Person 1 Says: Money Cant Buy Happiness

Person 2 Says: No, but it can buy food and thats kinda the same

Tee hee hee Ka Boom!

We always say in our blog that using marketing merchandise as part of your advertising or marketing campaign is a terrific way to increase your brand awareness and ultimately sales. If you have a good product or have a superior service then you are well on your way to having a successful business. Below are some hilarious advertising on products which dont quite live up to expectations:

The advert for a beautiful secluded Beach in Dominican Republic

In reality:

The packaging photo of a family sized portable pool

In Reality:

A Hamburger Advertisment:

In Reality:

Yum…. A 5 star buffet:

In Reality:

Yes the White House Capital is in walking distance

In Reality:

Wow a Huge water slide in your Back yard

In Reality:

We really love Pandas, they are laid back and if you ask them stuff about Racism they are like “Dude, racism is stupid. I’m White, Black, and Asian…

Are you useing a promotional mug or any cerramic mug for that matter? This weekend I have discovered an the amazing power of bi carbonate soda. It is a strange substance that is sold in supermarkets that doesnt burn or cause irritations however it absolutely murders grime and grease. If you have a stained cup and would like to have it looking brand new again simply use 50% bi carb soda + 50% water mix the two together and dab using a towel or sponge onto stained areas. A few scrubs later “ALL,” stains are gone. Its like magic. I did the same thing to my stove and once again grime that could not be removed by any cleaning product was instantly removed by bi carb soda! I cant believe it took me all these years to find this magic cleaning agent!

The Nintendo 3DS has been won! We drew the prize yesterday. The winner is drum roll….. Marie Villaneuva from the company Express Online.

Just remember you can enter into our competition (we have a year round competition) by simply following us on Twitter, add us onto Facebook, follow us on YouTube or simply make a product enquiry through a phone call or an email to us. It is that simple!

Entrants are restricted to Australians and Australian based companies only though and you do need to be over 18.

We are however now into the new month and with a new month comes a new competition. Up for our quarterly prize now is a Seiko Chronograph Mens watch valued at rrp: $495. If you did not prefer the mens watch we have an option for you to select a womens watch which is of similar value. So if you are reading this blog right now please please enter. Its free and you never know… you may be the next winner!! Some of our past winners include:

- Zoe from Vertel (A case of Premium Aussie Wines)
- Fallon Jones from Poise Photography (Ipad 16gb)
- Kim from Sebel Resorts (WII Game Console)
- Marie Villanueva from Express Online (Nintendo 3Ds)

We sell custom post it notes but never did I think that they would be used this way. In the recent London riots the community of Peckham in London was right in the thick of the violence, mayhem, theft and destruction. An outsider may deduce that the majority of this community are rotton thugs. However I came across these images today which to me were utterly heart warming. In several of the shops that have been looted and boarded up a few people stuck post it notes with sweet messages encouraging the owners. As days went by a few post it notes became a few dozen…. and then a few hundred…. and then literally thousands of messages all stuck on to post its. Unfortunately our blog site here cannot blow up the images below any larger for me to show to you. However I did read a huge number of the post its. Messages stuck on post its by strangers included: I Love Peckham, Stay Safe Peckham, Peace, Stop the Violence, It’s Our Home, These scum wont win, Keep the faith and on and on with messages of peace. The amazing thing? I did not come across even 1 mean, negative or rude message. These simple little messages on post it notes are definitely an inspiration.

Just in case for all those tech newbies out there an App is short for an Application which is a small functional software for mobile smart phones. At the moment the 2 largest range of Apps are available on either the Apple Eco system or the Google Android System (eg. phone by HTC and the like).

Increasingly the use of Apps have been used in advertising with many many companies eager to jump onto the bandwagon. If your business is a consumer oriented one it makes heaps of sense for have a cool app! Having but here are a few pointers to consider if you have considered creating an App for your company:

- The Number of Apps available mean that all but the very best and most creative apps will be downloaded.
- Apps that are not engaging can hurt your advertising efforts
- Consider creating a Smart Phone friendly webpage before consider creating Apps (its much cheaper)
- Consider other Mobile offerings such as vouchers, mobile messages and more!
- If you are aiming to reach a big audience consider the fact that not everyone has either an Iphone or a Google Android phone.

Personally with the Apps I have downloaded so far 11 of them are from companies who have engaged software developers to create an App which is fun and yet at the same time can market and advertise their products. I’ve got apps from beer companies as well as various chocolate and food companies. I’ve since deleted around 10 of these Apps as they were fun at first but got boring and tired really quickly. So its important to get your content right!

Creativity is the key driving force in our industry. I found this awsome invite on the internet. Its made from paper folded origami style in a manner that reminds me when I was a kid. This is one of the coolest invitations to a corporate event I have seen. In larger order quantities this is definitely an invite that we can create for your next event too.

Undoubtebly a large proportion of our clients use our customised products within corporate events and conferences. Because of that we are right in the middle of things when it comes to identifying trends and what is popular in corporate functions and entertainment for staff and clients. We work with companies big and small as part of their planning process. So here are some interesting observations:

- Events are becoming more tailored to be an emotive experience. They are purposely designed with emotion in mind to engage the participants. This is done by creating themes to events and not just placing your brand logo on a projector screen.

- More detail is placed at the events from the invitation to the decor to what food and niblies there are and not to mention the promotional gifts on offer. Entertainment is becoming more elaborate too with larger corporates securing performers and celebrities to their functions.

- More and more unusual locations are being used for events!

- There are an increasing number of family day events. This really focuses the work life balance emphasis.

- Events are typically streamed live with pictures and videos on huge displays. They are even tweeted on twitter and onto facebook too!

It is also precisely this greater need to cater for themes and the increased effort into events that have been the driving force behind our huge diverse range of product.

Email is a good thing right? However like all good things that I can think of (Hamburgers, Fried Chicken, Alcohol to name a few) too much of a good thing can lead to an overdose and start harming us. Take email for example. Instance free communication. With technology like Blackberries and Iphones we can now even send an email whilst on the bus or in the toilet. Amazing stuff and amazing communication. However with all the emails ciculating we are now addicted to it and productivity is slowly being eroded. Its not just productivity though but also the stress that comes along with being “switched on,”all the time and the feeling that workers can always be contactable.

A research by Loughborough University in Britain shows that it takes an average of 64 seconds for people to recover their train of thought after being interrupted by email. So in other words 64seconds to refocus. Now my inbox typically receives 60 emails a day. If we take 64 x 60 this means that over an hour of my work day is interrupted by email. Quite staggering.

Email overdosing erodes efficiency and good decision making. Emails with bad grammar and wordking along with an expectation of immediate responses is a major reason for workplace stress.

So what to do?
Managers take the lead here! You can lead by example and only send concise emails to your team members and offer them a choice of communication via phone, meetings, text, twitter, or live chat. You can also provide them with simple training on email filing and time management.

Its tricky and its a fact of life having to overdose on emails everyday. I’ll definitely be trying my best to alleviate my little email addiction and to make it into a more productive tool.