff Talks are a Welcome Respite to Avoid Another 25% Tariff Increase

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