Promo Pen Collector

This is a really informative case study from the Promo Know-How Zone. Discovery Education was trying to promote its IT systems, learner assessment tools and standards-based digital curriculum resources to educating audiences. If you love multi-color highlighters, you’ll love Discovery Education’s promotional product choice. The entire case study is below.

Five-Colored Circle Highlighter Serves as Effective Educator Conference Giveaway for Digital Curricula and Tool Provider, Discovery Education

Challenge: Identifying useful, teacher-friendly products to keep a brand in mind year-round.

Discovery Education, a sister of the Discovery Channel and a division of Discovery Communications, delivers IT systems, learner assessment tools and standards-based digital curriculum resources that help “…over one million educators and 35 million students harness the power of broadband and media to connect to a world of learning.”

One way the Discovery Education team reaches those millions—one educator at a time—is by exhibiting at educational tradeshows and conferences, such as those held by the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA). Education-related shows and conferences are prime venues that attract the team’s target audience; for instance, each NSTA regional conference, with some 300 sessions and 200 exhibits, regularly draws up to 4,000 attendees. The NSTA national conference provides an even greater reach, with up to 1,500 sessions and 1,100 exhibits, and draws up to 15,000 participants each year. According to the NSTA, exhibits, which give educators opportunities to sample and buy the latest in teaching tools and materials, are one of the most popular NSTA conference attractions.

Because conference attendees look forward to browsing the exhibition booths—and because it’s conference “etiquette” to give branded freebies and promotional giveaways to participants—the Discovery team stocks their booth with branded items that get—and keep—the Discovery Education name into the hands of booth visitors. Also, because the team selects gifts that teachers will find useful inside the classroom, their promotional choices serve not only to thank individuals for stopping by the Discovery Education booth, but also to keep the Discovery Education name all year long.

To keep the giveaways fresh and new, the team likes to vary the product lineup each year—they’ve given branded pens, t-shirts and DVDs, among other products teachers love. This year, again searching for a useful product teachers would use over and over again in the classroom—thus keeping the name Discovery Education top of mind—the team turned to ePromos.

Solution: A Discovery Education branded five-pronged, five-color circle highlighter.

Promotions Specialist Omer Cohen managed their order for this year’s selection: the 5-Prong Circle Highlighter, a charming, teacher-friendly giveaway that’s really five highlighters in one: yellow, pink, green, orange and blue. For double the branding, or to carry more messages, you may also opt for double-sided printing.

Result: Teachers attracted to recognizable highlighters; team budget and marketing goals-met.

The team tells us that they have received much positive feedback from their highlighter promotion, reporting that recipients recognized and were attracted to the fun, useful product immediately. This news, coupled with the fact that the circle highlighters are “made to order” for budget-conscious organizations, resulted in an effective promotion that met Discovery Education’s criteria and, even today, continues to help the team achieve their marketing goals.

(via The Promo Know-How Zone)

This is a pretty ordinary looking pen stand, but its design takes me back to high school chemistry when we had to mix a chemicals like hydrochloric acid and sodium hydroxide together in test tubes and have them sit on the test tube rack as we waited for the chemical reaction to occur. It looks like it would be another great promotional product for pharmaceutical companies to give away to doctors and local pharmacies to improve their brand awareness.

Promotional stylus pens were all the rage with the release of PDAs and tablet PCs. People used styli to operate their devices’ touch screens to avoid getting the natural oil from their hands on the screen and to improve the precision of touch input on smaller user interface elements. With the increasing popularity of Blackberry PDAs, touch screens and styli are no longer as prevalent in daily corporate lives, but styli have seen popularity boost in the gaming industry with the Nintendo DS. Here are some cool promotional styli that gamers use to breeze through their favorite games.

(via Gay Gamer)

When I used to go on planes as a kid, I would always get a pair of aviator wings to keep me occupied. Nowadays, kids prefer more interactive products. Even though airlines are trying to cut costs as much as possible, making sure that kids are quiet and entertained during long flights should still be in-flight priorities. Aviator wings might not do the trick anymore, but these cool airplane pens give kids something to fiddle with for long trips. These promotional novelty pens let kids doodle on napkins and serve as an extra toy to keep them entertained. These pens also help airlines promote their brand once their passengers exit the plane, giving them the exposure they want in multiple locations with one simple product.

There’s a big corporate jumbo pen sighting. This picture catches Steve Ballmer using a jumbo pen to sign a document days after Microsoft and Yahoo signed a deal to join forces in online search engine market. Jumbo novelty pens might not be the easiest pens to use, but they sure are easy to spot.

(via Everybody Loves Free Stuff)

Hockey may not be the most popular sport in the United States, but our neighbors up north do love their hockey. This promotional pen gives little league hockey jersey distributors and hockey equipment companies a great gift to give away to coaches and hockey players. It’ll give them exposure to members of their target audience while reminding them exactly of the products and equipment they need to have a successful season.

With people finding different ways to commemorate President Obama’s historic election, it’s no surprise that they found the perfect commemorative promotional pen to do just that. Apparently, President Obama uses an A.T. Cross Townsend Selectip Rolling Ball in Black Lacquer with Rhodium Plating to sign all executive orders, legislative bills, and presidential memorandums. Now, Barack-aholics can now purchase that identical pen, which will be laser engraved with the Presidential Seal of Hope and President Obama’s signature. For $140, I better get to share a beer with him too.

(via Barack’s Pen)

This cube pen calendar makes a pretty unique promotional giveaway, but this promotional novelty pen has a few drawbacks. First, it has a wide design, which could make it uncomfortable writing utensil. Second, the pen is no longer useful as soon as the pen runs out of ink or when the calendar year ends, whichever comes first. This pen could be drastically improved if the pen didn’t require such a wide body and if the calendar cubes could be replaced with each calendar year. Companies would be better off giving away custom wall calendars and imprinted pens separately to maximize their advertising potential.

Jumbo pens are generally regarded as promotional novelty pens that serve no practical purpose because they are too large to write with. However, with the right audience, generally kids, they are a huge hit. Businesspeople prefer standard-sized imprinted pens because they’re easier to carry and write with, but they won’t just throw out or ignorepromotional jumbo pens simply because of their size. With your company name and logo imprinted on those huge pens, you can be sure that your company name will stand out wherever recipients display them.

I just did a post on pen caddies, but I came across a cool take on the average pen caddy with this Wheelie Pen Pot. Recently, offices have been looking toward promotional eco-friendly products and custom reusable items to create a more socially conscious reputation. This Wheelie Pen Pot definitely sends a message that will resonate with your employees. With pen caddies that resemble recycling bins, they’ll remember to recycle and conserve their resources every time they take a seat at their desks, and it will show them that your company isn’t about boosting the bottom line by any means necessary.