JANUARY 2021 FINAL

January 2021

A World Changed A New Purpose The

Promotional

Products Industry Takes On A New Responsibility

HUGE RESURGENCE IN 2021 PREDICTED Promotional Products Will Dominate As the “Go To Ad Tool” for Events!

Fighting Covid

2021

Consider it a motto, mission or brand promise, our editorial staff will always provide a consistent theme you will appreciate with every issue of IdentityEdge.

That theme provides industry information that can help make your buying decisions easier and more focused. This publication is for you…prepared for End Users and Buyers of promotional products that purchase them exclusively through Promotional Products Distributors.

The promotional prod offers some of the bes tools you can use to w tomers and keep old o TYEDGE Magazine inte clarity to what can be array of merchandise, safety measures, rewa tion, advertising medi eral promotional ideas 700,000 product optio meaningful decision fo ness can be difficult. I “edge of despair,” fear feature numerous way your objectives. Keep the promotional indus every category and lev What was once perceiv gimmick or give-away millions of dollars in sa panies. Promotional p encompass sales and m human resources, well tradeshows, uniforms

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IDENTITYEDGE provid you didn’t have before

ducts industry st marketing win new cusones. IDENTIends to bring a confusing sales tools, ards, recogniiums and gens. With over ons, making a or your busiIf you’re on the r not…we’ll ys to achieve in mind that stry serves vel of business. ved as a cute y now drives ales for comproducts now marketing, lness, safety, and more.

new topics relebringing you glory!”

des answers e.

Although we’re not giving away any magic secrets, we will discuss topics openly and honestly while at the same time giving you new ideas that will generate sales.

You’ll likely see articles and advertisements on topics that will expand your knowledge of how the promotional products industry works. Your local Promotional Products Distributor--the provider of this Magazine--knows as much about the industry as we do and that’s a lot.

Your promotional consultant/Distributor is also well-versed in all areas of promotional marketing.

Seek their advice, they know what works!

We actually hope to keep you on the “edge of your seat” waiting in anticipation of the next issue. This is the beginning of a new era in promotional advertising and we are making it our mission to keep you informed, educated and entertained in the process. We’d appreciate your feedback, so please feel free to share your ideas with us.

CUSTOMIZEYOUR YOUROWN. OWN CUSTOMISE

INDIVIDUALLY DESIGNED.

Go with a note you know and trust.

Unlike knock-off notes, genuine Post-it NotesŽ stick securely, remove cleanly and make a lasting impression for your client’s business. They get brands seen, not stepped on.

26 Identity Edge

Don’t trash your reputation with a knock-off note

Identity Edge 27

EDITOR’S WELCOME MORE TRENDS 2021

TRASH TEE’S PROMOTE YOUR PRODUCT LAUNCH

2021 January

OUR HOT PICKS

2021 BENEFITS OF PROMO PRODUCTS SMALL BUSINESSES REAP BIG RESULTS USING PROMO PROGRAMS BUY AMERICAN TRENDING IN 2021

50-51 56-57 60-61 64 68-69

CONTENTS

THE CURRENT END GAME FOR COVID

6-7 16-19 26-29 38-39 44-45

IdentityEdgeMagazine.com

IDENTITYEDGE.PROMO 17

CAR CAR

™

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Febreze CAR has

R Air Freshener arrived!

exclusively from

2021

More Trends Welcome to the first issue of IdentityEdgeMagazine for 2021 and we’re proud to celebrate our fifth year of publication.

It’s been a tough year for all of us, in every industry, all over the world. Nothing is as we want it to be and everyone is waiting/hoping for this virus to be over so we can resume our normal lives.

Well, there’s good news and there’s bad news; isn’t there always?

The good news is that vaccinations are starting and if everyone would wear their masks, socially distance and follow the CDC Guidelines we’d all get better faster. America has the highest Covid rates in the world...and its time we “all joined together” (sounds like a great idea for promo campaigns in 2021!) to rid our nation of Covid.

The bad news is it will take almost all year for everyone in the USA to get vaccinated; and we know many will not. As a result 2021 will not be as awesome as we’d like but business is going to come roaring back in the promo industry--just like it will for other industries. Its coming back in a big way because of how promotional products are doing their job marketing companies.

But interestingly, here’s some food for thought. Driven by Covid and the resultant digital revolution, many industries went through a major transformation to doing more business on the web. And the virus has sped up this transition changing the shopping experience for the modern consumer. Amazon became every more “Amazon” during this time and the reason is almost 50% of consumers did some shopping on their mobile phones in the past three months.

Consumers are using digital technology to research, browse and purchase, usually on the same website...aren’t you? Promotional products fit in this scenario as a marketing tool because they offer the consumer an award for their purchase, increasing brand loyalty. This has the effect of really cementing the Buyer’s relationship with the company offering the award.

To this end we are happy to provide some ideas for trending products in 2021 that are hot items for your company’s promotions.

See the next page for our Trending Report.

Trending Report How can you beat your competitors and make the most of your business ad campaigns? Use these products to promote your business...follow the top trends: Trending products 2021: Blue-tooth

Blue-tooth earphones Portable speakers

Trending products 2021: Magnetic tech

Magnetic USB cables Magnetic phone holders

Trending products 2021: Pillows

Pillows

Trending products 2021: Pet accessories

Pet clothing Pet collars and leads

Trending products 2021: Home fitness equipment

Exercise bands Sport bras Yoga mats

Trending products 2021: Home office supplies

Laptop tables Webcams

Trending products 2021: Affordable smart electronics

Smart home devices Artificial Intelligence (AI) based products Smart wearable devices

Trending products 2021: Kitchen utensils

Kitchen utensils all types and sizes

Hitting the Highest Marks for 2021

Ultraviolet Phone Cleaner

Multi-function Charging Cord

Limitless Layers Limitless in Wearables Designs polyconcept NORTH AMERICA

Multi-Function Charging Cord

With Superior Technologies and Product Differentation

Contact Your Promotional Products Distributor Shown on the C

Cover

WELCOME BACK IDEAS

NO SET UP CHARGES 1 PIECE MINIMUM TOTALLY CUSTOM

THE CURRENT END GAME Excerpts from Scientific American “Projections about how COVID-19 will play out are speculative, but the end game will most likely involve a mix of everything that checked past pandemics: Continued social-control measures to buy time, new antiviral medications to ease symptoms, and more vaccines to handle the upcoming covid mutations. The exact formula—how long control measures such as social distancing must stay in place, for instance—depends in large part on how strictly people obey restrictions and how effectively governments respond. For example, containment measures that worked for COVID-19 in places such as Hong Kong and South Korea came far too late in Europe and the U.S. The question of how the pandemic plays out is at

THE END OF COVID IN 2021?

Probably Not...

The other 50 percent will probably come from science.

Researchers have banded together like never before and are working on multiple fronts to develop remedies. If any of the several antiviral medications currently in development prove more effective that the existing ones from Pfizer & Moderna, they will improve treatment options and lower the numbers who get seriously ill or die. A technique to screen for SARS-CoV-2 neutralizing antibodies, an indicator of immunity in recovered patients, could also prove very useful. Previously used only in local epidemics, these new serological assays won’t end the pandemic, but they could make it possible to spot and use antibody-rich blood as a treatment for critically ill patients; more certainly, the tests will also get people back

SCIENTIFIC

AMERICAN

to work faster if those who fought off the virus and are immune & can be identified. Even with the vaccines we currently have it will take time—probably a year or two from now--to really tame the pandemic. Unless a vaccine is administered to all of the world’s eight billion inhabitants who are not currently sick or recovered, COVID-19 is likely to stay a endemic. It will circulate and make people sick seasonally—sometimes very sick. And while we are speaking of reinfection, not many people have the answers for that. The combination of vaccination and natural immunity will protect many of us. The coronavirus, like most viruses, will live on—but not as a planetary plague.�

AFTER COVID HOW WILL YOU PROMOTE YOUR COMPANY BEST BETS See Our Answers

EXPECT A HUGE q2

Better get in line and plan lots of promotions because when the country opens up any outdoor event--especially small to medium and even stadium sized ones will be the rage. EVERYBODY will be getting the hell out of the house. Give your client attendees something very clever to take home with your logo on it...making sure it helps fight Covid.

q3

Promoting the heck out of your company for the second & third quarter will make for your biggest ad/branding gains. Late summer/early fall will be the time to launch your biggest promotions. Get on board and promote that America is finally getting FREE of Covid!

q4

Holiday will be the biggest its been in a decade. People will be out in droves flooding the malls and celebrating their new found freedom. If you are not heavily promoting your business thru this season you are going to miss out on sales big time. Remember promotional products provide personal brand endorsements, something other ads do not.

O

RE·SUR·GENCE

OF PROMOTIONAL PRODUCTS AT CROWD GATHERINGS

IdentityEdge

Your Packaging

Should Be As Impressive As What’s In It.

STOCK SHAPES

Trash Tee’s OK, trash tee’s don’t sound like an appealing product but guess what? About 500,000 pounds of cotton waste a week is produced at just one plant in the south USA. It takes about a half pound of cotton to make one tshirt…so with 500,000 pounds of waste, or dust bunny bales as they call them, a lot of t-shirts can be made.

RECYCLING WITHOUT SACRIFICING QUALITY

Dust bunny bales are cleaned and then through the yarn-making process again the result after a few more processes are made from yarn. Those cones are then fr to a knitter where they cut, sew and dye garment. Trash tees are no less in qualit any other first grade t-shirt sold. But, for

sent n‌and e cones reighted e each ty than r buyers

who have a real serious eco-conscious need to do something environmentally friendly, this is going to be huge. Major factories all across the country are participating for various reasons, including better profitability and really doing the right thing by recycling without sacrificing quality.

TRENDING IN 2021: RECYCLING TAKES ON A NEW URGENCY IN PROMOTIONAL PRODUCTS

FEEL THE DISTANCE. FEEL THE CONTROL.

Titleist TruFeel is the softest Titleist golf ball with low spin fo long distance and excellent control into and around the gre

Promote Your Product Launch OK so you’re all ready to launch your newest product. All of the production bugs have been worked out and you’re dotting all the “i’s and crossing your t’s” to make it a success. You’ve compared several different marketing strategies and some seem too high for your budget. You’ve got to generate enough buzz so it doesn’t fail flat or get lost in the millions of ad impressions that are generated every day.

Successful product launches rely on hundreds of things and promoting your launch with hard goods is a very effecttive way to get it out in the community. If you’re a big company you’ll have a ton of money to sling at it, but most companies are medium to small and have a more limited budget.

We suggest using phased in approach and then examin the results regularly to see if you’re on track. That requires customer feedback...and lots of it. You’ll notice in our “list of things to do” that there are many ares in which you can

You’re very right to be concerned. According to Insights Association about 60% of new product ideas never make it to market.

track your successes. For example, when your customers recommend your product to others, that’s a big score. That happens frequently when people are carrying your brand on a promotional product. Then there’s other checks when you look at the amount of social media clicks...or how many hastags you get. Most importantly, ask questions, as many as you can without turning off your consumer, to get feedback. The more feedback you get...and the more you listen to it...the more you’ll find sucess in your product launch. Ask your promotional products Distributor for quidance here, they are experts at it.

St Pr wi

tart a Successful roduct Launch ith These Components

Start a Blog Make a Corporate Video and Post it on You Tube Get Your Customers to Write Guest Posts Get Your Customers to Influence/Recommend Your Product Use Promotional Products as Brand Ambassadors Engage Consistently on Social Media like Youtube, Instagram, etc. Go live Use Social Media Teasers & Countdowns Create Eye-Catching Visual Content (nothing will sink your product launch faster than bad graphics) Reach Out to Your On-line Communities with Promotional Products to Cement Your Branding Invite Influencers to Launch Your Event and Get their FREE Promotional Products Accept Pre-Orders!!! And then Publicize it!

Use Visual Countdowns on Social Media Have Leading Local News Outlets Share Your Story Provide Updates/ Via Email to Your Customer Base Start a Hashtag Campaign

Case

Study

Game Day Promos are big at Buffalo Wild Wings, just check their website.

There’s an entire section on their website exclusively for promos. Recently they used a portable grills shaped like a football as an incentive.

There’s no better combo than something as original as a football shaped grill and Game Day.

Let’s Play Ball!

Game Day

$V D ƓQDQFH FRPSDQ\ ZH VLJQ D Our best response comes from lot of contracts. As a result, we note cubes left on a client’s always provide our clients with desk. Our sales team like to a nice quality pen to sign have a nice leave-behind and documents and then ask them the note cubes don’t take up to keep it. The best part is we much room, but they have don’t have to spend a ton of plenty of space for a message. money to get a great pen.

Deanna, Dallas, TX. Darrin, Long Beach, CA.

Luggage tags. We‘re in the

hospitality industry and it’s important to add that extra little touch.

Shantelle, Washington, DC.

Our company has been giving away calendars for years. Even with technology as it is, there’s some strange attraction.

If it ain’t broke … !

HOT

TOP BENEFITS OF USING PROMOTIONAL PRODUCTS IN YOUR 2021 AD CAMPAIGNS EVERY SMALL, MEDIUM AND LARGE BUSINESS has used promotional products as an ad tool.

That’s because promotional products have a proven track record of making sales with a better ROI. Here’s some tried and true winning programs you can use to build your business.

It’s pretty glaring that radio, TV and print are pretty much out of the touch financially for many small and medium sized businesses. Even large companies can sometimes gag at the rates electronic media costs, but successful businesses in general attest to the fact that using promotional products often results in making more sales with a better ROI. Customers wearing or carrying your logo on various products is a personal endorsement of your brand.

Using promotional products guarantees customer loyality. Giving out promotional products increases the chances of someone choosing your brand over another. Its a genuine reason to keep doing business with your company. Encourage your marketing team to come up with creative ideas that always end up boosting customer retention and creating new customers with this good will advertisement.

Enable “better relationships” with your customers through promotional products programs.

Think about it...you want your customers to buy buy from you, but what do they get in return for their brand loyality? Consider organizing contests on social media or in person and have giveaway contests. Taking this approach is a sure fire manner in which to boost your credibility, develop strong brand ties, and make your brand the authority in your niche market.

Remember promotional products are budget friendly marketing tools that carry thousands if not hundreds of thousands of ad impressions.

Promotional products programs are generally more afforadable, cost-effective and help market your business for months instead of just a few seconds or minutes on electronic media. Promotional products won’t cost you a fortune either.

Generally they provide a much wider base for distribution that electronic media. And best of all they can act like a business card.

Generating Leads is one of the most important parts of any business. Without new leads your company will not grow. In order to generate quality leads which will improve your ROI, use promotional products to play a major role in your lead generation and use them to convert visitors to loyal customers. Size of the product

isn’t always the key...sometimes the product you select to help you market and its connection to the promotion contains the power to convert visitors to loyal customers. As long as these products add value along with some “call to action”, you’ve got a promotional products program winner. The proof is in the pudding, use your website to gather marketing stats about the program’s success.

Increase your Brand visibility! One of the things promotional product do bes is boost your Branding visibility. Customer’s recognize your brand instantly once they see your logo on a promotional product. The latest trends in products are usually the best for promotional programs, just keep in mind with 700,000 products at your disposal you’ve got to come up with an item that’s relevant to your business.

Client: Major Sport Franchise

Challenge: Provide a creative

game day giveaway that is memorable and purposeful.

Solution: Major sponsor was

seeking a game day giveaway that was unique to the sport as well as purposeful it had to attract all audiences. AccessEast product development team created a hockey stick flash light. It was perfect for a game day giveaway for hockey enthusiasts and had incredible staying power in the home and office .

Result: Weeks after the game,

consumers would stop into branch offices to learn how they could get this item. Consumers still comment how clever the item was.

And that’s one of the many reasons small businesses benefit so much from using them.

Plus...small businesses really don’t have the capital to invest in grandiose ad campaigns nor do they want to for the most part.

PROMO ITEMS Promotional Products can turn heads at a trade show, create huge amounts of buzz at company events, do a wonderful job at spreading brand awareness and help you build clientele. Those are all facts established by so many decades of using brand building giveaways. In many instances Promotional Products do just as good if not a better job as TV, radio or print do.

WORK GREAT FOR SMALL BUSINESSES

Rather, small businesses are interested in drawing attention to their products and services on a local basis. Promotional Products fit this bill because they are low cost--well fitting the budget of small businesses--and are useful.

These items will always increase people’s gravitation towards your brand. The task is finding the right product, program or combination thereof and we as your Promotional Products Distributors can provide answers. But once you’ve found “the right tool” all you’ll need to do is add your company’s logo and distribute it in high traffic areas. Its been proven over and over again that it can help your business keep a competitive advantage.

That’s why you should have many types of promo products with your logo on it. From t-shirts to water bottles, phone cases, or hand sanitizer, people should be reminded of your company every time they use them. They always generate great foot traffic too. This puts your logo in front of thousands of eyes...boosting your brand recognition every time.

What are the industry’s best sellers? People will always remember several things about your promotional products: The quality and how unique it is...while serving their lives. You can’t go wrong with any of these options, even in this pandemic laden environment. Small businesses rule!

Tec Coff USA Mas Han Tote Koo

The Water Depot

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PromoCrunch

OUR BOTTLE SHAPE SAVES MILLIONS OF TONS IN WASTED PLASTICS

Make a

BIGGER IMPACT

NEW LOWER MINIMUMS

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COLOR OPTIONS AVAILABLE

NOW ON PEN STYLES

38

Case

Study

Coke Blows Out Olympic Winter Games with Compressed T-Shirts Promo We all know that Coke is a trend setter.

And most of the promotions that they run always result in big wins (they are a good company to follow for promo program development).

Benefits?

Coca Cola was delighted with the outcome of their promotion that featured branded T-shirts and towels in the shapes of their products.

Huge distribution, competitively priced, exclusive custom shapes, easy to give out...all things that added significant value to the brand. With dozens of orders placed, this can mean only one thing: SUCCESSFUL PROMOTIONS. Coke achieved what they set out to do: The whole point is to make a lasting impression on customers and then get their customers to display their brand by wearing it. Compressed t-shirts will certainly do that.

Its wh depa excite duct, ment millio

And i sive t

Trending Towards American Made Products We are a global society and we as Americans buy from almost every country in the world. We are purchasing millions of nitrile gloves from Vietnam, mega-gallons of wine from France, thousands of cars from Germany, and tons of butter from Ireland; we are a globalist society...and rightly so. But now its really time to rethink that stance AND also consider what is environmentally sound for our country.

Why is it more important now than in 2019?

America is pretty much equally divided in terms of the numbers of small and large businesses.

Since the pandemic struck over 100,000 small businesses have closed--and that really hurts America.

Promoting that your company buys American will certainly cause brand loyality and using American made promotional items to get that message across is a proven success story.

Believe it or not there are seemingly a “gazillion� promotional products that are made in the USA. From cutting boards to key fobs there are over 200,000 USA made promotional products and its time you started buying them for your promotions...be American.

Quiet as its kept American made promo products do the same job as the overseas imports do. While they might cost a little more, they are usually made with a little higher quality and last longers. And the longer your promotional item lasts the more impressions it will get.

And it also won’t hurt to ask for Union Made products from your Distributor.

Yes...and emphatically a bigger YES! But when does that start for the promotional products industry?

TRENDS IN 2021 Just about everyone we know wants 2020 to be over and for 2021 to be “a better year”. All of us are hoping that once the vaccine has been widely distributed things will start to change and we’ll start to return to normal. WOW, won’t it be nice to get back to the old American way?

From what we know the biggest movement to promote the resurgence or comeback for the use of promotional products will be around the July-August 2021 time-frame. Promotions will slowly but surely be on the up-tick through the first and second quarters of 2021, but the big boon won’t occur until the third and fourth quarters. Our advice: Get ready for a particularly competitive promotional products season.

When we discuss or predict trends we try to look at the marketplace from as many points of view that we can and then narrow it for these pages. With regards to employing a particular type of promotional product a key one keeps re-emerging as “one of the best walking billboards ever”...and that’s the PPE mask. In 2021 and through 2022 people will still be wearing masks. So with the urgency to reopen--and the requirement to wear masks--now’s the time to start planning your company’s promotions which should include at least one logoed mask program.

More advice: Think about human nature then set your marketing plans. We’ve all been couped up since March 2020 and people will want to do ANYTHING that’s outside and filled with people they can mingle with. From baseball games to drag racing, concerts or picnics, Americans will spring into action outside and at events. The best promotional marketers will be ready to pounce on these opportunities.

We’d like to take a little sidestep here and also let everyone know that sustainable products will become more and more important in the promo products world, even during the resurrection after the pandemic.

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Some ending thoughts for this page. By now many of you have dozens of “year end reflections” in your in-box. But this has been a year unlike any other and that means there’s a lot to reflect upon. Many have lost friends and family needlessly.

otable marketing trends will be und voice commerce. Now THIS is an marketing tool. Voice commerce pe of conversational commerce in omer interacts with a brand and sales ough that voice recognition technolxa). It won’t take long for this techerpower the market and become as ce as smart phones. Promoting that ogy using logoed products will be ur success.

In spite of how Covid ravaged our country people did rise up and meet the call for collection action. People showed up this year...and when they did it revealed that Americans had a belief in community, humanity, and a positive more equitable future for ALL of us.

events to watch...premium private and OFF-LINE ecommerce will also example, Amazon is developing a convenience stores. Shoppable TV too, for the first time QVC will have mpetition. Artificial Intelligence will th customer sourcing; think how easy Alexa to find your favorite product, more in seconds. Re-Commerce, or goods, is making a revival in 2021. on of Nikey shoes and other prodke they are right up the promotional ey--will be a major part of 2021.

Historically pandemics have forced humans to leave the past behind and imagine their world anew. Covid, in effect, caused our society to open a new portal, a gateway between this time in our world and the next.

And that’s where we’d like to take you...to the part about using promotional products to heal our country. That might seem a little off beat to suggest such a thing but when you really examine the power of promotional products, they can do an excellent job promoting your company while at the same time helping America heal.

While we ALL feel fatigued under the weight of 2020 we do have some important choices to make and a mission to clear Covid from our society. Promotional products can help you get there.

https://youtu.be/3jLYaTLzI58

VantageApparel is offering an new exciting line called Earth-wise... which is “Sustainable fashion that gives back to the planet’. Its a great looking line. In doing so Vantage made an alliance with a company called ”1% for the Planet.”