Employees Love GonzoPalooza Backpacks

Team-building meetings not only enhance the skills of your employees, they make them more well-rounded and knowledgeable about different aspects of your company. They also bring your workers closer together, which improves the corporate culture of your business and helps everyone become more productive. Cornerstone Advisors is a management consulting firm which recently initiated a team-building strategy with a special, two-day corporate knowledge-sharing event. The company decided this event would carry a completely different feel from that of the regular corporate meetings. Instead, the Cornerstone team decided, this knowledge-sharing event would be dubbed “GonzoPalooza,” letting loose the spirit of the renowned “Gonzo Banker,” the firm’s alter ego and online information resource serving up a weekly reprieve from the necessarily dry and stuffy world of finance with “a good helping of irreverence to thousands of readers around the world.”

Management decided that a promotional gift was in order to get employees excited, thank them for their work in preparing their presentations, and to show an extra dose of goodwill and care. The company chose a Sierra Delux custom backpack to appeal to those who frequently travel with lap tops as well as those who enjoy hiking and other outdoor activities. Management hung the bags on the backs of chairs so staff would see them when they first entered the conference room. The team reports that staff loved both the thoughtful, surprise gift, which confirmed that promotional products should be used for GonzoPalooza in the future to get workers excited and enthusiastic about corporate events.


(Via: The Promo Know-How Zone)

More Money, Less Shopping, Happier Employees

In late June, CVS announced it will be launching a line of virtual gift cards which can be personalized online and then emailed to recipients. The custom gift cards works at any of the more than 6,900 CVS or Longs Drugs stores nationwide and those interested in purchasing one can visit CVS's website. Why would this be a great employee incentive gift? First and foremost, people not only go to CVS all the time for household products, but it's normally a primary resort for non-prescription drugs; with the gift card, you can purchase all of these items. Secondly, the cards are extremely customizable. Consumers can select from various colors and fonts, add their own photos or messages, and pre-set the cards to arrive on birthdays and other special occasions. Lastly, businesses can save a lot of money by avoiding shipping costs while being able to distribute these cards on a national level. So if you're trying to think of a cost-efficient, practical employee gift that can reach workers over a widespread area, consider the CVS gift card as a viable option.

Cardboard Does The Trick

perfectline.com

I went to a vendor meeting yesterday for promotional products and learned that eco-friendly products should continue to be a big hit as employee incentive gifts. A popular item has been eco-friendly journals: they are inexpensive and show your staff and customers that you care about the environment. This journal has a cardboard cover, cardboard imprinted pen, and includes 65 double sided line sheets of paper made with 65-75% recycled paper. Employees always appreciate an item that helps organize their priorities and take notes -- why not save some waste in the process?

Promotional Slumber

Taglit-Birthright Israel, a partnership between the people of Israel through their government, local Jewish communities and leading Jewish philanthropists, has sent more than 200,000 Jewish young adults on free trips to Israel. The trips serve to strengthen participants’ personal Jewish identity and connection to the Jewish people. According to Birthright Israel, however, that 10-day experience is just the beginning, thus the reason for Birthright Israel NEXT, an organization that inspires participants to expand their new-found spark into a lasting, resonating life-long celebration of the Jewish heritage. To promote the most recent NEXT Shabbat program, Birthright Israel NEXT decided to give program participants a branded promotional gift they could use on the flights to and from Israel and on bus trips from site to site during their travels in Israel.

After some brainstorming, the NEXT team decided to go with branded sleep masks imprinted with information on the after program. They chose a satin gray sleep mask with a clever maroon imprint, “Dreaming of your NEXT Shabbat Dinner,” followed by the Birthright Israel NEXT web address. Approximately 2,500 sleep masks were distributed during the program and were later given away at a Taglit-Birthright Israel mega event in January. The team reports that the masks went quickly, with recipients appreciating both their style and function. Even better, Birthright Israel NEXT explained, that the masks helped to bolster interest in the NEXT Shabbat program, and may have aided in the increase of registered NEXT Shabbat meals. The lesson here is that if you are planning on running a promotion for a large program which requires heavy traveling, custom travel accessories are likely to be successful.

Pack Up Your Gifts

It's summer time, so why not reward your employees with corporate business gifts that they can use over the next few months? These promotional drawstring backpacks can be used for picnics, hiking, cycling, concerts, horseback riding and sporting events. They feature insulated and waterproof liner, which keeps food and drinks cold for hours at a time. You can choose from colored themes as well, to give your employees a gift that sports your company's style and culture. These backpacks are also more travel-friendly in comparison to other cumbersome back packs: they can be thrown over the shoulder in one easy swoop and have one simple drawstring pocket as opposed to multiple zipper pockets. I can't think of a bag that would be a more practical employee incentive gift, especially for the younger crowd!

Speakers Favor Umbrellas

The Center for Advanced Legal Studies at Suffolk University Law School provides continuing legal education (CLE) through free lectures and educational programs. A major contribution to the array of the professionals who continue to speak at these events is due to the promotional products they receive from Suffolk University.

Over the course of the summer, lecturers have received branded gifts such as custom pens and imprinted memory sticks, and those who keep coming back to the university say they prefer a fresh rotation of these types of practical items. One of the most appreciated gifts among CLE forums are promotional umbrellas, which makes sense because many of these speakers probably travel on a consistent basis. So if your business requires employees to do some heavy traveling, consider giving them branded umbrellas to show your appreciation for their hard work.

First Aid for Your Employees

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It's not easy to find a gift for your employees that will last them a lifetime, but a first-aid kit may be the closest thing possible. Promotional first aid kits are so dynamic because they can be kept in the car, home, or your favorite vacation getaway. What's most impressive about these products is that their normal price range is around $90.00 - $150.00, but if you buy them from a promotional products distributor they can be purchased for as low as $10.00!

Most medical kits are designed to treat the most critical injuries and always include essential supplies such as water, latex gloves, eye wash, bandages, and ice packs. Giving these to your employees as gifts will give them the sense that you genuinely care about their safety and traveling adventures. In fact, most promotional health care products are greatly appreciated by employees, as long as they are practical items that can be used both in and out of the house.

Who's The Boss? You Are.

Agron, Inc. is the exclusive accessory licensee for Adidas America and one of the largest suppliers of sports and children’s products to large retail chains. Each year, Agron sales representatives gather for three sales meetings, each with a theme or key message related either to a new technology or product to push in the upcoming quarter or a new sales technique to help the firm become more dynamic. The Agron team says reps are ten percent more likely to remember their message or pitch when message-related promotional products are used.

As a result, this past year the team selected an 11-ounce Budget Mug branded with this quarter’s “Who’s the boss?” message, which reminded them of the “World’s Best Boss” mug made famous by actor Steve Carrel in the hit show “The Office.” Both the team and staff enjoyed their new promotional mugs, which brought actor Steve Carrel to mind and helped the reps remember their message and meet sales goals for another quarter.

Welcome Your Employees

There's nothing better than improving employee retention by starting your new workers off on the right foot. Anyone new on the staff will likely be ancy for their first day on the job and may be overwhelmed by adjusting to all of your businesses systems and procedures. Before they begin working, it would be a good idea to treat them with an employee gift basket. With items such as imprinted coffee mugs, promotional pens, and custom candy, your new employee will practical items that they can keep around the house or use in the office. Gift baskets can also be customized to showcase your company colors, confirming to new workers that your business has a tight-knit corporate culture with people that genuinely care for each other. Moreover, by having branded items at home, families and friends of these employees will be reassured that their friend or loved one is in good hands.